In the News

This page lists news items related to forests and forestry in NS beginning June 1, 2022.

Sometime during the past year, I started putting all news items on this page –  instead of putting some items on other pages (e.g. on GHGs in the News) – so there will be many posts on this page.

View these subpages for older items:

View All Posts for a list of all posts on
NSFN since its inception (June 21, 2016).

News Items
(most recent at the top)

June 15, 2022:

Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Updates – Matt Miller (YouTube Video
Presentation at The Nova Scotia Woodlot Owners & Operators Association’s 2022 Annual General Meeting on May 28, 2022.
The conservation officer shuffle: Houston government quietly moves inspection, enforcement and compliance officers out of Nova Scotia Environment and back to Natural Resources
Jaon Baxter in the Halifax examiner. Subscription required to access this article. “Wildlife biologist and president of Nature Nova Scotia Bob Bancroft has a lot of sympathy and respect for Nova Scotia’s conservation officers, and was himself one back in the 1970s. He does see a conflict of interest when those responsible for enforcing environmental and wildlife regulations are working out of the same department that in his view, is overly influenced by industrial forestry interests that harm nature. But Bancroft believes the real problem is the regulations that conservation officers are expected to enforce.In a telephone interview, Bancroft pointed to the example of forest and wildlife guidelines and regulations that stipulate a 20-metre green belt along a waterway must be left for moose. He says this is “ridiculous,” because a moose would need at least 50 or 60 metres of forest to hide from view and feel safe.“Conservation officers want to protect nature,” said Bancroft. “By the very definition, they are trying to conserve wildlife and nature and forests by enforcing the laws.” But those laws are “pro-industry,” said Bancroft. He would like to see the province’s environmental regulations, as well as wildlife and forestry regulations, “all lumped together and rewritten.” Bancroft believes the situation would improve if wildlife protection were removed from DNRR. Natural Resources and Renewables would still be responsible for forestry operations, he said, but those would be overseen by Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change.”

June 14, 2022:
Owls Head, once considered for controversial golf course, designated as provincial park
Paul Palmeter · CBC News “Owls Head, a pristine piece of land along the Eastern Shore, was announced as Nova Scotia’s newest provincial park Tuesday, more than three years after a decision to remove it from a list of Crown properties awaiting legal protection touched off protests and a Supreme Court challenge. The provincial government said 266 hectares of land in Little Harbour, which had been the site of a controversial plan to develop a golf course, will be managed by the province as a publicly accessible natural park reserve.”

June 13, 2022:
Sustainable Forestry for Nova Scotia, Op-ed
An op-ed from Natural Resources and Renewables Minister Tory Rushton (Nov Scotia News Release) “…we are transforming Nova Scotia’s forestry sector. We are building the triad model of ecological forestry on Crown land as recommended in the independent review of forestry practices. This complex, integrated model balances many interests and will secure sustainability for our environment and our forestry industry.”

June 10, 2022:
Nova Scotia’s Windy Forests: 2022 Celebration of Nature Keynote (YouTube Video)
Naturalist Dr. David Patriquin kicked off our 2022 Celebration of Nature with “Nova Scotia’s Windy Forests”, a look at Wabanaki/Maritime Forest disturbance regimes, the Lahey Report, and the concerning place our forests are at right now.
Conserving Bird Species at Risk in NS Working Forests
YouTube video of a webinar, speaker Cindy Staicer. “This webinar was recorded on June 2nd, 2022 as part of a workshop series on Conserving Bird Species at Risk in NS Working Forests led by bird researcher and retired Dalhousie University professor, Dr. Cindy Staicer. The workshop was hosted by the Nova Scotia Woodlot Owners and Operators Association on behalf of the Family Forest Network as part of the Common Ground Project.”
Is New Glasgow a good candidate for a biomass heating system?
CBC Info AM: “Natural Resources Canada has given a Nova Scotia company funding to find out if a district heating system could work in New Glasgow. Hear how the facility would burn low grade wood and wood chips to heat more than 90 percent of the buildings in the community.” Some details at https://heatnewglasgow.ca/

June 8, 2022:
The surprising reality check on positioning logging as a low-carbon sector
By Michael Polanyi, policy and campaign manager at Nature Canada in The Hill Times “In 2019, more than three-quarters of a million hectares of forests were logged in Canada—the equivalent of more than nine NHL hockey rinks every minute. Logging removes vast amounts of carbon from forests—the majority of which ends up in the atmosphere within a year or two. But the federal government’s latest National Inventory Report (NIR) states that net greenhouse gas emissions from human activities in forests were slightly less than zero in 2020. …In other words, Canada considers the forestry sector to have minimal emissions. Accordingly, Canada’s new 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan does not even discuss ways to reduce emissions from logging. How can large-scale logging, which mostly involves clearcutting of carbon-rich primary forests, be carbon neutral? There is a growing recognition that this scientifically implausible claim rests on biased forest carbon accounting policies that are hiding the true climate impacts of logging. …It’s time, therefore, for Canada to stop falsely portraying logging as a low-carbon sector…” Subscription Required. (Extract from Treefrog Forestry News)

June 7, 2022:
NCC hosts National Meeting in Halifax as they look for ways to reach conservation goals
Evan Taylor for Port Hawkesbury, NS, Canada / 101.5 The Hawk “…They plan to discuss plans on how they will meet a national goal of having 25 per cent of Canada’s land protected by 2025…In Atlantic Canada, the NCC hopes to achieve 20 per cent land conservation and that lower goal is a reflection of the geographic makeup of the region”

June 6, 2022:
LINDSAY LEE: Stop walking on eggshells, bowing to Nova Scotia’s industrial forestry lobby
Contributed in the Chronicle Herald. Image on FB
Short Shrift for Last Hope
Nina Newington in the Chronicle Herald. FB image
Argument misconstrued
Raymond Plourde in the Chronicle Herald. FB image

June 4, 2022:
Jeremy van Loon: Forests could tip the carbon scales either way on Canada’s path to net-zero
In The Province.
Let’s Not Pretend Planting Trees Is a Permanent Climate Solution
By Zeke Hausfather – contributing author to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Reporting The New York Times

June 3, 2022:
Trial by fire: Largest mass timber test in North America takes place this month
By Peter Caulfield for Construct Connect”Canadian public and private sectors have partnered to conduct a series of fire research tests on a mass timber structure in Ottawa…The objective of the tests-by-fire is to show mass timber construction is a safe and viable alternative to steel and concrete.
Natural resources minister appoints new slate of advisers on N.S. forestry practices
Jean Laroche · CBC News. “Rushton dismisses 13 of 14 members of previous advisory body, chosen by Liberals” View the related NS Government News Release.

June 2, 2022:
‘Our conservation backup plan’: new Indigenous seed collection program begins in Maritimes
Nicola Seguin · CBC News “Seeds will be gathered from tree species that are culturally significant to the Mi’kmaq”

June 1, 2022:
Lumber prices drop as interest in do-it-yourself renovations cools off
By Brent Jang in Globe and Mail
Experts expect bad year for ticks as disease-carrying bugs expand range
By Lyndsay Armstrong Canadian Press in BC Local News
Glyphosate spraying in N.B. akin to ‘eco-genocide,’ Indigenous communities say
By Moira Donavan for the National Observer
The hybrid tree that conquered the world
By Zaria Gorvett for BBC – Future Planet. About stresses on city trees and the London Plane Tree.