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
——-
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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Premier’s reflective end of year message cites tourism and seafood exports as highlights of the economy, no mention of forest products

Posted on January 5, 2019 by admin

It’s worth noting perhaps.

No mention either of progress in sorting out forestry issues with receipt of Lahey Report, the promised Independent Review repeatedly cited in the run-up to the 2017 election.

View STEPHEN MCNEIL: Momentum building for Nova Scotia
(Cape Breton Post, Jan 4, 2019).

Related: VIBERT: Forest sector will fight for Northern Pulp
Jim Vibert in Journal Pioneer, Jan 5, 2019

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Follow-up on The Mistake (Corbett/Dalhousie cut): letter from Annapolis naturalist to Nova Scotia Premier and others

Posted on January 5, 2019 by admin

For Reference. From HPMV Dec 28, 2018

“I ask that all of you give consideration to the future of this forest. Is it really worth destroying one of our exceedingly few remaining “old forests” – a stand of 21.5 hectares – in order to make a few more bucks?”
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UPDATE Jan 8, 2019: Forestry faux pas – Corbett Lake proposed harvest posting a mistake; concerned citizens skeptical, hope to save what’s left
Lawrence Powell in the Annapolis County Spectator Jan 8, 2019. “When residents concerned about possible harvest of crown forest at Corbett Lake found out on New Year’s Eve that it was all a big mistake, they could have packed up their maps, GPS units, and social media ecological sites and went home. They didn’t.”
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In a post made yesterday on Annapolis Royal & Area – Environment & Ecology (public facebook group) naturalist Bev Wigney shared the following letter she wrote to the Premier (also her MLA) and others regarding The Mistake (Re: – Annapolis Co. Nova Scotia folks investigating more Crown land cuts NSFN Post Dec 23, 2018 & WestFor/Nova Scotia L&F’s 19 meter “Road to Nowhere”  NSFN Post Dec 29, 2018):

————————————————-
SUBJECT: The Corbett-Dalhousie Lakes Forest — a failure in public consultation and forest management practices.

REFERENCE: Parcels AP 068637B, and AP 068637D, Annapolis County, NS.

TO:
Hon. Premier Stephen McNeil
Hon. Minister of Lands and Forestry, Iain Rankin
Deputy MInister of Lands and Forestry, Julie Towers
Executive Director of Climate Change, Jason Hollet
William Lahey, President & Vice-Chancellor, Kings College
Warden Timothy Habinski (Annapolis County – Forestry
Advisory Committee)
Councillor Gregory Heming (Annapolis County – Forestry
Advisory Committee)
Mayor William MacDonald (Mayor of Annapolis Royal)
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Reposting: Planning ahead for Industrial forestry in Nova Scotia – allowing bigger trucks on our roads

Posted on January 3, 2019 by admin

deja vu, paving the roads for industrial forestry in Nova Scotia

After reading Province reduces regulatory burden for truck and forestry industries by Danielle McCreadie in Halifax Today (Jan 2, 2019) subtitle: “Road reclassifications to allow efficient truck axle configurations will help make the trucking and forestry industries in Nova Scotia more competitive” I thought why re-invent the wheel, I’ll repost this commentary made just under a year ago:

Planning ahead for Industrial forestry in Nova Scotia: allowing bigger trucks on our roads
Posted on NSFN, Jan 28, 2018

(Also pertinent: Nova Scotia L&F searching for Manager, Innovation & Business Development, NSFN, Dec 11, 2018)

Things may be on hold in SW Nova Scotia awaiting the recommendations of the Independent Review but the government and Forest NS are not treading water when it comes to paving the roads for industrial forestry in Nova Scotia

“The bigger you are, the more attention you get — some of it good, some of it not so good.

“And the bigger an industry player you are, the more attention — and help — you get from government.

“It’s an open secret that, if you employ enough people and turn enough money around, especially in rural parts of Atlantic Canada, governments can be exceptionally flexible.”

So begins an op-ed by Russel Wangersky on The politics of pollution (The News, Jan 26, 2018).

Those words apply pretty well verbatim to this announcement from Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal (now under Lloyd Hines, previously Minister of Natural Resources): Red Tape Reduction in Trucking Industries (Jan 26, 2018)
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What you get and some of what you do not get on the Nova Scotia Harvest Plan Map Viewer (and where to get it)

Posted on January 3, 2019 by admin

As an illustration of What you Get and Do Not Get, I simply chose an area in eastern Nova Scotia where I could see some newly proposed harvests (viewed Jan 1, 2018), and then used the HPMV and other online map tools to see what I could find out about the area.

The  Harvest Plan Map Viewer (HPMV) was launched by NSDNR on April 18, 2016. It replaced the  “pdf-based harvest operation maps that the Department of Natural Resources launched in 2014.”  (View example of the PDFs.)

The HPMV was a huge improvement and technically this interactive tool is user-friendly and is very robust (it’s fast and consistent). Several improvements were made over time and I have found the HPMV staff very responsive to requests for clarification, info etc. (View posts under HPMV category).

I have encountered few issues in accessing the information the HPMV is designed to provide. It has clearly improved “public engagement on planned fibre harvests in Nova Scotia woodlands” (from 2016 Press Release), e.g. view posts under the Social Media Category.

However, there is a lot more that the platform could offer to provide more context to the proposed harvests, but does not. An example, once harvests have been approved and commenced, they are taken off the HPMV, so we have no conveniently accessed recent history of Crown land harvests in the area of newly proposed harvests. Likewise, the map does not show harvesting on private lands to give an idea of the overall intensity of harvesting in an area. It does not show the watersheds… there’s lots more that is relevant to harvesting and could be shown but is not.

So I have made a new page on this website is to illustrate what you do get on the HPMV, what you do not get that could be useful, and where you can access the latter. A wish list is offered at the bottom of the page. As a page (rather than a blog post), it will remain as a work in progress. View New Page


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Nova Scotia Crown land Harvest Plan Map Viewer folks made a mistake; no apology

Posted on December 31, 2018 by admin

UPDATE Jan 3, 2019: “Corbett/Dalhousie have been totally removed from the map, not even a shadow left to show that they had it listed or worked it. Not even a shadow left as in around Walker Lake, just poof gone” -from the Annapolis folks.
UPDATE Jan 1, 2019: Comments on Social media added – Scroll down.

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FYI: Nova Scotia L&F/WestFor Agreement FOIPOPed

Posted on December 29, 2018 by admin

Back on Oct 4, I asked While we wait for the government to respond to the Independent Review, what agreement is in place with WestFor?

I got the answer from a Nov 5 CBC interview: CBC interviews reveal WestFor got a one year renewal on its access to Nova Scotia’s Western Crown Lands on Oct 1, 2018 and asked “Can the public be informed about these agreements?”

Well, yes, if you do a FOIPOP (make a request for government documents under the NS Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act).
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WestFor/Nova Scotia L&F’s 19 meter “Road to Nowhere”

Posted on December 29, 2018 by admin

A discovery by the Annapolis Co. Nova Scotia folks that harvesting on Crown lands proposed for harvest had, apparently, already begun, preceded by construction of some pretty massive roads including a 19 meter “Road to Nowhere”

-Update Dec 31, 2018: UPDATED: Voice in the wilderness – Citizens discover some proposed Annapolis County harvests may already be complete
Lawrence Powell In the Annapolis County Spectator
-Update Dec 31, 2018: Nova Scotia Crown land Harvest Plan Map Viewer folks made a mistake; no apology
Post NSFN
-Update Dec 30, 2018: On WWNS Discussion of the road
-UPDATE Dec 30, 2018: CORBETT–DALHOUSIE LAKES: FIFTH POST AND PROBABLY FINAL POST
-UPDATE Dec 29, p.m. : Letter sent  to Premier Stephen McNeil, others

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Six days ago, I wrote a post about Annapolis Co. Nova Scotia folks investigating more Crown land cuts

Now they have done some ground-truthing of a proposed Crown Land harvest of the “Dalhousie-Corbett Lakes parcels”. Their first venture took place on Boxing day, with a dozen plus participants, and there was a follow-up by a smaller group yesterday. What they have been seeing and thinking are given in four posts on Annapolis Royal & Area – Environment & Ecology (Facebook Public Group):

CORBETT – DALHOUSIE LAKES — FIRST POST
CORBETT – DALHOUSIE LAKES — SECOND POST
CORBETT — DALHOUSIE LAKES — THIRD POST
CORBETT–DALHOUSIE LAKES: FOURTH POST

They read like an enticing novel – with an upsetting plot: The discovery, apparently, that harvesting on Crown lands proposed for harvest had, apparently, already begun, preceded by construction of some pretty massive roads  including the 19 meter “Road to Nowhere”.

From BW’s Fourth Post:

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More clearcutting proposed near Protected Area, Guysborough Co.

Posted on December 29, 2018 by admin

Thanks, Shelly Hipson, for not letting this one go by unnoticed.

Shelly Hipson, writing on Stop Spraying & Clear-Cutting In Nova Scotia (Facebook Public Group), has raised the alarm about massive clearcuts near the Ogden Round Lake Wilderness Area in Guysborough County:

The Department of Lands and Forestry is proposing a 213 acre clear-cut adjacent to the Ogden Round Lake Wilderness Area in Guysborough County. It was told to me that when you destroy habitat around a protected area – it puts more stress on wildlife within that protected area. As well, does anyone know what this forest is like? Is there a team of people in that area willing to explore, take photos, and get back to us? —- This is the description of the Wilderness area : ((((Dotted with lakes and a mixture of mature forests in eastern Guysborough County, Ogden Round Lake Wilderness Area protects a variety of unique land forms and ecosystems in the Mulgrave Hills natural landscape. The area also helps protect local watersheds, as it straddles a watershed divide, and includes portions of eight tertiary watersheds.

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Annapolis Co. Nova Scotia folks investigating more Crown land cuts

Posted on December 23, 2018 by admin

Just perhaps, the tide is shifting in Nova Scotia

Clearcutting in Annapolis C. Scott Leslie photo

In yet another case of citizens doing the due diligence that is required now that NS Lands and Forestry procedures for approving Crown land forests for harvest have been discredited but remain in place for at least another year, a group of Annapolis Co folks are investigating harvests proposed for the “Corbett-Dalhousie Lakes parcel”. Earlier, they were successful in getting the proposed harvest on Hardwood Hill nixed.

Social Media, in this case, Annapolis Royal & Area – Environment & Ecology – is playing a key role in highlighting such cuts and mobilizing people to take action, though that is not its primary purpose. The group was formed only on Oct 29 of this year, but is already at 192 members. Reads the About: “This is a group for those in Annapolis Royal, NS, and the surrounding area, who are interested in ecology and the environment. It will be a place for us to network about environmental issues, coming events, and also to share our observations about the natural world in this area.”
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