Forestry operations are underway on Mooz Miikan, just north of Little Sturgeon Road off Highway 17. There isn’t much up there, so traffic is light to non-existent, but if you do find yourself that way, be warned that there will be many log trucks driving by, and these trucks have the right of way.
Mooz Miikan translates to Moose Road, and it’s best described as a bush road or a forest access road that leads to some traditional hunting grounds for Nipissing First Nation members. There is also a large swath of Crown Land along the road, and this is where the forestry operations are taking place.
Nipissing First Nation (NFN) holds a sustainable forest license to harvest from Crown Land, and the Nation has entered into an agreement with Young Forestry Services to have two blocks of land harvested. To get the job done, NFN granted the company access through a 13-kilometre stretch of Mooz Miikan to Highway 17.
Road preparations are underway to make the road more accessible to the trucks, and “to fix any damages to the road that may have occurred from the previous winter,” NFN explained in a recent release. “Young Forestry Services will maintain the road year-round to ensure band members have good access to this part of the land.”
Any major repairs will be monitored and permitted by NFN, and administration will notify members of any upcoming major repairs that disrupt traffic.
For those who do travel along Mooz Miikan, you’ll eventually see some harvest activity signs that will mark where the logging is taking place. Kilometre markers will also appear along the road, and “logging trucks will be calling out the kilometres on a CB radio when travelling this road,” NFN explained.
If you have a CB radio yourself, it’s a good idea to keep your ears on and know that you probably won’t be able to highball to your destination without coming across a rig hauling logs. For everyone’s safety, give the truck the hammer lane, because there’s not much room to maneuver.
In some areas work is being done to widen the shoulders to improve safety and allow “safe passage of both vehicles,” but if that lane ahead appears to be closing in “members are encouraged to move over to a safe area where both vehicles can pass each other.”
“Logging trucks have the right of way when travelling on private roads used for forestry operations,” NFN reminded residents, and it recommends members “be cautious when travelling Mooz Miikan for the duration of this project.”
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
