news!!! letter from Iain Rankin about the Corbett-Dalhousie Lake forest!! Jan 11, 2019

Posted on January 11, 2019 by admin

The following are verbatim from Bev Wigney, moderator of the Annapolis Royal & Area – Environment & Ecology public Facebook Page; item posted on that site at about noon today (Fri Jan 11, 2019)

NEWS!!! NEWS!!! NEWS!!!
JUST RECEIVED THE FOLLOWING LETTER ABOUT THE CORBETT-DALHOUSIE LAKE FOREST!!
Basically, they intend to go ahead and harvest it. They are trying to explain (making the excuse) that they were able to change the parcels without a proper public consultation based on the way an old “larger” parcel was approved in 2014. This is really BAD NEWS because it is now obvious to me that ANY larger parcel that was approved even YEARS AGO could be redesigned into a smaller parcel and then wouldn’t have to go through any consultation process — at least that’s how it looks to me. Legal minds? Read this and let me know before I respond to Iain Rankin. Anyhow, I guess we need to get some legal advice on this and also decide how to proceed – and see what our Annapolis County council’s response will be. Supposedly, no harvest work will be done until spring 2019, but I wouldn’t count on that. . At the very least, I think we should have MAJOR INPUT on EXACTLY how the rest of the parcel is harvested — EVEN IF that means having some of us out there in the forest directing what ecological features to leave in place. Anyhow, here is the letter: I will post the diagrams they sent as well. SHARE AND SHARE WIDELY. EVERYONE HAS TO BE TOLD ABOUT THIS “NEW” TACTIC REGARDING REDESIGNING PARCELS TO GET THEM PUSHED THROUGH WITHOUT A PUBLIC CONSULTATION PROCESS.
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Dear Ms. Wigney:
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Two videos on Social Media say a lot about how people and wildlife feel about loss of natural habitat in Nova Scotia

Posted on January 10, 2019 by admin

& Can people be forgiven for confusing clearcutting and deforestation?

#1 About deforestation in progress in Halifax

The Halifax Urban Forest Master Plan (UFMP), a lot of it developed in collaboration with Prof Peter Duinker & Co. at Dalhousie University (Peter was also an Expert Advisor to the Independent Review), was released in 2013.

A recent video highlighting the plan, Tree of All Trades, released on Youtube on Nov 28, 2018, is a bit of hit, gathering 43K views by today (Jan 10, 2019).

While extolling the virtues of Urban trees, the video (and the UFMP, which I otherwise laud), it avoids touching on the impacts deforestation close to the urban core and further away by developers (blessed by Regional Council) and of clearcutting in rural Halifax., There are lots of comments on that score recorded as feedback in the UFMP.

Essentially clearcutting and deforestation get a pass.
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Nova Scotia L&F Minister Rankin again joins discussion on Social Media 9Jan2019, ends it abruptly

Posted on January 9, 2019 by admin

Healthy Forest Coalition, Jan 9, 2019:

The following took place in just over an hour beginning at approx 6:30 pm; this post made at 7:50 p.m.

SH shared a post.
Minister Iain Rankin expects Nova Scotians, who care about our forests, to WAIT ANOTHER YEAR before the Department of Lands and Forestry moves towards ECOLOGICAL FORESTRY. THERE WON’T BE ANYTHING LEFT MINISTER RANKIN. —- THE PEOPLE OF NOVA SCOTIA WANT YOU TO STOP YOUR DEPARTMENT AND WESTFOR NOW. We are talking about standing in front of harvesting equipment. Is this what we need to do? It appears to be the only option we have left.

Ecological Forestry in Southwest Nova.
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Spicer Family Woodlot – if all harvested private and Crown woodland were like that, we wouldn’t be concerned about clearcutting in Nova Scotia

Posted on January 9, 2019 by admin

They could get a lot more $ if they clearcut – in the short term

Spicer family being honoured Sep 30, 2017. View Press Release about the award. The woodlot is in the community of Spencer’s Island, but it is not on an island, it’s on the mainland. By the way, Spencer’s Island is one of the hidden  gems in NS, ‘been going for there for years.

Peter Spicer, owner of Seven Gulches Forest Products in Spencer’s Island and winner of the Nova Scotia Woodland Owner of the Year Award in 2017, has posted a lengthy defence of Northern Pulp (NSFN Post, Jan 8, 2019). Amongst his arguments:

Northern have also been very beneficial to small woodlot owners. When a person does intensive forest management, (commercial thinning, etc.) and removes low quality wood, Northern provides a market for that product so the landowner can afford to do that type of forest improvements. They provide us with a market for our low quality wood at a fair price. They also provide access to silviculture funding for land owners.
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Global Forest Watch satellite images and PLV maps of Nova Scotia speak volumes

Posted on January 8, 2019 by admin

I was forwarded this set of screen captures from Global Forest Watch with a note:

Prof Lahey”s third recommendation was:

Consistent with the ecological forestry paradigm, the objective of forestry practices in Nova Scotia should be, wherever appropriate, to maintain or restore multi‐aged and mixed‐species forests in which late‐successional species have the opportunity to grow and mature where they represent the forest’s natural condition. Practices that do otherwise in those forests should be curtailed.

The images below, showing canopy loss 2001-2017 illustrate why the recommendation is appropriate. Well over 95% of the loss of forest cover is associated with clearcutting.

For the flip-side of these images, to see where significant old forest remains, see Biodiverse Southwest Nova Scotia at Risk (Post, Oct 29, 2018), noting in particular the image with the legend: “Distribution of forest in 5 development stages across Nova Scotia..” (From Provincial Landscape Viewer, PLV)

GLOBAL FOREST WATCH IMAGES

Annapolis Co 2001-2017

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Nova Scotia Woodland Owner of the Year Award in 2017 on Social Media 7Jan2019 to defend Northern Pulp

Posted on January 8, 2019 by admin

UPDATE JAN 11, 2019: Peter Spicer’s piece below made it to the Chronicle Herald (requires subscription) yesterday under the title ” OPINION: Give Northern Pulp a chance to succeed; rural jobs hang in balance”

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Spicer family being honoured Sep 30, 2017. View Press Release about the award. UPDATE 8:40 am Jan 8: Apologies, I labelled it “Spencer Fam” earlier. It is the Spicer family at Spencer’s Island! [The woodlot is in the community of Spencer’s Island, but it is not on an island, it’s on the mainland.]

“Everyone seems to have an opinion on the forestry industry in Nova Scotia and in particular, the issue of Northern Pulp” says Peter Spicer in a public post on his Facebook Page “As a rural Nova Scotian and a woodlot owner operator that makes my living on the forestry industry, I thought I should express my views on the topic.”

Within 13 hours the post received 189 Likes, 65 Comments and 185 shares.

From Peter Spicers “About” Page:

WORK: Seven Gulches Forest Products
Sole Proprietor · August 2004 to present
Produce Forest Products and undertake silviculture operations, as well as some contracting and GPS work.

Teacher at ADHS for 22 years
September 1983 to December 2004

When I spotted those credentials, I realized this is the Peter Spicer who won the Woodlot Owner of the Year Award in 2017. I visited the woodlot during the Open House day on Sep 30, 2017. A DNR person told me it was the best one he had ever seen. View THE EXPERIENCES OF WOODLOT OWNER/OPERATORS Peter & Pat Spicer on nswoods.ca

Peter Spicer’s Post is given below, followed by a selection of the comments with negative and positive comments represented more or less in proportion to their overall frequencies. There were lots of both in the first 13 hours.
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Jan 7, 2019: Nova Scotia L&F Minister Rankin again joins discussion on Social Media

Posted on January 7, 2019 by admin

… related to the WestFor 5 year plan – click here to jump to discussiom

View also:
Nova Scotia L&F Minister Iain Rankin joins social media discussion about further cuts of Old Growth
Post on NSFN Dec 20, 2019.


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Nova Scotia Healthy Forest Coalition: The Story of the Corbett Lake Affair and the Erosion of Trust in the Public Process

Posted on January 6, 2019 by admin

Photo from Annapolis Royal & Area – Environment & Ecology illustrates some of the intact forest by Corbett Lake

“Overall this is another example of mismanagement of our natural resources by the Department of Lands and Forestry particularly in the context of the Lahey report which calls for major forestry reform and reform of LAF procedures and policy”

From Healthy Forest Coalition Facebook page (copied on NSFN with permission):

The Story of the Corbett Lake Affair and the Erosion of Trust in the Public Process

General conclusions:

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Ongoing discussion on social media about forests and forestry in Nova Scotia # 2: about harvesting on very short rotations

Posted on January 6, 2019 by admin

Danny George and others again raising alarms on Social Media, this time not about harvesting Old Growth but about harvesting very young trees. Will anyone listen this time around?

Like WestFor’s harvesting, the bad news about forestry in Nova Scotia is coming at us very fast. Some very insightful comments and observations are appearing on social media some of which I like to copy and post on NS Forest Notes because it is relevant and a part of my efforts to make this blog “serve as a record of events, news and opinions on the subject of forests and forestry in Nova Scotia as they unfold”.

Also, there are some very credible and informative observations amongst them. Yes perhaps they need to be followed up…but they are a place to start.

Finally, most of these social media pieces are on Facebook pages and they seem to quickly disappear or at least get buried somewhere hard to find. As far as I can tell, most Facebook content is not indexed on Google Search. So by copying some of it and posting on nsforestnores – non facebook social media – which is indexed, I am hoping to keep some it alive for a longer period.

On Dec 29, I made a post More clearcutting proposed near Protected Area, Guysborough Co.” I checked back today on the discussion, and there are some pretty interesting but sad comments on what’s being harvested in Nova Scotia. See Social Media Discussion.
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A WestFor 5 year plan emerges in Shelburne

Posted on January 5, 2019 by admin

It was observed on the Shelburne Municipality council chamber wall. Why are such plans not shared with the public at large?

UPDATE Jan 7, 2019: Minister Rankin joins the discussion
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Shelly Hipson has posted, on the Healthy Forests Coalition Facebook page, a photo of a map showing a WestFor Operating Plan for the next 5 years in Sheburne Co. She observed it recently on the Shelburne Municipality council chamber wall.

It seems fairly obvious that such maps must exist, that NSDNR/L&F would know about them and probably be consulted when they are prepared, but they have never been posted or even mentioned on the NSDNR/L&F website as far as I know, at least not since the HPMV has been around. Instead we are told that the steps involved in proposing and approving a harvest are done on a piece by piece basis as revealed on HPMV.
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