Danny George and others again raising alarms on Social Media, this time not about harvesting Old Growth but about harvesting very young trees. Will anyone listen this time around?
Like WestFor’s harvesting, the bad news about forestry in Nova Scotia is coming at us very fast. Some very insightful comments and observations are appearing on social media some of which I like to copy and post on NS Forest Notes because it is relevant and a part of my efforts to make this blog “serve as a record of events, news and opinions on the subject of forests and forestry in Nova Scotia as they unfold”.
Also, there are some very credible and informative observations amongst them. Yes perhaps they need to be followed up…but they are a place to start.
Finally, most of these social media pieces are on Facebook pages and they seem to quickly disappear or at least get buried somewhere hard to find. As far as I can tell, most Facebook content is not indexed on Google Search. So by copying some of it and posting on nsforestnores – non facebook social media – which is indexed, I am hoping to keep some it alive for a longer period.
On Dec 29, I made a post More clearcutting proposed near Protected Area, Guysborough Co.” I checked back today on the discussion, and there are some pretty interesting but sad comments on what’s being harvested in Nova Scotia. See Social Media Discussion.
One of the participants is Danny George, the guy who raised the alarm several times about cuts of Old Growth forest in eastern Nova Scotia; he was ignored by NSDNR initially, until CBC and others decided to do some follow-up; then NSDNR and PHP commented skeptically on his claims but finally NSDNR had to admit that indeed Old growth had been cut on FSC-certified Crown land administered by Port Hawkesbury Paper, and it seems, a good portion of it went to the Biomass boiler at Port Hawkesbury. For some of the story, view:
Nova Scotia DNR almost admits serious errors; Port Hawkesbury Paper blames DNR for Loon Lake area cuts of Old Growth
Posted on March 15, 2018DNR confirms Loon Lake area cuts included Old Growth
Posted on May 17, 2018NSP, PHP, NSDNR and FSC appear to be complicit in burning primary biomass from Loon Lake area, increasing GHG emissions, and calling practices “sustainable”
Posted on March 17, 2018
Now it’s less than a year later and in spite of NSDNR/L&F’s assurances that they would be more vigilant in regard to Old Growth, we have seen several instances of Proposed cuts of Old Growth on the Harvest Plan Map Viewer, some of them fortunately nixed after citizens checked some of them out and made a fuss, e.g. view Cat and Mouse game continues: more Old Growth on Nova Scotia Crown land found to be on the block (Post, Dec 20, 2018).
But the current discussion I want to highlight is not about Old Growth, but about cutting on very short rotations (less than 40 years, not the 50-60 years NSDNR/L&F claim are the norm). So it seems we are chopping our forests down before they can even begin to get Middle Aged, and then exterminating them when they get “overmature”.