Annapolis Co. warden says municipalities should have a say in forestry practices in Nova Scotia

Posted on June 23, 2017 by admin

Why not? Ontario passed legislation enabling municipalities to pass Tree Bylaws in 1946!

A lot of Annapolis Co. looked like this in late May, 2017 and there’s more on the way.

In early March, Annapolis County council sent a letter to Premier McNeil (also the MLA for the area) requesting that the county be excluded from the impending WestFor agreement for one year so that council and staff could review the agreement and make recommendations.

That was very likely a factor in the Liberal Government’s pre-election announcement that they would “appoint an independent expert to review our forestry practices to ensure we strike the right balance for our forests. This review will get underway as soon as possible, starting first in the western region.” (In the Budget Address, Apr 27, 2017)

I have seen no word in the public media about any response to this letter, but a CBC post By Emma Smith today (Apr 23, 2017) provided some details:
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Posted in Acadian Forest, clearcuts, Conservation, Economics, Private Woodlots, Recreation, Selection Harvest, Show Us the Science, Social Values, WestFor | Leave a comment

Summer Solstice reflections

Posted on June 23, 2017 by admin

I try to spend June 21, the summer solstice, “in the outdoors” somewhere as a celebration of life on Planet Earth and managed to do so this year, albeit part of it traversing a 4-year old clearcut with a friend. Then we reached some of the remnant forest on a steep slope bordering a stream which disappeared belowground and reappeared at intervals, sometimes expanding into a small wetland. It was a mixed Acadian forest, with yellow birch, red maple, hemlock and red spruce up to 2+ ft dbh (diameter at breast height).

The air was cool, and the ambiance tranquil, in marked contrast to the clearcut we had just stepped out of. I was most struck by the intimate proximity of a large diameter yellow birch and a smaller hemlock which are often occur close together, but this was exceptional. An Acadian Forest Love Affair, I thought.
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Posted in Biophilia, clearcuts, Indigenous Peoples, Mi'kmaq | Leave a comment

Wentworth Valley on the front lines of tourism versus clearcutting in Nova Scotia

Posted on June 23, 2017 by admin

As I set out in the a.m. on the Summer Solstice, I caught the last bit of a CBC Information Morning piece on the Wentworth Valley clearcut. I had missed earlier reports about it, the first, apparently, by Carol Hyslop: Sensory Assault on the Wentworth Valley, Six Rivers, May 31, 2017.

Wentworth has always been known for its beautiful valley. I remember when it was truly beautiful…so beautiful it twisted your heart…Life for those who care for the valley has been a continuous matter of fighting for the things which should be their right…Yesterday, on my way home from points north in Wentworth I suddenly noticed an odd change in the outline of our mountains. Someone was cutting a huge number of trees at the top of Higgins Mountain!

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Posted in clearcuts, Economics, Social Values | Leave a comment

Nova Scotia State of the Forest 2016 Report released

Posted on June 20, 2017 by admin

Back on April 14, 2017 I commented that it was “Time for the overdue State of the Forest Report with the complete numbers! The last State of the Forest Report was in 2008; the next one was scheduled for Feb. 2013 but has not yet appeared.”

Sometime between then and now, the report, dated April 2016 and labelled State of the Forest 2016, has appeared on the NSDNR website under Forestry/News and Current Information. (It seems there is no associated Press Release, so I can’t determine exactly when it was posted.) View Report

The executive summary highlights the following: Continue reading →

Posted in Climate Change, Economics, NSDNR, Parks & Protected Areas | Leave a comment

Clearcut Nova Scotia, continued..12June 2017

Posted on June 17, 2017 by admin

Recently announced cuts include 343 ha of clearcuts next to two Protected Areas in Cape Breton

Clearcuts near Protected Areas in Cape Breton (from the Harvest Plan Map Viewer).

The latest announcement of Crown land harvests (Harvest Plan Map Viewer June 12, 2017): 2,320 hectares (188 parcels, 73% clearcuts, 27% partial cuts; comments close on July 2, 2018).

These include 343 ha of new clearcuts next to two Protected Areas in Cape Breton – the Margaree River Watershed Protected Area and the Ruiss Noir Protected Area.

Perhaps the thinking is that if they cut close to Protected Areas, the Clearcut Refugees have a place nearby to go.

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Producer of “re-invented maple syrup” gets Nova Scotia Exporter of the Year Award

Posted on June 15, 2017 by admin

Premier McNeil gave the Nova Scotia Exporter of the Year Award to Hutchinson’s Maple Products in a ceremony at Pier 21 yesterday.

It could hardly be a more Nova Scotian story. Chris & Anna Hutchinson grew up on farms in The Valley, went into long haul trucking for 20 years in central Canada, and then returned to their roots.
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Posted in Acadian Forest, Economics | Leave a comment

Margaret Miller new Minister of Nova Scotia Dept. of Natural Resources

Posted on June 15, 2017 by admin

Margaret MillerWell, I guess I won my bet (although no one took me up on it) that Lloyd Hines would not be reappointed Minister of Natural Resources in Stephen McNeil’s freshly re-elected government.

The Premier announced the new cabinet today and the DNR post goes to Margaret Miller who served as Minister of Environment in the last 16 months of the first McNeil government (Oct 8, 2013 to May 30, 2017).
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Environmentalists see Liberals’ promised Biodiversity Act for Nova Scotia as a venue to moderate clearcutting

Posted on June 9, 2017 by admin

Could a Biodiversity Act help to rein in clearcutting in Nova Scotia?

Freelance journalist Chris Benjamin has written extensively on environmental issues in Nova Scotia. In The Coast for June 8, he looks at the prospect that the new Liberal government will follow though on “decisive new actions” on environmental policy promised during the campaign, citing discussions with Brendan Haley (a Dalhousie University clean-energy economics researcher) and Mark Butler (a director of the Ecology Action Centre), and writings of Meinhard Doelle, a Dalhousie law professor specializing in climate change.

On emissions: the Nova Scotia carbon price is too low and emissions cap too high; Doelle and Haley suggest that N.S. should let the federal government put their tax in place and absorb the accompanying administrative cost until a proper system can be designed. Continue reading →

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

Clearcut on Nova Scotia’s eastern shore: “A relic from an uninformed time”

Posted on June 7, 2017 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”)

In the print edition of the South Shore Breaker, also available via the CH online, Zak Metcalfe writes about “a piece of public land a short distance outside Sheet Harbour, leased by our Department of Natural Resources to Northern Pulp”:

I had to remind myself that I wasn’t trespassing, that in fact this was my land, and yours, which these harvesters are only now borrowing. With that context I can be forgiven for my turmoil, developing, as it did, the deeper into this devastation I dared trek.
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Who is appointed Minister of Natural Resources will provide the first sign of what’s up post election for forestry and forests in Nova Scotia

Posted on June 5, 2017 by admin

The Liberals mustered a narrow majority in the May 30, 2017 election, so they will again be in the driver’s seat.

My immediate question: who will be the Minister of Natural Resources? The answer will provide the first sign of where forests and forestry could be headed in Nova Scotia and whether the Liberals’ commitment to an independent review is genuine. If Lloyd Hines, the Minister of Natural Resources for most of the Liberals’ first term, is reappointed, it will be difficult to take that commitment seriously. Here’s why.

The future of forestry in Nova Scotia?

Hines narrowly regained his seat in Guysborough Co but wasted no time in expressing his view of what’s up in Natural Resources: “I think we are poised to do exactly what we’re saying and to unleash the province’s natural value and unlock that value for Nova Scotians.” Hines did not mention the Liberals’ commitment to hold off critical decisions until an independent review of forestry is conducted and why such a review was considered necessary.
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Posted in Acadian Forest, clearcuts, Economics, Mi'kmaq, NSDNR, Selection Harvest, Social Values, WestFor | Leave a comment