As an illustration of What you Get and Do Not Get, I simply chose an area in eastern Nova Scotia where I could see some newly proposed harvests (viewed Jan 1, 2018), and then used the HPMV and other online map tools to see what I could find out about the area.
The Harvest Plan Map Viewer (HPMV) was launched by NSDNR on April 18, 2016. It replaced the “pdf-based harvest operation maps that the Department of Natural Resources launched in 2014.” (View example of the PDFs.)
The HPMV was a huge improvement and technically this interactive tool is user-friendly and is very robust (it’s fast and consistent). Several improvements were made over time and I have found the HPMV staff very responsive to requests for clarification, info etc. (View posts under HPMV category).
I have encountered few issues in accessing the information the HPMV is designed to provide. It has clearly improved “public engagement on planned fibre harvests in Nova Scotia woodlands” (from 2016 Press Release), e.g. view posts under the Social Media Category.
However, there is a lot more that the platform could offer to provide more context to the proposed harvests, but does not. An example, once harvests have been approved and commenced, they are taken off the HPMV, so we have no conveniently accessed recent history of Crown land harvests in the area of newly proposed harvests. Likewise, the map does not show harvesting on private lands to give an idea of the overall intensity of harvesting in an area. It does not show the watersheds… there’s lots more that is relevant to harvesting and could be shown but is not.
So I have made a new page on this website is to illustrate what you do get on the HPMV, what you do not get that could be useful, and where you can access the latter. A wish list is offered at the bottom of the page. As a page (rather than a blog post), it will remain as a work in progress. View New Page