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.”
Continue reading →

Posted in Conservation, Gold Mining, Mining, Parks & Protected Areas | Leave a comment

Nova Scotian families contribute ecologically valuable land for protection by NS Nature Trust

Posted on November 6, 2017 by admin

St. Mary’s River, Guysborough Co.

The Summer and Fall 2017 edition of Landlines, the newsletter for the Nova Scotia Nature Trust, highlights recent contributions of land by several Nova Scotia families for protection by NSNT. From Landlines:

An Earth Day Gift: A New Freshwater Refuge for Wildlife
In celebration of Earth Day, the Nova Scotia Nature Trust announced new conservation lands on Hog Lake in Queen’s County, Nova Scotia. A haven for wetland-dependent wildlife including a family of nesting loons, the property also has potential habitat for the nationally endangered Blanding’s Turtle and Eastern Ribbonsnake.
Continue reading →

Posted in Acadian Forest, Biophilia, Conservation | Leave a comment

Editorials and letters about forestry in Nova Scotia continued..Nov 3, 2017 – “Bad forestry practices compound climate challenge”

Posted on November 3, 2017 by admin

Jamie Simpson contends that clearcutting has “borealized” much of the Nova Scotian forest; it’s a concept accepted by at least some federal forestry scientists but not by NSDNR

Two woodlots in Nova Scotia, one involving clearcut forestry and promoting softwoods, the other involving selection management and maintaining a mixed, multi-aged Acadian forest.

“Bad forestry practices compound climate challenge” says forester/environmental lawyer Jamie Simpson in an op-ed (Chronicle Herald, Nov 3, 2017) that followed up on an Oct. 28 article in the Chronicle Herald, Climate change may endanger spruce, fir.

Our legacy of past land-clearing for agriculture and our current use of widespread clearcutting has created conditions very favourable to boreal forest tree species {“borealization”], and indeed boreal forest species have flourished at the expense of our warmer-climate adapted trees. We have put our forests in an extremely vulnerable position. Even without climate change, we’ve created forests that are susceptible to greater damage from disease, insect outbreaks and windstorms. Add climate change and we may well witness a “perfect storm” of stresses on large areas of our forest.

Continue reading →

Posted in Acadian Forest, clearcuts, Climate Change, Letters&Editorials | Leave a comment

Editorials and letters about forestry in Nova Scotia continued..Nov 2, 2017 – the case for growing bigger, older trees

Posted on November 3, 2017 by admin

Growing bigger, older trees: Multi-aged management of red spruce on private woodlot in Nova Scotia

In an op-ed published in the business section of the Chronicle Herald today (Nov 2, 2017), Soren Bondrup-Nielsen looks at some stats on wood production, area harvested and employment in the forest industry in Nova Scotia and concludes:

The only place where employment has increased, when adjusted for the amount of area harvested, is in the wood product manufacturing industries and to a small extent in support activities for forestry. In other words, there is employment in the value-added sector.

Continue reading →

Posted in Acadian Forest, clearcuts, Economics, Letters&Editorials, Wood Construction | Leave a comment

Softwood lumber exemption for Nova Scotia is restored

Posted on November 2, 2017 by admin

“The removal of punitive duties on Nova Scotia softwood lumber exports was announced Thursday by the U.S. Department of Commerce, after it ruled Nova Scotia’s lumber sector was operating in an open market rather than receiving an unfair subsidy.” Read more in the Chronicle Herald, Nov 2, 2017.

View also ‘A drain on businesses’: N.S. lumber producer pleased to see tariffs gone (CBC, Nov 2, 2017).

View Softwood Lumber posts for some recent history of the softwood lumber dispute.
Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, softwood lumber | Leave a comment

Procedure for approving harvests on Nova Scotia Crown lands now outlined on the HPMV

Posted on November 1, 2017 by admin

mapviewerThe covering web page for the Harvest Plan Map Viewer (HPMV) has been modified recently, and now outlines the overall process for approving harvests on Crown land.

It involves four steps:

Step 1. The Crown land Licensee develops proposed harvest areas and prescriptions based on Pre-Treatment Assessment (PTA) and the Forest Management Guides (FMG), subject to all requirements for operating on Crown lands.
Step 2. Department of Natural Resources (DNR) resource management professionals review every proposed harvest plan as part of the Integrated Resource Management (IRM) review process and determine if the plan is appropriate and meets all requirements for operating on Crown lands.
Step 3. Each proposed harvest area on Crown land is posted on the Harvest Plan Map Viewer (HPMV), an interactive web viewer, that enables the public to view and comment on harvest plans.
Step 4. Crown Land Licensees are notified if the proposed harvest plans are approved or if changes are required following the public comment period and an evaluation by DNR senior management.

More details are given for each step. View Harvest Operation Maps

This is a welcome clarification of the procedures. Continue reading →

Posted in clearcuts, Conservation, HPMV, NSDNR, Show Us the Science | Leave a comment

Time to plan ahead: the future of the Acadian Forest in an era of climate warming

Posted on October 29, 2017 by admin

Not the best approach in an era of climate warming?
Click on image to view a larger version

In a paper published in Forest Ecology and Management in September and highlighted recently by a Canadian Press report (Oct 27, 2017), Anthony R Taylor of the Canadian Forest Service and six collaborators use a forest ecosystem simulation model to explore the impact of climate warming on the composition and growth of trees in the Acadian Forest Region under two climate change scenarios.

The eighteen most abundant tree species currently in our forests are included in the model. Only small changes in relative abundance of the different species are preedicted to occur over the short term (2011–2040).

Over the medium and long terms (2041–2100), the model predicts increasing relative abundance of warm adapted temperate species (American beech, red maple, red oak, white ash, and white pine) and reductions in the relative abundance of cold adapted boreal species (balsam fir, white, black and red spruces, eastern larch, jack pine, trembling aspen, and white birch) with the changes being most pronounced under the more rapid climate warming scenario.
Continue reading →

Posted in Acadian Forest, Climate Change, softwood lumber | Leave a comment

Editorials and letters about forestry in Nova Scotia continued..Oct 28, 2017

Posted on October 28, 2017 by admin

Following the critique of “misinformed local academics” just a few days ago, another letter expressing frustration with “bias and undue criticism of our [forestry] industry and practices” appears in today’s Chronicle Herald.

“My family has been involved in forestry for five generations and has contributed directly to our communities for well over 100 years…We selectively harvest our resources, where applicable, and in many cases, we clearcut where appropriate.

“…Those readers familiar with gardening will know that when a crop is mature and ready to harvest, and we are not educated and wise enough to do so, that which is left unharvested soon creates a blight on the fertile ground from which it has grown.

“This compares to our forests. Its products have a growth cycle and a shelf life. If left unharvested, soon a piece of fertile ground will become unusable for an extended time period. These unharvested forests have a very limited capacity for supporting wildlife and create ideal conditions for fires.”

Read more under Voice of the People – Oct 28, 2017: Forest stewards know best

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Posted in clearcuts, Letters&Editorials | Leave a comment

Editorials and letters about forestry in Nova Scotia continued..Oct 24, 2017

Posted on October 26, 2017 by admin

Lumber rep goes after Nova Scotia’s “misinformed local academics”; pilot offers another view

In Voice of the People (Chronicle Herald Oct 23, 2017), Cassie Turple of “Ledwidge Lumber, Enfield”, goes after Nova Scotia’s “misinformed local academics”:

I read the story about the “Forest Funeral” in downtown Halifax and was surprised and dismayed by the quotes from some local academics who are simply misinformed, and then that misinformation gets spread.
1. We only harvest 0.78 per cent of Nova Scotia’s forested land annually.
2. The forest industry accounts for 11,500 jobs in this province.
3. The industry contributes over $2.1 billion to our economy annually.
…I could go on, but I digress. Have you been around this province lately? What do you see? We have so many beautiful forests.

View the complete letter at Forestry sector maligned (Chronicle Herald Oct 23, 2017)
Continue reading →

Posted in Acadian Forest, clearcuts, Letters&Editorials | Leave a comment

The legacy of Nova Scotia’s Tobeatic wilderness

Posted on October 22, 2017 by admin

Naturalist Alain Belliveau has been concerned about harvesting in the Tobeatic Wildlife Management Area and realized that few people know what the Sanctuary / Wildlife Management Area is all about, so wrote an essay about it.

Alain appeals to Nova Scotians to express their views about the area and especially to let their MLAs know about them.

The essay is presented below, complemented with artwork and photos from Mark Brennan’s Tobeatic Sketches.

“John Pictou Carry”, Sporting Lake Stream, oil on birch panel by Mark Brennan, posted with permission of Mark Brennan.

What is the Legacy of Our Oldest Protected Wilderness?
By Alain Belliveau

An impressive anniversary is coming up in Nova Scotia, notable to anyone who enjoys the out-of-doors or simply the notion of areas being set aside for protecting our rich backwoods heritage, for wildlife to prosper and for Species At Risk to recover (and many have yet to do so). The first large wild spaces were safeguarded 90 years ago, and included the famed Tobeatic. Continue reading →

Posted in Acadian Forest, Biophilia, Conservation, Parks & Protected Areas, Social Values | Leave a comment