Western Crown lands, modified from CPAWS map (2012)
With the announcement on Apr 27, 2017 that there would be an Independent Review of Forest Practices, the government declared that there would be no more long-term commitments to the 13 mills operating on the Western Crown Lands under the WestFor umbrella until after the review is completed.
In the meantime, temporary extensions were apparently granted, but with restrictions: a reduction in allocation, and elimination of unused allocation. This is said to have posed “shock and concern …to mills that employ thousands of Nova Scotians in rural Nova Scotia.” View Six month extension given to WestFor to operate in SW Nova Scotia but with a reduction in allocation (post on this website, Nov 3, 2017).
I believe that the extension cited in the post for Nov 3, 2017 would have been up at the end of March 2018. I have not been able to locate any information about subsequent extensions, but I did note that there was very little harvesting on Crown lands in SW Nova Scotia from the end of March 2018 through August 2018. However, there seems to have been a definite uptick in September as gleaned from announcements sent to subscribers to the Harvest Plan Notifications:*:
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*I may have missed a couple; these announcements are not posted or archived publicly.
- Mar 22, 2018: 0 parcels posted for Annapolis, Digby, Yarmouth, Shelburne, Queens, Lunenburg counties out of 14 for the whole province.
- Apr 3, 2018: 0/7
- Apr 12, 2018: 0/9
- May 14,2018: 0/5
- May 24, 2018: 0/3
- Jun 5, 2018: 0/25
- Jun 18, 2018: 8/30
- Jun 25, 2018 0/9
- Jul 5, 2018 0/14
- Jul 17, 2018 0/14
- Jul 26, 2018 0/42
- Aug 7, 2018 4/70
- Aug 16, 2018 0/55
- Aug 27, 2018 0/9
- Sep 7, 2018 12/38
- Sep 19, 2018 61/104
- Sep 27, 2018 0/32
The Report for the Independent Review was released Aug 21, 2018.
These new cuts in SW Nova Scotia are already looking controversial.
So… I am wondering:
- Was a new Interim Agreement made with WestFor that covered the September cuts and ongoing harvests in SW Nova Scotia?
- Were the restrictions cited above removed?
- Were any of the Recommendations from the Independent Review cited in any agreements made after the Report was released (e.g. as in the Sep 11 e-mail to WestFor and others from Allan Smith cited in a CBC report)?
- Can the public be informed about these agreements?
- Is a long term agreement with WestFor still in the works, and will that await a formal government response to recommendations in the Report on the Independent Review?
Questions looking for an answer. Oh, and while we’re at it, when does the government intend to respond to recommendations in the Report on the Independent Review?