The Independent Review of Forestry in Nova Scotia Phase 1 underway

Posted on November 19, 2017 by admin

The announcement of an Independent Review of Forestry in the Budget address on Apr 27, 2017. The review process got started Aug 30, 2017 with a final report due Feb 28, 2017.

I’m still a little vague on how I was chosen to talk to the Independent Review of Forestry in Nova Scotia in its first phase, but I was invited to do so on Nov 19, 2017 together with Bob Bancroft and Donna Crossland. Bob and Donna are authors of Restoring the Health of Nova Scotia’s Forests that fed into the Natural Resources Strategy 2010 process.

I asked about the context and we were told that in this Phase 1, the Independent Review is simply gathering input on the issues to be discussed further in Phase 2. We were given a list of people appointed as advisors or consultants, but I don’t want to comment (or disclose who the people are) until there is some formal announcement about who is involved.

As we waited for our appointed time at 3 pm on Saturday, six or so reps from Freeman Lumber emerged from the meeting room. About others being asked to talk to the Independent Review in this phase, I don’t know, except that Raymond Plourde/EAC were also to appear or had appeared.

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Fishermen’s Association question “dilution as the solution” for effluent from Pictou pulp mill

Posted on November 19, 2017 by admin

What are the most efficient pulp effluent treatment systems now in existence? Surely the best should be the standard for the Pictou mill.

The diffuser would be about here
Click on image to enlarge (from Google Earth)
Fishers are concerned about impacts on lobster, crab, scallop, herring, and mackerel fisheries


UPADE Nov 30, 2017: Westville urges caution to Northern Pulp
in The News Nov. 29, 2017

UPDATE Nov 29, 2017: Fishermen bring concerns to county council about Northern Pulp proposal in The News Nov. 28, 2017

UPDATE Nov 22, 2017: Effluent dump in Northumberland Strait of ‘dire concern,’ says P.E.I. Fisheries minister (The Guardian, Nov 21, 2017)
&
Dirty Dealing: Northern Pulp Mill and the province are set to roll the dice with Boat Harbour’s replacement, but a cleaner alternative exists by Linda Pannozzo in the Halifax Examiner, Nov 22, 2017. Comprehensive. (No longer behind a paywall.)

————-

Procrastination is a word that might be applied Northern Pulp and the Province’s effort to meet the January 2020 commitment to have a new pulp effluent treatment system in place so that the Boat Harbour pulp mill effluent system can finally be closed.

Remarkably, the Northumberland Fishermen’s Association discovered that while there is plan to place a diffuser system carrying effluent from a new treatment facility about 10 kilometres out in the Northumberland Strait from Pictou, the mill has not even initiated the process for an EA (Environmental Assessment).

View Pulp mill’s wastewater treatment design worries fishermen’s group by Francis Campbell, Chronicle Herald Nov 17, 2017.
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Editorials and letters about forestry in Nova Scotia continued..continued 18Nov2016: Two Perspectives

Posted on November 18, 2017 by admin

Did the Forest Funeral confuse the public?

#1 Stacie Carroll, “a silviculturist, small woodlot owner, food forest farmer and the executive director of the Federation of Nova Scotia Woodland Owners” follows V.T. in blasting the Healthy Forest Coalition and the recent Forest Funeral event in particular:

“As I look around at folks who carry paper protest signs on sticks and ask you to bring tissues to an event that celebrates the death of a renewable resource — while eating their cardboard-packaged granola bars, holding their paper coffee cups and carrying a large wooden coffin — I start to wonder where the logic has all gone….By biting the hand that feeds them and by using emotional stimuli, the organizers of these types of protests continue to confuse the public and don’t communicate facts that help Nova Scotians understand forests, forestry and the renewable resource management, which are a major contributor to the financial stability of this province.”

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MANS proposal to swap mines and protected area in Nova Scotia hardly dead in the water

Posted on November 15, 2017 by admin

Abandoned mines in Nova Scotia are considered “low hanging fruit” to the mining companies and they want access to them in Protected Areas.

Recent publicity around the Mining Association of Nova Scotia proposal to open up protected lands to mining via a swap proposal led quickly to a “we are not going to do that” response from government.

We might have thought that was the end of it, however, as Raymond Plourde told me, they (MANS] expected that response and that’s why they are pandering to municipalities. He was right.

Warden Vernon Pitts on behalf of the Guysborough Municipal Council writes in the Guysborough Journal today:

The MANS Proposal (A Better Balance – How Can We Protect Jobs and Land?) provides an opportunity to reset our priorities. No one is suggesting that highly sensitive or unique lands be opened up for mineral exploration or development. What is proposed, is that lands of equal or greater value be “swapped” for lands currently protected. This creates a net-gain or win-win situation for everyone.

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‘Want to comment on a post on Nova Scotia Forest Notes?

Posted on November 14, 2017 by admin

I have had several inquiries about the “Leave a Comment” option at the bottom of blog posts. I have not allowed comments on nsforestnotes.ca but for the life of me, I can’t get rid of the “Leave a Comment” option even though it does not work. ( I have checked WordPress forums etc. and none of the advice, suggestions etc have worked for me.*)

I have blocked comments on nsforestnotes.ca because, based on past experience managing WordPress websites (e.g., for Halifax Field Naturalists), I could anticipate that more than 99% of responses would be spam.

I do appreciate constructive dialogue, however. A good venue for that is the Woods and Waters Nova Scotia Facebook page which is hosted by Mike Parker.
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Six month extension given to WestFor to operate in SW Nova Scotia but with a reduction in allocation

Posted on November 13, 2017 by admin

Western Crown lands, modified from CPAWS map (2012)

Western Crown lands, modified from CPAWS map (2012)

I was wondering recently what happened to the interim WestFor Agreement which expired sometime in September. I have not seen any related news item or press release but a google search turned up discussion of an extension in Hansard:

“MS. KIM MASLAND « » : Mr. Speaker, my question through you is to the Minister of Natural Resources. Late last week, 13 mills working with WestFor received notice that their timber lease was up for renewal and would only be extended for 30 days. You can only imagine the shock and concern this posed to mills that employ thousands of Nova Scotians in rural Nova Scotia.

After the mill owners met with the minister, the minister advised that the agreement would be extended for six months, but it came with a catch. There has been a reduction in allocation, and elimination of unused allocation. This has serious impacts to mill operations in Nova Scotia.
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Fifty Years of Pulp and Protest in Nova Scotia

Posted on November 13, 2017 by admin

book Joan Baxter’s topical book, “The Mill: Fifty Years of Pulp and Protest” (Pottersfield Press, 2017), will be launched Thursday, November 16, 2017 at the Wooden Monkey, 305 – 40 Alderney Drive, Dartmouth. 6:30 – 9 PM.

A second launch and book reading will take place at the Museum of Industry, Stellarton, Nova Scotia, November 21, 2017: 7 – 9 PM

From Potters Press/Indigo Books:

The Mill –Fifty Years of Pulp and Protest explores the power that a single industry can wield. For fifty years, the pulp mill near Pictou in northern Nova Scotia has buoyed the local economy and found support from governments at all levels. But it has also pulped millions of acres of forests, spewed millions of tonnes of noxious emissions into the air, consumed quadrillions of litres of fresh water and then pumped them out again as toxic effluent into nearby Boat Harbour, and eventually into the Northumberland Strait.
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Senior forester sought by Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources

Posted on November 10, 2017 by admin

This item was posted yesterday (Nov 9, 2017) on the NS Government website

What perspectives will the new appointment bring?

Competition # 6101
Director Forestry, Permanent, TRURO
Natural Resources
Posting Closing Date: 11/30/2017
… Duties: Reporting to the Executive Director, Renewable Resources Branch, the Director of Forestry is accountable for the development and management of programs, strategies and policies for the sustainable management and growth of the province’s forest lands. The responsibilities include the measurement, reporting and forecasting of the status of Nova Scotia forests; research, development and implementation of ecological and timber management goals, objectives and practices; and development and administration of strategies, policies and legislation for forest sustainability, biodiversity and health. The Director is also responsible for forest genetic programs and policies, and forest renewal programs including the production of tree seedlings for reforestation.
Qualifications: The successful candidate will have a university degree in a biological science (which includes forestry) as well as several years of progressive management experience in a similar role.

View ad at jobs.novascotia.ca
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Editorials and letters about forestry in Nova Scotia continued..Nov 9, 2017 – Critic blasts the Healthy Forest Coalition

Posted on November 10, 2017 by admin

Writing a commentary placed in the the business section of the Chronicle Herald, “a retired federal trade and economic development official” fires a few blasts at the Healthy Forest Coalition and defends the senior bureaucrats at NSDNR. Writes V.T:

The objectives of the HFC may be laudable, but the Coalition appears to have turned to some less laudable tactics. Two tactics that were on display on the “forest funeral” podium were, in my view, particularly troubling:
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Posted in Acadian Forest, clearcuts, Letters&Editorials, NSDNR, Show Us the Science | Leave a comment

Ground Zero: Mining companies (& others) want the “low hanging fruit” in Nova Scotia’s Protected Areas

Posted on November 7, 2017 by admin

Those who need the low hanging fruit the most are the wildlife. I think most Nova Scotians want us to leave it there for them.

Abandoned gold mines in eastern Nova Scotia. Such mines are considered “low hanging fruit” to the mining companies and they want access to them in Protected Areas.
Click on image to go to map source (NSDNR)

UPDATE Nov 11, 2017: Three items in the Chronicle Herald, none as yet supportive of the MANS proposal:

COMMENTARY: Save protected areas from mining, by Raymond Plourde: “[MANS] conveniently misunderstands that protecting biodiversity means leaving areas alone, in a natural state over long periods of time, to allow natural biological processes to occur and to provide the complex, inter-connected habitats needed by native species to survive.
That is why they are protected under law in perpetuity. They are not generic “green spaces” that can simply be moved around the landscape like furniture.”
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Posted in Conservation, Gold Mining, Mining, Parks & Protected Areas | Leave a comment