The Medway Community Forest Cooperative is holding their first annual Forest Market and Fair at the Annapolis Royal Farmer’s Market grounds on Sunday, August 20th from 11:00am-2:00pm. Visitors are invited to
Explore the amazing diversity of goods and services that our Acadian forests can provide. The market will showcase atisans, crafter, and local businesses that utilize forest products or the forest ecosystem.
Some of the vendors cited on the Medway Community Forest Co-op Facebook page:
Marcus Zwicker, General Manager for WestFor, the consortium of mills managing the Western Crown Lands, will speak at the Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute at 4 pm, Thurs Aug 17 as part of MTRI’s Summer Seminar Series.
These seminars are being live streamed and archived on the MTRI Facebook Page.
Update (Aug 19): The video is available here.
Amongst recent seminars:
Continue reading
Map showing PHP managed Crown lands. View large version on the Public Notice – FSC forest management audit of Port Hawkesbury Paper
FSC is the Forestry Stewardship Council, “an independent, non-governmental, not for profit organization established to promote the responsible management of the world’s forests.” FSC Certification “guarantees your customers that the FSC-labelled product they buy has come from a forest and supply chain that is managed responsibly” (Source: https://ca.fsc.org/en-ca/fsc-certification).
FSC is generally regarded as the pre-eminent certification system for forestry in Canada and internationally. The Port Hawkesbury mill initially obtained FSC certification in 2008, when it was owned by NewPage. The certification was reassessed, renewed and maintained after it was purchased by Pacific West Commercial Corp in 2012.
Annapolis Co. 2017
Six weeks later, there still has been no word about it. Hopefully the delay means that the McNeil Government really wants to get it right. In the meantime, some suggestions have been forthcoming.
Continue reading
Shuttered plant in May 2017
UPDATE AUG 25, 2017: The deal is still in the works “likely to be finalized within about a month.” (Chronicle Herald Aug 24, 2017).
The last we heard was that “it’s déjà vu all over again in Middle Musquodoboit as former wood pellet plant operator Scotia Atlantic Biomass Company’s assets go up for grabs” (CH, Jan 10, 2017), that after it ceased production in July, 2016.
“Déjà vu” because it was the third time.
Continue reading
Scene from Video by Goldboro1
A video speaks volumes.
“While out exploring the woods roads north of Isaac’s Harbour on August 8 I discovered huge piles of hardwood cut and stockpiled along the road. I estimate that there is between 2500 and 3000 cord piled there.
I found out that it was cut late summer/ early fall 2016 for biomass destined for the wood fired boiler in Port Hawkesbury. There were maple logs in the piles up to 24” around. This was an old growth stand that is considered by the NS DNR as “Waste Wood”.
This is a disgusting waste of our forests in my opinion. This is located at 45°14’27.37″N by 61°38’29.06″W ” – Goldboro1 on YouTube, Aug 11, 2017.
Clearcutting close to the pending Shingle Lake Nature Reserve illustrates transparency issues & raises questions about landscape level planning for biodiversity conservation in Crown land harvest decisions
This is a lengthy post, so I am inserting a Summary & Table of Contents.
Summary
Shingle Lake Nature Reserve (pending) Band of rocky outcrop in forest (Top); naturalist photographs insect activity in lakeside wetland (Mid); Golden Pert & Barred Owl (Bottom)
Click on image for larger version
The HPMV and related notifications from NSDNR provide information about particular proposed harvests on particular sites in the immediate future, but relevant information about longer term plans by the Licensee and about landscape level forests characteristics and DNR planning for such things as landscape connectivity is lacking.
There appear to be few brakes on massive cutting of the still relatively abundant old, multi-aged forest in much of SW Nova Scotia, our “last great wood basket”.
Continue reading
(Augmented Aug 8, 2017)
Digby County forester Harold Alexander has provided a report on his investigatory trip to Finland last fall, conducted with a view to “learn why that country’s forestry well outpaces the performance of ours, yet remains sustainable and preserves healthy forests, all with a fairly similar split between private and public land.”
Continue reading
“The Nova Scotia Woodland Owner of the Year Award (WOYA) recognizes and rewards landowners for outstanding stewardship of their woodlands. It was developed to encourage woodlot owners to practice sustainable woodlot management and to increase public awareness of the importance of private woodlots in Nova Scotia and good woodlot management.”
“The 2017 provincial and central region winners are Peter and Pat Spicer of Spencer’s Island, Cumberland County. The Spicers manage a 1600-acre woodlot that has been in the family for 7 generations. This unique woodlot was the main supplier of high quality ship building wood products to the shipbuilding industry that once existed in Spencer’s Island, and continues to provide both social and economic values for the Spicers and the community. View Video
“I am the 7th generation of the Spicer family that have owned this woodlot…if we harvest in a sustainable manner, we’ll leave a legacy for our future generations” – Peter Spicer
Continue reading
The arrival of these “hemlock vampires” in Nova Scotia is not good news.
Hemlock Woolly Adelgid. “Their name comes from waxy white filaments they make to protect themselves from drying out. In a heavy infestation, hemlock trees can look gray from all the “wool” on twigs and branches. They can’t fly, but are spread by wind and also hitch rides on the feet of birds, which can carry hemlock wooly adelgids for long distances. These “hemlock vampires” were first discovered in 1951 in Virginia, and by 2005 had spread to fifteen other states.
Source: Paul Hetzler, Cornell Cooperative Extension
Photo source: Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, Bugwood.org
When I read this Aug 3, 2017 News Release from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, I felt much like I had received a message telling me that a close friend has a terminal illness: Hemlock Woolly Adelgid confirmed in Nova Scotia
August 3, 2017 – Ottawa, ON – Canadian Food Inspection Agency
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has confirmed the presence of hemlock woolly adelgid, a regulated pest, in three counties in southwestern Nova Scotia. This is the first time the pest has been detected in Atlantic Canada.To date, hemlock woolly adelgid has been found in Digby, Yarmouth and Shelburne counties. The CFIA continues to conduct surveys in the areas where the pest was found to determine its spread. Regulatory measures will be put in place as required once the survey work is completed.
Continue reading
