Nova Scotia Forestry Maps decides not to remove “harvest plans that are no longer open to comments” 5Mar2019

Posted on March 5, 2019 by admin

UPDATE: MAR 14, 2019. From Forestry Maps: “…the department has included historic harvest plan submissions again on the HPMV. You will notice that the ability to view the archived harvest plan approval submissions are now a selectable layer in the layer list, labelled as “Archive”. You will find the HPMV has been updated as of today, March 14, 2019.” View HPMV. So it seems all historic harvest plan submissions back to 2016 are included in the new layer.

UPDATE MAR 7, 2019: Some clarification (or possibly not) from L&F

In a reversal of its decision announced on Jan 30, 2019 to remove “harvest plans that are no longer open to comments… from the map and the legend in order to simplify the mapping, speed up the application’s response time and adhere to the intention of the HPMV” (Post Jan 31, 2019), Forestry Maps sent out this message today (Mar 5, 2019) to subscribers to Harvest Operation Maps notifications:
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Why can’t Nova Scotians be told what Crown land is slated to be cut and precisely when? 3Mar2019

Posted on March 3, 2019 by admin

From DNR › Crown Land › Crown Land in Nova Scotia:

Crown lands are all or any part of the land under the administration and control of the Minister of Natural Resources. Of the 5.3 million hectares of land in Nova Scotia, about 1.53 million hectares (3.8 million acres or about 29% of the province) is designated as Crown land.

The Province owns other land across Nova Scotia, including wilderness areas, protected areas, highways, roads, and provincial buildings. These parcels and structures are managed and administered by other departments and are not considered Crown land.
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EAC/ECELAW critique Nova Scotia L&F administered Biodiversity Act process 2Mar2019

Posted on March 2, 2019 by admin

The Liberals rolled out their plan to create  a Nova Scotia Biodiversity Act along with a promise to “initiate a thorough and independent review of our current forestry practices” as part of their platform for the 2017 provincial election.

Unlike the Independent Review, there has been very little consultation on the Biodiversity Act.

As in the case with Independent Review, however, with the election over (and the Report of the Independent Review in), NSDNR/L&F revert to their traditional ways, the Company Men take control of the process, do what they damn well please and tell the public nothing until they are ready to do so. (Re: Independent Review: The public is still waiting to hear what’s going on 6+ months after the Report of the Independent Review and 3 months after the Government’s minimal initial response).

View A Biodiversity Act for Nova Scotia AN OVERVIEW AND KEY RECOMMENDATIONS
Ecology Action Centre & East Coast Environmental Law, Released March 1, 2019
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“When is a Clearcut still a Clearcut?” in Nova Scotia 26Feb2019

Posted on February 26, 2019 by admin

Posted Feb 26, 2019
Modified Feb 27, 2019

It appears that L&F selected parameters for its Variable Retention Harvests to emphasize harvesting over ecological values.

The Interim Retention Guidelines document that L&F released as a key component of its initial response to the Lahey Report is thin on scientific justification* of its use of “Variable Retention”, which they evidently see as an alternative to “clearcutting” (Post Feb 25, 2019).
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*The document doesn’t offer any scientific justification or any reference to related literature. Feb 28, 2019: Reading The Interim Retention Guidelines over again, I realize the document uses the word “retention” but not “Variable Retention”, but clearly there is an equivalence, as expressed by CrownInquiries@northernpulp.com (see post of Feb 25, 2019); that is confirmed in L&F’s responses to specific questions I posed on Feb 20 which I received today. It would surely help if L&F would post a clear explanation or a link to a clear explanation of the new terminology on the HPMV Home Page.

There is a large scientific literature on the topic, with both positive and negative (or no) effects of Variable Retention (VR) compared to clearcutting, and one could probably select literature to support a pro VR stance or a con VR stance.
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Evidently, Nova Scotia L&F considers adherence to the Interim Retention Guidelines as equivalent to Not Clearcutting 25Feb2019

Posted on February 25, 2019 by admin

Variable Retention is L&F’s new way of describing clearcuts, sometimes. Overstory Removal is another. At least in the Interim.

In a post on Feb 20, 2019 – Nova Scotia L&F “eliminates clearcutting” – the word that is – I noted that

“Seed Tree Harvest”… has apparently now been removed from the list of Prescription Type on the HPMV, while Variable Retention is now a common Prescription but was hard to find in the older lists/maps. So I am guessing that Variable Retention, which is not defined in the Forest Management Guide, (nor can I find definitions elsewhere on the NSDNR/L&F website*), includes many or all of what were Clearcuts – Seed Tree Harvest under the old system.

and I posed a set of related questions to Forestry Maps/L&F.

I have as yet had no acknowledgment of that e-mail, but this morning I received a PTA description for a Crown block proposed for harvest by Northern Pulp (in response to a request I made on the HPMV) and I took the opportunity to ask if they could shed any light on my questions.
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Recent changes (Jan 30 & Feb 20, 2019) in Harvest Plan Map Viewer increase concerns about clearcutting in Nova Scotia

Posted on February 24, 2019 by admin

And some comments on Social Media from Minister Rankin raise more questions about what’s going on at L&F.

“Nova Scotians want and expect an open and transparent process when it comes to the management of Crown lands,” said Natural Resources Minister Lloyd Hines. “This map viewer is part of our commitment to enhance public consultation, which will help to provide that transparency.“ NSDNR Press Release April 18, 2016

By the time local residents learned about the harvest proposed for their beloved Hardwood Hill, the comment period had expired. At least it was still posted on the HPMV. Now, such harvests will be removed once the comment period has expired “to simplify the mapping, speed up the application’s response time and adhere to the intention of the HPMV.” As well, the terminology has been chnaged to exclude the word “clearcut” altogether.

Two recent changes in the Harvest Plan Map Viewer (HPMV) and in the associated lists sent out to subscribers are causing significant doubt about that commitment to transparency and public consultation.

Most recently, L&F/Forestry Maps changed the description of harvests in a way that avoids mention of the word “clearcut” altogether (Post Feb 20, 2019).  The change was introduced without explanation, and one wonders how it could have been done for any reason other than deliberately trying to hide the real extent of clearcutting in Nova Scotia, a major concern that led to two successive reviews of forestry in NS.
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Nova Scotia L&F “eliminates clearcutting” – the word that is

Posted on February 20, 2019 by admin

So what’s going on here folks? asks Shelly Hipson on Ecological Forestry in Southwest Nova

UPDATE feb 28, 2019: L&F responds to questions

On Feb 11, 2019, Shelly Hipson, one of the more active of the many Nova Scotians now keeping an eye on those elected and appointed officials who are supposed to keep an eye out for the health of our forests, noticed something different in the NSDNR/L&F Harvest Plan announcements – the word “clearcut” had disappeared, without explanation.

This feat follows upon NSDNR’s developing a  definition of clearcutting in 2012  such that they could claim that they were well on the route to reducing clearcutting to 50% of all harvest, as recommended by the Natural Resources Strategy; and their  explanation for eliminating the 50% goal altogether in 2016, on the grounds that “We have now developed tools that ensure that all harvest treatments are aligned with the nature-based requirements of Nova Scotia’s lands.”
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Marcus Zwicker: Managed forests sequester more carbon than unmanaged forests

Posted on February 20, 2019 by admin

Some do, some don’t; the statement is unlikely to apply to current management of the forests of Nova Scotia

In a post on Marcus Zwicker’s Facebook page, the WestFor General Manager presented the diagram below, with the comment “Managed forests sequester more carbon than unmanaged forests, here’s how……”

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Burned, the Movie about forest bioenergy, continues to make the rounds in Nova Scotia

Posted on February 17, 2019 by admin

While our bureaucrats, politicians, industrial forestry and Nova Scotia Power continue to claim that the Port Hawkesbury biomass plant contributes to GHG reductions for NS, Burned,the Movie, continues to make the rounds:

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March 12-13, 2019: Forested Wetlands in Atlantic Canada Concluding Project Workshop

Posted on February 16, 2019 by admin

Info about the workshop as received:

Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia Room 303, Student Union Building, 6136 University Ave.

Oral and poster presentations on Tuesday March 12, 9:30-18:30

Discussion and synthesis on Wednesday March 13, 9:00-12:30

Project partners and other interested persons are invited to attend the third and final workshop for the Atlantic Ecosystems Initiative funded project Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning of forested wetlands across Atlantic Canada. These workshops contribute to building a network for monitoring, management and conservation of forested wetlands in this region.
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