The report was scheduled initially for spring of 2020; one might say ‘Better Late than Never’, but in this case that will depend very much on the content of Prof. Lahey’s Progress Report and on whether Forest NS and allies are able to thwart any action on what they don’t like about it.
Report from the Independent Review of Forest Practices in Nova Scotia released (Post, Aug 21, 2018)
Independent Review Press Release
Good overview in Bill Lahey Slide Set from UNB presentation Nov 19, 2018
View L&F: Ecological Forestry Implementation for the related reports and updates.
View:
Progress report on N.S.’s effort to shift to ecological forestry expected in June
Michael Gorman · CBC News, Apr 14, 2021 “Lands and Forestry Minister Chuck Porter said during budget debate on Tuesday at the legislature that University of King’s College president Bill Lahey will provide an update to his department this month and have a finalized review complete for public release about two months later.”
As originally scheduled, there was to be “A one-year assessment of the Province’s progress” in early 2020, and “A longer-term framework to guide the preparation of on-going evaluations to assess progress towards achieving the ecological model of forestry management in Nova Scotia as envisioned in the Review” by the spring of 2020. View Evaluation of the Implementation of the Ecological Forestry Model (document dated 2019-12-12, accessed today on L&F’s Ecological Forestry page).
Neither document has materialized to date, all the while intensive logging continues on our Crown lands with a focus on older forest stands in biodiverse SW Nova Scotia (re: high prices for lumber) and we are approaching 3 years since Lahey handed in his report, 12 years since the Natural Resources Strategy process.
I suppose one might say ‘Better Late than Never’, but in this case that will depend very much on the content of Prof. Lahey’s Progress Report and on whether Forest NS and allies are able to thwart any action on what they don’t like about it. (Don’t bet against it.)
In the meantime, we also await “Stakeholder and/or Public Participation” on
– Old Forest Policy
– Environmental Assessment/20-Year Forest Stewardship Planning Guide
– Outcomes Based Forest Management (the link to the related PDF Info document currently brings up the NATURAL DISTURBANCE REGIMES document)
– High Production Forestry Phase 2
We have seen earlier and were given opportunity to give feedback on a revised FOREST MANAGEMENT GUIDE; the notice about the FMG has NOT been updated and the status of the PTA Process is not clear.
Only the Natural Disturbance Regime Project has apparently, remained on schedule; L&F refused to hold even stakeholder consultation on that one, confirming that the closed minded thinking that led to a need for a complete review/revision of DNRs highly flawed interpretation of Natural Disturbance Regimes in the first place remains intact.
We haven’t had any updates recently on The Small Scale Wood Initiative; there is no provision for any public consultation on this one. (And the Government continues to consider the notoriously inefficient Port Hawkesbury biomass unit as “green energy”.)
In regard to Species at Risk Program Renewal, there is no provision for public consultation, and the latest news provided is that “The project team held three SAR Recovery Action Forums in in Winter 2020”.
Oh, and there is also the Reporting on the State of the Forest; nothing promised on that one. I mean who needs it anyway?
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