“The broad outlines of this story have been known since the 1980s, when precipitous declines of salmon in many of our Atlantic river systems were traced to increased acidification of surface waters associated with acid rain. That should have raised alarm bells about forests. Declining salmon and increased water acidity are the equivalent of bad blood tests for watersheds. Something was wrong in the forested uplands that fed those rivers.” There still is.(Op-ed in the Chronicle Herald, May 7, 2016).
For an explanation of the map, view A critical issue: nutrient depletion in soils of Nova Scotia’s forests
With the WestFor mowing machine released to make it’s way through SW Nova Scotia, our “last great wood basket“, on Oct 1, 2018, local residents are losing a lot of sleep both from the sound of heavy equipment going by night and day and through worry about loss of habitat and the fate of clearcut refugees.
In their efforts to understand the rationale (or lack thereof) for these harvests, some have recently begun to look at nutrient issues, citing a 2011 thesis by J. Noseworthy.
Well they should.
In my not-so-humble-opinion on this issue, nutrient decline/soil acidification combined with ongoing forest harvesting is the most serious threat we have to biodiversity – both aquatic and terrestrial – and to the longer term productivity of our forests, especially in SW Nova Scotia. It also the most thoroughly documented issue affecting our forests – first by aquatic scientists and more recently by NSDNR and UNB scientists. Yet it is the least acknowledged or highlighted issue affecting our forests by NSDNR/L&F, e.g. there is no mention of it in the most recent State of the Forest Report, and one can search far and wide on the NSDNR/L&F website without finding any mention of it.
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