“At least 8 arrests have happened in Moose Country! These brave forest/moose protectors have been filling the void as our provincial government shamefully thumbs a nose at the Species at Risk Act (among others) and now these folks are being charged with contempt of court, when the Liberal government should be held to task for allowing the destruction of the mainland moose habitat for ignoring the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia’s decision! Shame on our government!” Continue reading →
A document that sat “in a filing cabinet for almost 40 years” has come to light recently, and reveals the historic concern about protecting mainland moose and more broadly, our “last interior wilderness” in SW Nova Scotia. View post by Bev Wigney on Annapolis Royal & Area – Environment & Ecology (Public Facebook Group), or here
Posted inclearcuts, Conservation, WestFor, Wildlife|Comments Off on 39 years ago Digby East Fish and Game petitioned Nova Scotia Government not to build roads into moose lands now accessed by WestFor 15Dec2020
As we approach the one year anniversary of the Province’s decision to keep it’s promise to close Boat Harbour as scheduled, a reminder from Northern Pulp’s parent co., Paper Excellence:
Northern Pulp is safe from its creditors for another five months…The Nova Scotian taxpayer is its largest secured creditor – holding about $86 million in loans to five companies associated with the Pictou County Pulp Mill…
That $50 million pot set up by Northern Pulp’s parent company, upon which it has already drawn $15 million, comes with strings attached. The money is being provided in the form of advances based upon the following milestones being reached by December 2022.
An environmental approval to build a replacement effluent treatment plant
An agreement with the province to help fund its design and construction.
A court decision or negotiated settlement with the province paying lost profits and damages associated with the idling of the kraft pulp mill.
Posted inAcadian Forest, Social Media, Social Values|Comments Off on “What the morrow brings”: WestFor applies for injunction to stop Moose Protectors 10Dec2020
Map by Shanni Bee, Conservation GIS Specialist Click on image for larger version Please note: – This map brings together the work of several over the past few weeks. The volunteers collected observations and reviewed data to determine which areas should be protected as core habitat for Mainland Moose. – This “Public Version Map” has locations purposefully skewed, making it of zero use to poachers, but still providing a powerful illustration of why it is so important to protect certain areas if we wish to halt the further decline of the Mainland Moose population due to habitat destruction
December 4, 2020
Hon. Derek Mombourquette
Department of Lands and Forestry
3rd Floor, Founders Square
1701 Hollis St.
PO Box 698
Halifax, NS B3J 2T9
Dear Mr. Mombourquette,
Re: Species at Risk Mainland Moose
After conferring with a number of knowledgeable local citizens, including First Nations peoples, we have created the attached map of known mainland moose areas in western Nova Scotia. This is an endangered species.
Nature Nova Scotia respectfully requests that Crown (public) land areas within the 60² km zones delineated on this map be excluded immediately from any even-aged harvesting that is currently underway, or being planned.
Current provisions to protect mainland moose and their habitats are simply inadequate. Continue reading →
A new Forest Watch group – Stop Clearcutting Cape Breton – emerged recently. A Public Facebook Group, it is A place for people from Cape Breton and the surrounding area to organize and share information related to the alarming rate of clearcutting happening on public lands in our region.
“3121+ acres of crown land on the hills separating Marble Mountain from River Denys. Follow the new logging roads. Not terribly hard to tell what the plan is for this forest…These hills are drained through streams lined by some of the last truly old remnant hemlock forests I know of in the province outside of a national park.”
From R. Seymour, Section 2.4 Ecologically Based Multi-Aged Silviculture in the Acadian Forest, in Research Addendum to A Natural Balance: Working Toward Nova Scotia’s Natural Resources Strategy 2010
UPDATE Nov 30, 2020:
In spite of the very limited practice of Irregular Shelterwood silviculture on Crown lands to date, Iain Rankin says “the new Forest Management Guide will result in the most substantive stand level changes in the matrix forest, and the work of the project team (with co-author Bob Seymour) has been very thorough. The Guide should be ready for implementation, in the next calendar year, after the public consultation period ends. It will shift the vast majority of prescriptions away from the single-aged clearcutting approach, to irregular shelterwood.”
Why am I skeptical that will happen any time soon? Well perhaps it will, but only after L&F/Big Forestry have staked out their High Production Forestry sites on the best remaining Crown forest so there is no slowdown in the clearcutting.
—————– Original Post Irregular Shelterwood silviculture figured prominently in the the Lahey Report as practices that should be adopted in NS (also in the 2010 Natural Resources Strategy).
Yet 2+ years after the Lahey Report was submitted, this prescription remains a minor and not-reported-component of harvests on Crown land forests.
I sent the following question to Forestry Maps on Oct 16, 2020
On the HPMV, Irregular Shelterwoods, called for in the Lahey Review, are not shown as a category.
Are any of the ‘Shelterwoods’ shown in recent postings Irregular Shelterwoods?
Posted inclearcuts, HPMV, Ind Rev Post-Report, L&F|Comments Off on Irregular Shelterwood harvests still largely experimental on Crown lands 2+ years post Lahey Report 26Nov2020
In the meantime, a committed group of Nova Scotians/Extinction Rebellion NS has set up a blockade to stop logging and are determined to stay there until definite action is taken to stop the clearcutting in moose habitat.
So far there has been no response – view Blockade continues to stop Digby County clearcuts by Joan Baxter in the Halifax Examiner, Nov 24, 2020. “Moose habitat protectors still waiting for word from the Department of Lands and Forestry – or is it the Department of Silence?”
and Double-pronged clearcutting protest results in two arrests at government office, by Francis Campbell in the Chronicle Herald Nov 24, 2020. “They gave us clear warning that they were going to arrest us,” said Eleanor of the Extinction Rebellion group. Eleanor, who preferred not to have her last name used, said the four were sitting on the floor outside the office and asked to speak to Minister Derek Mombourquette but were told he wasn’t in. They then said they would leave peacefully if the minister would call Nina Newington, spokeswoman for the Extinction Rebellion group that is blocking access for logging equipment in Digby County but were told by reception that they didn’t have the minister’s contact number. Eleanor said she was handcuffed and dragged down the hall, to the elevator and through the building atrium to a police car… ”
View Moose Search for related items on NS Forest Notes, In the News for recent items in the news and Social Media Posts for some of the buzz – and action – via Social Media
Posted inclearcuts, Conservation, L&F, Social Media, Social Values|Comments Off on Nature Nova Scotia launches petition to halt clearcutting in area of SW Nova Scotia where Mainland Moose occur 24Nov2020
Thus letter from Bob Bancroft was shared on Annapolis Royal & Area – Environment & Ecology Nov 18, 2020
LETTER::: This is a letter from Bob Bancroft – biologist and president of Nature Nova Scotia – to Bob Petrie, Director of Wildlife for the NS Department of Lands and Forestry. I have Bob Bancroft’s permission to post his letter here for our group. Thanks to Bob for continuing to stand up for wildlife in this province. – Bev W
============================================
November 17, 2020 Dear Bob,
I’m writing you again after spending several days on Crown land in western NS where large clear-cutting is either taking place, or about to take place, and where moose are present. I spoke with and interviewed a number of well-informed citizens who outlined traditional moose areas on my NS Map Book and other places where they had seen moose that were recently displaced by harvest activities. I saw moose tracks myself. Continue reading →
Posted inConservation, L&F, Social Media, Social Values, Wildlife|Comments Off on Bob Bancroft on the Sad Plain Truth about Nova Scotia L&F ‘s management of our Endangered Mainland Moose 19Oct2020
