While we wait for “The Report”, it’s the same old same old from our two Nova Scotia pulp mills; and some thoughts on what the Independent Review will recommend

Posted on June 28, 2018 by admin

While we wait in some kind of suspended animation for the Report from the Independent Review of Forest Practices following the last formal comment on April 30, 2018, the two major drivers of dissatisfaction with forestry practices in Nova Scotia – our two remaining pulp mills (Northern Pulp at Pictou, and Port Hawkesbury Paper at Port Hawkesbury)  – continue to issue defensive statements about their practices.
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Posted in clearcuts, Conservation, Economics, Independent Review, Pulp & Paper, Show Us the Science, softwood lumber | Comments Off on While we wait for “The Report”, it’s the same old same old from our two Nova Scotia pulp mills; and some thoughts on what the Independent Review will recommend

Halifax Green Network Plan released June 21, 2018 puts Landscape Level Planning for Halifax well ahead of the province as a whole

Posted on June 23, 2018 by admin

The Final Draft of the The Halifax Green Network Plan, under development for several years,  was released on June 21, 2018.

The Halifax Green Network Plan (HGNP) was initiated in 2015 shortly after the adoption of the 2014 Regional Municipality Planning Strategy (Regional Plan). The 2014 Regional Plan directs the creation of the priorities plan to: “…protect and preserve connectivity between natural areas and open space lands, to enable their integration into sustainable community design, to help define communities, to benefit the Municipality’s economy and the physical health of its people, and to reflect and support the overall purposes of this Plan.”- from Item No. 15.1 Community Planning & Economic Development Standing Committee June 21, 2018 

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Could forest fragmentation be a factor in the high incidence of blacklegged tick/lyme in Nova Scotia?

Posted on June 16, 2018 by admin

tickThe evidence is sufficient that I breathe more easily when traversing larger patches of older forest, and I am more on guard for blacklegged ticks/lyme when I am in smaller patches or in and out of clearcuts.

UPDATE July 10, 2018 More evidence that forest fragmentation a factor in ticks/lyme increase:
Forest ecology shapes Lyme disease risk in the eastern US
Predators, acorns, & fragmentation regulate numbers of infected ticks
Science Daily, July 9, 2018. Related scientific paper:
Tick‐borne disease risk in a forest food web
Richard S. Ostfeld et al., Ecology, 99(7), 2018, pp. 1562–1573 “…Given the notorious challenges with diagnosis and treatment of tick-borne illnesses (Sanchez et al. 2016), and the high costs to patients and society of these reactive approaches, prevention of exposure based on ecological indicators of heightened risk should help protect public health.”

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The South Shore of Nova Scotia, according to Mount Allison University biologist Vett Lloyd cited in the Chronicle Herald on May 19, 2018, is “probably the worst place in Canada” for lyme disease-carrying black legged ticks. The worst that is for humans but the best place from the ticks’ perspective.*
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Keeping current: nsforestnotes.ca changes tack

Posted on June 11, 2018 by admin

My attempt to provide posts on the home page “as a record of events, news and opinions on the subject of forests and forestry in Nova Scotia as they unfold, beginning on June 21, 2016″, has proved challenging and I have not always been able to keep up.

So I am making a slight change in tack. On the page In the News, I will be listing links to news items under the dates those are published, without comments. Some of those will also be listed on the page Independent Review, and some will be topics of posts of the Home Page.

So About this Site>All Posts, provides a more or less complete archive of news related to forests and forestry in Nova Scotia Jun 21, 2016 to Jun 10, 2018,most with some comment; thereafter, the archive list will be on In the News, without comment.

There will still posts on the Home Page, but I will make a post only when I think I have some comment that adds to a news story, or on a topic not currently in the news. They will less frequent, perhaps 1/week versus an average of 4/week up to this point. All posts will still be listed on the page About this site>All Posts.

This change in tack will, I hope, allow me more time to follow up on important topics that are not receiving much attention otherwise, e.g., as in a recent post on cats versus clearcutting as threats to forest birds.
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Posted in Show Us the Science | Comments Off on Keeping current: nsforestnotes.ca changes tack

Fools still approve gold mining excesses in Nova Scotia

Posted on June 10, 2018 by admin

Abandoned mines in Nova Scotia are considered “low hanging fruit” to the mining companies. As well as being legally entitled now to mine where they want on private lands, mining companies want access to Protected Areas.

If you think our worries about our forests and forestry are all over in the event that we receive a Report from the Independent Review of Forest Practices in Nova Scotia that results in fundamental change in forestry practices in NS, and The Mill agrees to constructing and paying for a totally land-based system for processing mill effluents…think again.

Joan Baxter has done some of that for us on the gold mining front. View:

A Cape Breton Spectator/Halifax Examiner  Special Investigation:

Fool’s Gold: Nova Scotia’s Myopic Pursuit of Metals & Minerals (Part II)
Joan Baxter in the Cape Breton Spectator/Halifax Examiner, May 23, 2018

Part I: Fool’s Gold: Nova Scotia’s Myopic Pursuit of Metals & Minerals (Part I)
Joan Baxter in the Cape Breton Spectator/Halifax Examiner, May 16, 2018.

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Report from Independent Review of Forest Practices in Nova Scotia almost there…

Posted on June 9, 2018 by admin

Peter Duinker, one of the Expert Advisors to the Independent Review of Forest Practices in Nova Scotia, gave a talk Thursday evening to the Halifax Field Naturalists on Old Forests in HRM, which inevitably invited questions about when the Report will be out. (HFN is a member of the Healthy Forest Coalition.)

I was not there (not to snub PD but I had made a commitment to attend the 30th Anniv. of the Sackville Rivers Association on the same evening), but someone who was present passed this on:

“Generally he said, legal review completed, report back to Lahey and his advisors for consideration, should be released soon.”

Pretty minimal, in keeping with Prof Lahey running as tight a ship as Mueller’s investigation in the U.S., for which he can be lauded.
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Are cats more destructive to Nova Scotia’s forest birds than clearcutting?

Posted on June 8, 2018 by admin

…but maybe a CAT tractor did. “I suppose an analogy [to the in-Nova Scotia- cats-kill-more-forest-birds-than-clearcutting story] would be: Who would be more responsible for the decline of Monarch butterflies, the person who shoots one million butterflies out of the air every migration or the person who burns up all the milkweed without actually killing any butterflies?” – JT.
Click on image to enlarge

NSDNR says Yes. The science indicates that there are far more direct kills of birds by cats  year to year than from forestry operations but the indirect effects of extensive clearcutting on short rotations in Nova Scotia are much more damaging in the longer term

Contents

1. NSDNR responses to concerns about impacts of clearcutting on forest birds
2. Studies on direct, human caused mortality of birds in Canada
3. Habitat loss/degradation is the major contributor to decline of many species
4. Clearcutting can increase or decrease bird diversity at large depending on the existing  mix of young/old forest
5. NSDNR has been slow in implementing Landscape Level Planning for Biodiversity Conservation
6. Soil acidification/low base saturation/calcium depletion a major threat
7. Conclusion
8. More links
9. Some of the comments on WWNS
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Posted in Acadian Forest, Conservation, Natural History, NSDNR, Show Us the Science | Comments Off on Are cats more destructive to Nova Scotia’s forest birds than clearcutting?

Nova Scotia DNR Biodiversity Council Members Appointed

Posted on June 4, 2018 by admin

Will the council look at habitat loss associated with clearcutting as a major issue?

Mark-Brennan-The-Tobeatic18

In their 2017 election platform the McNeil Liberals said they would create a Biodiversity Council:

…as part of our vision to ensure a healthy environment for future generations, a Liberal Government will pass a Biodiversity Act. This act will improve protection of our forests, lakes, animals, plants and citizens by better coordinating existing legislation and creating a new Nova Scotia Biodiversity Council. The council will have the power to recommend new actions that promote biodiversity and report annually on the status of our biodiversity

Formation of the council was announced in a NSDNR Press Release (May 22, 2018)

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He went for a walk in the woods but the woods were gone

Posted on June 3, 2018 by admin

It’s time to pass an Environmental Bill of Rights for Nova Scotia, as already proposed by Denise Peterson-Rafuse in a Private Member’s Bill, Oct 14, 2016

Spring wild flora enthusiasts return to a favourite site at Higgins Mt to find a sloppy clearcut. View A little of what Nova Scotians see and feel; such sights and feelings are universal.

A line in SURETTE: A Silver Donald lining for global green struggle by Ralph Surette in the Chronicle Herald, June 1, 2018, jumped out at me:

He went for a walk in the woods but the woods were gone

Surette’s op-ed describes the notable role that Silver Donald Cameron (from where else but Cape Breton?) has played in promoting Green Rights around the world though a film called GreenRights: The Human Right to a Healthy World (view Trailer) , a book entitled Warrior Lawyers, and his ongoing Green Interview series.
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Nova Scotia DNR employee apparently clearcut land then sold it to DNR at 2X assessed value

Posted on June 2, 2018 by admin

Even in Protected Areas: Clearcut in lands designated for the Raven Head Protected Area, 2011 (“To negotiate a price within the province’s budget, Wagner Forestry [was] allowed to harvest about one quarter of the Apple Head area”). As shocking as that was, the case documented by One Not So Bored Housewife involving land clearcut and then sold to NSDNR by a NSDNR employee is even more shocking

UPDATE June 5, 2018: More discussion from WWNS added at the end of the post
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This well documented, disturbing allegation is made in a May 31, 2018 post How much wood does a clear cutter cut, when a clear cutter cuts the wood? on the blog One Not So Bored Housewife.

There is a lot in the post which was apparently stimulated by the recent story about Port Hawkesbury Paper/NSDNR deals.

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