Ministry of Natural Resources (Ontario)

The Ministry of Natural Resources headquarters at Robinson Place in Peterborough.

The Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) is a government ministry of the Canadian province of Ontario that responsible for Ontario’s provincial parks, forests, fisheries, wildlife, mineral aggregates and the Crown lands and waters that make up 87 per cent of the province. Its offices are divided into Northwestern, Northeastern and Southern Ontario regions with the main headquarters in Peterborough, Ontario.^{[citation needed]}

The current Ontario Minister of Natural Resources is Michael Gravelle.

The ministry came into existence in 1972 and prior to that similar responsibilities were handled by the former Ontario Department of Lands and Forests.^{[citation needed]}

Organization

MNR is organized into divisions; within each division are branches/regions, sections, and units.^[1]

Divisions

• Regional Operations Division
• Provincial Services Division
• Policy Division
• Sciences and Information Resources Division
• Corporate Management Division

Responsibilities

A Ministry of Natural Resources fire watch sign at Dryden, Ontario.

The Ministry is responsible for:

• Fish & Wildlife Management – sustainably managing Ontario's fish and wildlife resources.^{[citation needed]}
• Land & Waters Management – leading the management of Ontario's Crown lands, water, oil, gas, salt and aggregates resources, including making Crown land available for renewable energy projects.^{[citation needed]}
• Forest Management – ensuring the sustainable management of Ontario's Crown forests.^{[citation needed]}
• Ontario Parks – guiding the management of Ontario's parks and protected areas.^{[citation needed]}
• Forest Fire, Flood and Drought Protection - protecting people, property and communities from related emergencies.^{[citation needed]}
• Geographic Information – developing and applying geographic information to help manage the province's natural resources.^{[citation needed]}

The ministry also has responsiblity for the Office of the Mining & Lands Commissioner and the Niagara Escarpment Commission agencies.^{[citation needed]}

Ontario Parks

Ontario Parks protects significant natural and cultural resources in a system of parks and protected areas.^{[citation needed]}

Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services

The Ministry’s Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services (AFFES) program coordinates forest fire detection, monitoring, suppression and public information and education services for Ontario. AFFES also provides aviation services for the Ontario government and leads emergency management planning and response for natural hazards such as forest fires, floods, erosion, dam failures, unstable soils and bedrock, droughts and oil and gas emergencies.^{[citation needed]}

The Ministry's entrance into the field of aviation started with hiring Laurentide Air Services to carry out fire patrols however the government soon realized it could save money by carrying out the operations itself and formed the Ontario Provincial Air Service, (O.P.A.S.) in February of 1924 with 13 second hand Curtiss HS-2L flying boats that had been originally built for the US Navy. The OPAS was an early pioneer in the use of aircraft for the discovery and extinguishing of forest fires. Initially this involved carrying warnings of fires back to existing fire patrols, to be extinguished by teams that travelled by canoe or overland but soon they began landing firefighters (never more than a few at a time due to the limited carrying capacity of the aircraft available) with a hand operated water pump near a fire. As a part of this program the OPAS completely rebuilt damaged aircraft before build a number of aircraft under license to meet their requirements such as the Buhl Air Sedan, and later provided considerable input on the development of the de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver and de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter and finally were central to the invention of the water bomber. The first water bomber was an OPAS DHC Beaver with a tank mounted on the float designed to dump the water out quickly. This had followed unsuccessful experiments with bags of water.^[2]

Current AFFES Airfleet

• 9 Bombardier Canadair CL-215 - firefighting^[3]
• 9 Bombardier Canadair CL-415 - firefighting
• 3 Bell 206 L-1 Long Ranger II^[3]
• 3 Eurocopter 350-B2s^[3]
• 2 Beechcraft King Air 300^[3]
• 3 Eurocopter EC 130 B4^[3]
• 6 de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otters - firefighting^[3]
• 5 de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Mk III Turbo Beavers - firefighting^[3]

Retired^[4]

• 4 Buhl CA-6 Air Sedans
• 2 Canadian Vickers Vedette Flying Boats
• 14 Curtiss HS-2L Flying Boats
• de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver
• de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter
• de Havilland Dove Twin Engine Monoplane
• de Havilland Fox Moth Cabin Biplane
• 2 de Havilland Giant Moth Cabin Biplane
• 17 de Havilland Moth (includes DH.60G Gypsy Moth, DH.60M Moth & DH.60X Moth)
• 4 Fairchild 71 cabin monoplanes
• Fairchild KR-34 (Open cockpit biplane permanently assigned to the Superintendent)
• Grumman CS2F-1 Tracker - firefighting
• 4 Hamilton Metalplane cabin monoplanes
• 2 Loening Air Yacht Flying Boats
• 1 MBB/Kawasaki BK 117 twin engine helicopter
• 10+ Stinson Reliant Cabin monoplane
• Waco ZQC-6 Cabin Biplane

Aircraft on display

• Former MNR de Havilland Beaver, C-FOBS, serial number 2, the first production Beaver manufactured by de Havilland Canada, is on display at the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre, Sault Ste Marie, Ontario^[3][5]

OMNR Image Gallery

• 

  MNR Canadair CL-215 air tanker and Cessna 337 contract fire detection aircraft in Dryden, Ontario 1995

• 

  MNR CL-215 and Cessna 310 birddog aircraft in Kenora, Ontario 1995

• 

  A Bell 205A-1 on contract firefighting duty with Ministry of Natural Resources parked on the MNR's lower helipad at Nym Lake, ON, 1996

• 

  A contract Bell 205A-1 with its MNR helitack firefighting crew on standby at Sioux Lookout, Ontario, 1995

• 

  MNR contracts a variety of aircraft for fire fighting each year, such as this S-58T ready to deploy to a project fire, Dryden, Ontario, 1995

• 

  An MNR contract firefighting aircraft at work: a S-58T with bambi water bucket, near Dryden, Ontario, 1995

• 

  Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources deHavilland DHC 2 Mk 3 Turbo Beavers on amphib floats in Dryden ON in 1995

• 

  Bell 205A-1 and Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources firefighters working on Fire 141 in 1995

• 

  Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources firefighters prepare to deploy on an arriving contract Bell 204B on Fire 141 in 1995

See also

• Ontario Forest Research Institute (OFRI)

References

1. ^ http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/en/About/2ColumnSubPage/STEL02_167152.html
2. ^ West, Bruce. Firebirds. Ontario Minstry of Natural Resources, Queen's Printer, 1974.
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Transport Canada (December 2008). "Canadian Civil Aircraft Register". http://www.tc.gc.ca/aviation/activepages/ccarcs/aspscripts/en/menu.asp. Retrieved 2008-12-10. 
4. ^ Government of Ontario (2008). "History of the Air Service". http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/en/Business/AFFM/2ColumnSubPage/STEL02_165920.html. Retrieved 2008-12-10. 
5. ^ Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre (undated). "de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver". http://www.bushplane.com/dehavilland-dhc-2-beaver-canadian-bushplane-heritage. Retrieved 2008-12-10. 

External links

• Official website