Intensive management needed on the few acres left…

In a letter to the Ed (CH, Nov 21, 2016), Earle Miller of Lower Onslow notes that “Protected areas in Nova Scotia account for 12 per cent of our forest; provincial and federal parks account for three per cent; 13 per cent is inoperable due to excessive slope, wet areas or non-participant holdings. Of the remaining forest, about 12 per cent of every woodlot is set aside for stream buffers, wildlife clumps and corridors, mainland moose habitat, legacy trees, etc. That leaves 63 per cent of our forest land for woodlot owners and industrial forest companies to grow sufficient fibre to sustain the sawmills, pulpmills and other value added industries we have left in this province….With fewer forest acres available we need to manage those areas more intensively to grow enough wood.”
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Earle Miller is a principal in Great Northern Timber whom he represents on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Woodlands Forum. It is certainly a legitimate voice, but ‘nice to know what voice it is.

I have to wonder if keeping dying pulp mills afloat trumps sustaining a multi-aged Acadian forest and businesses dependent on it or that could thrive on a renewed Acadian Forest.

It is interesting that the bottom line-conscious McNeil Government appears to have stopped giving direct handouts to the pulp and paper industry. Will they go one step further and question their indirect support of the pulp and paper industry? Could consideration of the role of our forests in carbon sequestration prompt a new look at how we manage our forests?