Nova Scotia Forest Notes

In the midst of Zack’s article bemoaning our loss of spectacular forests, a video-ad appeared extolling the benefits of our current forestry practices

A remnant patch of old growth hardwoods in Nova Scotia

“Why”, asked Zack Metcalfe, “are the wilds of Canada’s West Coast fundamentally more spectacular than those of the Maritimes?”

From foresters to botanists, he could “only get informed theories and stumped expressions”. That was until, over a cold beer, “someone I respect a great deal, with decades of experience behind their answer, leaned forward and shared the big picture:

“Zack, consider the pastures of Scotland. They seem to go on forever, naturally, interrupted by only the occasional tree. But it wasn’t always like that. Scotland was once a forested country, except generations of cutting has left it bare. Now look at Nova Scotia. We still have forests here, but how many times have they been cut over? Four? Five? We impoverish our soils with every clearcut and what grows back is a little less impressive than its original self. So we’re in the middle stage. Out West, their forests have only been cut over once or twice, never in some cases. Harvesting over there is still out of control, but their forests haven’t dealt with it long enough to lose their size or beauty.
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