Source Forest Harvest Allocation Maps 24 May 2017;
red arrow inserted to highlight cuts proposed near the Gully Lake Wilderness Area.
(Click on image to enlarge it.)
Posts of proposed cuts continue to be posted on the Forest Harvest Allocation Maps at 2-3 week intervals, the last being on May 11.
A cut proposed near the 3,810 ha Gully Lake Wilderness Area that protects significant upland hardwood forest caught the attention and the ire of Chris Miller, a national conservation biologist with Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), as reported by Jonathan Riley in the Truro Daily News for May 23, 2017):
On May 12, 2017 DNR posted a proposal online to clear cut 13 hectares of forest along the northeastern boundary of the wilderness area near Dalhousie in the Cobequid Mountains of Pictou County. DNR is also proposing another four-hectare clearcut about 300 metres from the boundary in the same area…He [Chris Miller] is disappointed to see government considering this kind of disturbance so close to a wilderness area.
“When you look at the satellite images you can see there has already been a lot of disturbance in that area,” he said. “The Gully Lake Wilderness Area is literally an island of conservation in a sea of disturbance.”
Gully Lake hardwoods
Read more and find out how to give feedback to NSDNR in DNR proposes clearcuts on boundary of Gully Lake Wilderness Area (Truro Daily News, May 23, 2017).
A clearcut proposed near Keji raised hackles last August; it went ahead on 94 of the proposed 100 ha but a decision was deferred on 6 ha that impinge directly on the edge of Keji Park. View Keji area clearcut to proceed (Post, Oct 26, 2016).
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UPDATE 7:45 p.m. May 24, 2017: Sometime between the time this item was posted circa 8 a.m. today and about 5 p.m., the 3 proposed clearcuts near the border of the Gully Lake Wilderness Area were changed to 3 proposed partial cuts. There was discussion of these cuts on CNC Mainstreet circa 5 pm (which I didn’t hear). Thanks to CR for telling me about the change.