Haliburton Forest Forums

2018 Winter Newsletter

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and we wish everyone a very Happy New Year! We are thrilled to say that winter is here in full force. The abundant snow and cool weather means that we are now snowmobiling and dogsledding, as well as conducting our normal course of winter harvesting. We hope that you are able to come up soon to enjoy the trails!

With the start of 2018, we wanted to provide you with some updates on key items.
                               
Information Management
Melissa Pockett and the other staff in the Main Office have been working hard to improve our lease department including the introduction of a new program to manage lease information and maintenance requests (tree reports, outhouse requests, etc).  We look forward to continuing necessary updates to help improve not only the management side, but the experiences that everyone has as well. We appreciate your ongoing patience as we implement these new systems, and encourage you to get in touch if you have comments or questions.
                               
Payments for Sites
Please consider this a friendly reminder to make sure that your site payments are up to date.  If you have not paid the minimum deposit of $1,000.00, please send this in immediately to avoid our late notices and fees.  Here are the updated rates for 2018:

Rate
Group     Leased Rates 2017
(Includes HST)     On or After
01 Jan. 2018
1.     Hemlock Point     $3,210.00
2.     All Other Sites     $3,520.00
3.     Kelly, Johnson, L'Azure,
Pelaw, Loon, Baby Loon     $4,080.00
      Annexes     $350.00

When you make your payment, please make sure that you have provided us with your current contact information, including a telephone number, email address, and mailing address.  If you are mailing in a cheque, please provide your site number as well.

As a reminder from the Annual Meeting in July 2017, a few changes were made with respect to payments:

    Late fees of $100.00 per month will be in effect starting in January 2018.
    Final payment due date changed to the Monday of the May Long Weekend.
    Please email Melissa well in advance of due dates to talk about payment concerns.

Important Events (Winter)
We are pleased to say that the annual Poker Run will occur on Saturday 10 February 2018. The prize is – as always – a brand new snowmobile! Another important event this winter will be March Break at the Wolf Centre, with numerous activities for children and adults, between Monday 12 March 2018 and Friday 16 March 2018. You can register and find out more about these events by visiting the website or checking in with the Main Office.

New Wolf Centre Hours
In response to popular demand, the Wolf Centre will be open seven days per week until the end of March Break: Monday to Friday 11:00 am to 3:00 pm, Saturday and Sunday 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. We hope that you are able to enjoy the facility even more, now that is open every day!

Important Events (Spring)
Planning far ahead, we would like to invite you to some important events this spring. The first is our annual Celebration of Research on Friday 11 May 2018, where a dozen forest researchers from several universities will present their key findings to the public right here at Haliburton Forest. The second is the Specialty Lumber and Character Log Auction on Saturday 12 May 2018, an event that offers wood aficionados the chance to bid on their favourite wood products. You can also register or find out more about these events by visiting the website or checking in with the Main Office.

New Website
One of our most recent accomplishments is the launch of our brand new website!  We have put a lot of work into making our website more user friendly, which includes the option for online bookings so that you and your guests can book items directly from the website.

Items that can be paid online now include lease payments, snowmobile season passes, and the summer visitor passes that you have been requesting for the last few years.  We also have a gift certificate option that you can purchase for friends and family, as we know a few of you purchase them for season passes and other items.

There are a few important points to note with this new and improved website:

    You can create an account so that you can log in and your information will be retained in the system (not including Visa or Mastercard).

    You can now pay your lease fees online via PayPal (3% service fee included).  One of the benefits of this is that you can make several payments over time, or your bulk payment of the deposit and/or full amount.  The total price already includes the 3% service fee.  If you wish to not pay online via cash, debit or cheque we can easily remove this 3% service fee from your total.
     
    Through the new website, we are now able to issue invoices to all lessees.  Following this newsletter, we will be issuing current invoices to all, including those who have paid in full by 31 December 2017.
        Every year we receive a few payments a few days into the New Year that were mailed out at the end of the previous year.  If you mail your payment late in the year and we have not received it at the time of the updates, you may receive a late invoice; once payment is received we will update these accordingly and re-issue your invoice.   
        For those who have not paid, or need to pay the remaining balance and wish to do so through PayPal there is a “Pay Now” option on your invoice.  We have included a sample invoice with a few areas highlighted for your convenience.
        If there are multiple people on a lease living in separate households, it is currently necessary for one person to be the main person to log in and pay the fees as the current system will not let us set up multiple people on one invoice. We are working allowing multiple people/addresses in the future.

    We now offer a discounted rate to your guests visiting during the summer months.  We are still offering the season pass at $135.00 per adult plus HST as well as 50% off regular day pass for all adults. When this pass is purchased online it will prompt you for the full payment: before you continue to the contact information and payment screens there is a field to “Apply Promo or Voucher.”  We will be providing this voucher on the Lessee Forum, and we will change it monthly so please make sure you are providing your guests the correct code.
    Check it out here: https://www.haliburtonforest.com/book-o … -day-pass/

    We are now offering the opportunity for you to purchase your snowmobile/ATV season passes online as well.  As with the day passes for your guests, you will need to use the field to “Apply Promo or Voucher” to avoid paying the full amount.  We will update this code on an quarterly basis and will also be provided on the Forum as well as reminder in the quarterly newsletter.   This voucher applies to only those names on the lease and their children 12 – 17 with valid licence.  Family and friends still have to purchase the regular snowmobile/ATV season’ pass.
    Check it out here: https://www.haliburtonforest.com/book-o … bile-pass/

Haliburton Forest Biochar
After several years of research and development, Haliburton Forest Biochar is on the cusp of its start-up phase of operations. The biochar production technology was shipped to our new facility on Kennaway Road from Des Moines, Iowa, in late-December and is currently being commissioned. We expect to be operating regularly at our start-up scale by mid-February and at our full scale by late-2018. This is an exciting opportunity for Haliburton Forest to add value to low quality wood fibre, and produce a product that will ultimately displace fossil fuels in the Canadian manufacturing sector.

Forestry Operations
We are happy to report that Haliburton Forest passed its recent audit by the Forest Stewardship Council with flying colours, meaning that the company will be certified as sustainable for another year. In fact, the Forestry Crew received a “perfect score” on the part of the audit that relates to logging operations. This is a big achievement - the foresters and loggers that work at Haliburton Forest deserve kudos for their excellent work in 2017.

In addition to that, we are expecting to have one of our most productive winters in terms of harvesting. Our logging operations this winter will be focused on our properties around Fort Irwin, although we will have a few crews working near Base Camp on Blue Heron Road and Little Kennisis Lake Road. Our truckers are committed to “sharing the road” and driving safely throughout the winter, although it is unlikely that you will encounter any of them given the location of our logging operations this winter.

Thank you for attention to this note and please do not hesitate to reach out by email (leases@haliburtonforest.com) or phone (1-800-631-2198) if there is anything that we can assist you with. We view you, the lessees, as the “true clients” of Haliburton Forest and it is our pleasure to host you and your families on our property.

Wishing you all the best in 2018,

Malcolm Cockwell, RPF
Managing Director

Melissa Pockett
Coordinator of Leases & Land Use

Tegan Legge,
General Manager, Tourism and Recreation