Now it is up to God, apparently, to Protect the Mainland Moose and the Moose Protectors – our government is not about to do so.
UPDATE: N.S. judge issues temporary injunction against forestry protest aimed at protecting mainland moose habitat
By Michael Tutton The Canadian Press on CTV News DEC 11, 2020
UPDATE Dec 11, 2020. 7 pm: The Injunction was served this afternoon.
From the Front Line:
UPDATE: WestFor asks for injunction to remove protesters concerned about endangered moose
Emma Smith, Phlis McGregor · CBC News Dec 10, 2020
———-
Shared on Annapolis Royal & Area – Environment & Ecology (Public Facebook Group) late yesterday Evening
Mmmm. A legally successful lawsuit to force the government/L&F to follow their own commitment to protect Mainland Moose has gone unheeded by L&F, as will this move by WestFor.
Meanwhile, L&F is stalled in its public consultations related to the now ill-fated Lahey recommendations, ostensibly because of Covid19. – who would know that NS remains one of the safest places in the world Covid19-wise?
Liskwise Lahey himself is stalled in his review of government implementation of his recommendations which was due at the end of 2019.
And Northern Pulp has resurfaced, promising to re-open The Mill.
God Bless and God Protect the Moose and the Moose Protectors
——-
UPDATE: PRESS RELEASE, This am
Two blockades on crown lands to protect mainland moose in the New France area, Digby County, may end abruptly in the days to come. Extinction Rebellion (XR) occupiers received word today from their lawyer that WestFor Management Inc. has applied for an interim injunction intended to force the forest protectors to pack up and leave. That application is set to be heard in the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia 9:30 a.m, this morning.
Several people at the blockades have indicated they are willing to get arrested, if necessary, to focus attention on our government’s failure to protect endangered species and enact promised forestry reforms.
The initial encampment began on October 21st when XR learned that forestry crews were in transit to crown land in the Silver River, Rocky Lake area where Richard Amero had shown CBC’s Phlis MacGregor tracks of the endangered Mainland Moose and described past sightings the previous week.
On November 22nd, a second blockade close to the Caribou River was established to impede loggers’ access to crown land allocations where further cutting has been occurring. Industrial forestry crews are scheduled to cut 1650 acres of mainland moose habitat in the area in the next year.
XR’s specific demand has been to place an immediate moratorium on all proposed and current logging on Crown lands from Fourth Lake south to the Napier River. This moratorium would remain in place until ecologically based landscape level planning for the area has been conducted by independent ecologists and biologists, as recommended by the 2018 Lahey Report. Where this area is known habitat for mainland moose, it should be assessed for Protected Area potential, safeguarding connectivity between the Silver River Wilderness area and the Tobeatic.
Bob Bancroft released a Moose Map on Monday that highlighted all South West Nova Scotia, confirming multiple moose sightings and or signs of their presence in that area.
“We are standing up to protect wildlife and their habitat. When the moose are in trouble, so are we. To address the climate and extinction crises, we need to protect and restore our natural forests. Industrial tree plantations are ecological deserts,” said Nina Newington, one of the encampment organizers.
“Our provincial government had approved the destruction of the very habitat the endangered mainland moose need to recover. Despite a severe scolding from the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in May, the Department of Lands and Forestry continue to shirk its legal obligations under its own Endangered Species Act. If government refuse to do the right thing, then citizens must stand up together. Enough is enough,” she said.
—–
So I checked the WestFor website to see if they had anything to say about the moose blockade and the reason for the injunction.
Nope, but close to the top of the Home Page, below rotating fuzzy warm photos, some fuzzy facts, and then fuzzy warm statements about how good WestFor is for the community.
Nothing on moose, nothing on wildlife, no defence of their practices other than fuzzy warm statements.
One of the “Forest Facts”: the tired old one “Natural Mortality: 0.6% of Nova Scotia’s forests are harvested each year. More of our forests are lost each year due to natural mortality than to harvesting.”
Nothing about how that natural mortality supports wildlife- if the dying trees are left in the forest…
C’mon WestFor, surely you can do better than that.
Nova Scotians are better than that.
& You learned a lot more than that in forestry school.