New Brunswick's wild blueberry growers are seeing a rocky start to their season. This follows concerns growers in the Atlantic Canadian province already had for their crop, given the drought conditions experienced this summer.
Then, just as the season was about to start harvest, New Brunswick's provincial government ordered a burn ban in the province, which in turn closed all Crown or government-owned land. The problem? An estimated 70 percent of the province's wild blueberry crop is grown on Crown land, with the remainder of the crop growing on private farms.
"Before the ban was put in place, our industry wasn't consulted," says Don Arseneault, executive director for Bleuets NB Blueberries, which represents approximately 175 producers in the province. "They put it in place Saturday evening at midnight without anyone knowing, and Sunday morning we found out we were included in that ban."
With the crop ready to be picked, the wild blueberry industry in New Brunswick rushed to work with the government to amend or overturn that ban–after all, neighboring provinces Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island were letting harvesting happen on their Crown land despite similar bans, albeit with restrictions to mitigate wildfire risk. "We only have three to four weeks to harvest, and we lost a week convincing the government to move forward on an exemption," says Arseneault.
© Bluets NB Blueberries
Wildfire concerns
An exemption came–growers were allowed to apply for harvesting permits, though all other blueberry production activity was still not permitted. The concerns centred around harvesting-related activity–such as using hot machinery–instigating a fire. "However, half of our province has never had a forest fire. There's also been a lot of rain in the western part of the province. There's been no fire activity on that end. It's also been colder and a lot more dewy in the evening, so they felt there should be a reasonable exemption," says Arseneault.
A secondary exemption did come that allowed harvesting to go from 8 p.m. to 11 a.m. rather than only 11 p.m.-6 a.m. "It's a bit longer because they realized that it cut into the harvest season," says Arseneault.
In all, it's a devastating season for New Brunswick wild blueberry growers. "We're going to try and save as much of the crop as we can," says Arseneault. "We are still lobbying the government to have them understand how this is going to financially hit our farmers. We'll be knocking on their door for compensation after this is all over with."
For more information:
Don Arseneault
Bleuets NB Blueberries
https://nbwildblue.ca/
