“And what of nesting owls?”, asks Bev Wigney. “It’s nesting season for them right now, and yet the logging crews are already back in the woods”
From an earlier post by BW, about Super Canopy Trees
From Naturalist Bev Wigney on Annapolis Royal & Area – Environment & Ecology (Public Facebook Group):
“Thanks for airing yesterday’s interview with Carmen Williams. He speaks for many of us living in rural communities throughout the province. Our communities are being ravaged by the relentless and frantic hacking down of Crown land forests. When we try to speak out against it, we are ignored by government and industry.
“What are we doing to the forests, the wildlife, and to biodiversity? Sure, we can “regrow” a hacked down forest – of sorts – in 50 or 60 years — but it will not have the biodiversity that it once possessed Its ecology is entirely changed and can’t be “restored” in decades — it takes more like centuries. And what of the animals? We all know full well that they are being displaced. Anyone who denies this is being disingenuous.
“How else to explain herds of deer living in our towns now? Or bears with cubs hanging around the periphery of people’s properties after being terrorized by logging machinery operating in their “home” forests.
“And what of nesting owls? It’s nesting season for them right now, and yet the logging crews are already back in the woods, hacking down those tall nesting trees as I write this email. And Flying Squirrels – what of those raising young in hollows of trees being felled? What is their fate? And then there are the returning migratory birds — returning to the forests where they nested in past years, only to find that those familiar forests have been razed to the ground.
“I don’t know if your urban listeners are aware of the true extent of what is taking place in the forests of Nova Scotia. If you don’t leave the city, I guess you won’t be aware of the scope of the destruction. There are places where some of this can be seen from main roads, but much of it is hidden away — quite deceptively — just a stone’s throw off secondary rural roads. Vast networks of roadways have been built through the Crown lands to afford access to even the most remote forested stands.
“People can check on some of this using Google maps in the satellite view — but be aware that those maps are often two or more years old. They don’t reflect the current state of destruction. What we in the rural areas are witnessing is not sustainable. We are heartsick about what we see going on out here.
“Everyone in this province needs to be concerned and start speaking out or we’re going to be left with a wasteland.”
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Thanks for speaking up, Bev Wigney, on behalf of all of Nova Scotia’s species.