& On some of the many benefits to be had and to celebrate from not clearcutting our forests and not mindlessly expanding our urban footprints
Posted on Halifax Trails Public Facebook Group, Nov 9, 2020:
Click on image for the CBC story: ‘Completely different, crazy world’ of B.C. tree planting revealed in new documentary · CBC News Nov 7, 2020 “One Million Trees gives viewers a taste of the gruelling job without having to step on the cut block”
Copies of the Instagram Images (posted with permission of Greg at Halifax Trails:
From the About page for the Halifax Trails website:
Enthusiasm for Nova Scotia’s great outdoors is behind every adventure that I share, in hopes of enticing people to explore “Canada’s ocean playground”. A lifelong Haligonian, I fondly remember family bike rides at Point Pleasant Park, beach combing at McNabs Island, and acting out epic childhood adventures at York Redoubt. Playing outdoors was an important part of my childhood.
My favourite jobs, sports, and other recreational activities have always been outdoors. As a kid, I was happiest playing in the yard, at the park or on my bike. During university at St. Francis Xavier and Saint Mary’s University, I planted trees in Spring and Summer for the forestry industry.
Tree planting involved hauling heavy loads of trees through kilometres of clearcut wastelands in every manner of inclement weather, surrounded with absurd amounts of bugs with nowhere to take shelter. I learned valuable lessons testing my limits with daily adversities, eventually thriving on the challenges. I became a highly productive planter, planting many hundreds of thousands of trees during my 4 seasons.
Beyond the life lessons; a major thing that stuck with me from tree planting was the feeling of disgust at the abhorrent treatment of our environment. Rather than feeling like an ecological hero, I knew the trees I planted were essentially pulp and paper farms. Each day in remote dear-cuts, hidden from public view; felt like living a dystopian future that I want no part in creating. I gained a new-found appreciation for the beauty old growth forests and wilderness in its natural state. These early days played a big part in why I created HalifaxTrails.ca
While the focus is on “Halifax” (re: Halifax Regional Municipality which encompasses all of Halifax Co.), the Halifax Trails website provides guides, videos (with lots of drone footage), maps and GPS files to sites well beyond metro Halifax; they can be sorted by groupings (Difficulty, Hiking, Biking, Camping, Paddling, Swimming) and by a much longer list of Tags.
Here is the full list of sites currently documented:
It would be difficult to view these materials and NOT want to visit the sites described. The materials are a wonderful celebration of some of the natural landscapes we have in Nova Scotia for residents to enjoy and that entice visitors and that support wildlife.
The materials also illustrate a few of the many benefits, including livelihoods, that we can realize in 2020 and beyond by not clearcutting our forests; and by not mindlessly pulverizing great expanses of the soil and rocks on which they stand to expand our urban footprints (e.g. at the Whopper).
Thanks Greg at Halifax Trails