Clearcut on Crown land next to Hwy 103 as revealed on the Harvest Plan Map Viewer. The expiry period for comment was July 3, 2017. (Once the cut is completed, the record of it on the Harvest Plan Map Viewer will be removed.)
So said an observer about Crown Land cut QU068046:
A few days ago I sent an e-mail…regarding a clear cut section of the above cut number…
I previously had a discussion with them that when this cut takes place to watch it closely for intrusion into the view plan from the 103 near the welcome to Port Mouton signage… (Just west of Wagners Brook, where the old 103 meets that new curve)
It happened as predicted, the other day when going to cut my firewood, I noticed the machinery and the wood being cut visually the 103, (not good for tourists coming to see the beauty of Carters Beach etc..)
The wood is being cut for [Industrial Foresters], it is very poor land, very poor quality wood, its best function would be to just leave it alone….
There is almost no employment for anyone , last year much of the same wood was all trucked by a company from down near [Industrial Foresters]…
The strange thing about it this year is that [someone] mentioned the wood is all going to be chipped and sent to Turkey….
So for almost no local employment, local mill use etc, this large. very marginal piece of land is being clearcut, it looks like the only real money will be made off shore (Turkey).
It really shows how ridiculous the present policies are. It is sort of cutting just for the sake of cutting.
The land is so marginal that is will take decades to recover.
On the last point, he couldn’t be more right. Check out Keys et al. (2016) Fig 3. The cut is located in an area of the province coloured dark red, soil BS 5-10%, the most nutrient depleted soils in the province. (Read more about that issue under Calcium depletion on this website.)
Check out the NS Provincial Landscape Viewer, turn on Forestry>Forest Volume layer. It’s pretty simple. They select the remaining higher volume stands, especially near existing roads. Hard to see any landscape level planning for biodiversity conservation or even for tourist viewplanes going on here.
Wasn’t there enough negative publicity from the clearcuts on the Wentworth viewscapes last summer to discourage Industrial Foresters from repeating more such cuts?
As a landowner, could Northern Pulp have done things differently in the case of the Wentworth harvest? Yes, absolutely. As a corporate citizen and community member, protecting the view scape from the highway would be Northern Pulp’s “do over” if one were possible. Harvesting operations on company-owned land should continue just as it will on hundreds of private woodlots throughout the province. That being said, in areas of special circumstance, we can learn from this and look to co-exist more collaboratively as neighbours. – Kathy Cloutier, director of corporate communications, Paper Excellence Canada: OPINION: The other side of the Northern Pulp story (Chronicle Herald, Oct 20, 2017)
Thx to DVL for forwarding this story and citizen observer for speaking out