The Rhodora

Posted on May 30, 2017 by admin

On Being Asked, Whence Is the Flower?

In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes,
I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods,
Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook,
To please the desert and the sluggish brook.
The purple petals fallen in the pool
Made the black water with their beauty gay;
Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool,
And court the flower that cheapens his array.
Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why
This charm is wasted on the earth and sky,
Tell them, dear, that, if eyes were made for seeing,
Then beauty is its own excuse for Being;
Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose!
I never thought to ask; I never knew;
But in my simple ignorance suppose
The self-same power that brought me there, brought you.

–The Rhodora by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834
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Posted in Acadian Forest, Biophilia, Conservation, Natural History | Leave a comment

Thursday June 1: Nova Scotia wildlife advocate to talk on forestry 2 days post election

Posted on May 29, 2017 by admin

UPDATE (June 3, 2017) I missed this just pre-election Letters and Editorials item in the CH May 30, 2017: an Op-ed by Dale Smith (“The environment shell game“) in which he expresses skepticism about the environmental commitments made by the three major parties during the election campaign.

About the commitment in the Liberal platform “to appoint an independent expert to review our forestry practices to ensure we strike the right balance” he says:

Is the expectation that the proposed independent expert will rule upon and perhaps set aside the opinion and will of Nova Scotians as conveyed through the most extensive resources consultation and review process ever undertaken in Nova Scotia?

And who might be selected as an independent expert? Should he or she be a highly-credentialled forester? If so, and based on past experience, the effective outcome most likely would be carefully crafted recommendations advanced by a wily fox determined to ensure continued access to the henhouse, all in the name of balance.
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Posted in clearcuts, Conservation, events, Letters&Editorials, Wildlife | Leave a comment

Gully Lake error & correction clarified, but not completely fixed?

Posted on May 29, 2017 by admin

Source Forest Harvest Allocation Maps 24 May 2017;
red arrow inserted to highlight blocks near the Gully Lake Wilderness Area for which clearcuts were proposed initially.
(Click on image to enlarge it.)

Three blocks close to the Gully Lake Wilderness Area were initially identified as proposed clearcuts when they were posted on the Harvest Map Viwer on May 12, 2017. This caught the attention of Chris Miller, a national conservation biologist with Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), as reported by Jonathan Riley in the Truro Daily News for May 23, 2017. The following day, the proposed cuts were the topic of discussion on CBC Mainstreet. CBC host Bob Murphy commented after the interview that at some point during the day, NSDNR had changed the proposed clearcuts on the map to proposed partial cuts, also noted and followed up by the Truro Daily News (May 24, 2017).

On Friday May 26, this explanation was sent out to subscribers to notices from the Harvest Plant Map Viewer: Continue reading →

Posted in Acadian Forest, clearcuts, NSDNR, Parks & Protected Areas, Selection Harvest | Leave a comment

Protected Areas in Nova Scotia help to mitigate climate change, clearcuts do not

Posted on May 26, 2017 by admin

A modelling study shows that Protected Areas increase carbon storage, clearcuts reduce carbon storage

Decisions about cutting or not cutting and about how to cut affect carbon storage on our forested landscape.

A paper by Robert Cameron of NSE and Peter Bush of NSDNR, published last year, suggests 112 million tonnes of carbon is sequestered (stored) in existing Protected Areas and in areas proposed for protection in 2012*; if protected, they would increase their carbon storage over the next 130 years. *In 2012, 514,980 ha were protected (approx. 9% of the land area); it was anticipated that another 253,000 ha would be added bringing the area protected to just over 13% of the landmass; today it stands at 12.4%.

If the existing and proposed protected areas were managed for forestry they would become a carbon source for the next 130 years for both maximum yield and forestry management with environmental considerations scenarios.

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Posted in Acadian Forest, clearcuts, Climate Change, Conservation, Economics, Lumber, Parks & Protected Areas, Show Us the Science, Wood Construction | Leave a comment

Sadness in the voices of Nova Scotians commenting on clearcutting

Posted on May 25, 2017 by admin

“It’s all around us and it breaks my heart…”

CBC Mainstreet NS aired some of many comments received following Bob Murphy’s interviews with Raymond Plourde and Karen Beazley concerning proposed clearcuts close to the Gully Lake Wilderness Area.

I was particularly struck by the profound sense of sadness conveyed in the voices of two people who conveyed their comments in telephone messages.

Below are transcripts from those messages.

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Posted in clearcuts, Letters&Editorials, NSDNR, Parks & Protected Areas, Social Values | Leave a comment

CBC Mainstreet on clearcutting near Gully Lake Wilderness Area

Posted on May 25, 2017 by admin

On CBC Mainstreet yesterday afternoon, CBC host Bob Murphy interviewed Raymond Plourde (Wilderness Coordinator for the Ecology Action Centre) and Karen Beazley (Professor in the School of Resource and Environmental Studies at Dalhousie University) about the effects of clearcutting close to protected areas, citing recent concern about clearcuts close to the Gully Lake Wilderness Area (GLWA).

Following is a rough transcript from the CBC audio file, for the record. Continue reading →

Posted in Acadian Forest, clearcuts, Conservation, NSDNR, Parks & Protected Areas | Leave a comment

Update on the clearcuts close to Gully Lake Wilderness Area: NSDNR changes them to partial cuts

Posted on May 24, 2017 by admin

Gully Lake hardwoods

Barely a day after Jonathan Riley wrote about clearcuts close to Gully Lake Wilderness Area in the Truro Daily News (May 23, 2017), the same news organization & journalist report that DNR backs away from Gully Lake clear cuts.

DNR staff changed the plan for all three blocks, labelled PI173495 A, B and C, May 24 from proposed clear cuts to proposed partial cuts. DNR did admit earlier this month that they were in talks with the Department of Environment about policies regarding forest harvests near protected spaces.

So…will NSDNR also back away from the proposed cuts by Loon lake Nature Reserve, a much smaller area and therefore much more vulnerable to destructive activities on its borders?

Thanks for your vigilance Jonathan Riley.

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More cutting near Nova Scotia Protected Areas…now Loon Lake Nature Reserve

Posted on May 24, 2017 by admin

Forest Harvest Allocation Map accessed May 24, 2017 showing proposed cuts near Loon Lake Nature Reserve.
Click on image for larger version.

Just earlier today I made a post about proposed clearcutting close to Gully lake Wilderness Area which was highlighted in an article in the Truro Daily News yesterday.

Also today I received notice about the next set of proposed harvests and a friend asked if I had looked at it, telling me that a lot of cutting, mostly clearcuts, is proposed near the Loon Lake Nature Reserve in Guysborough Co. So I had a look at it, and indeed it’s “unbelievable but true” (see map).
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Posted in Acadian Forest, clearcuts, Conservation, Loon Lake, NSDNR, Parks & Protected Areas | Leave a comment

No long term leases of Nova Scotia Crown Land for now but current cutting continues even near Protected Areas

Posted on May 24, 2017 by admin

Source Forest Harvest Allocation Maps 24 May 2017;
red arrow inserted to highlight cuts proposed near the Gully Lake Wilderness Area.
(Click on image to enlarge it.)

Although the Liberals committed to “Initiating a “through and independent review of our current forestry practices” and that “until that review is complete, there will be no additional long-term timber harvesting leases issued for Crown Land…”, there has been no interruption of the shorter-term leases already in place.

Posts of proposed cuts continue to be posted on the Forest Harvest Allocation Maps at 2-3 week intervals, the last being on May 11.

A cut proposed near the 3,810 ha Gully Lake Wilderness Area that protects significant upland hardwood forest caught the attention and the ire of Chris Miller, a national conservation biologist with Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), as reported by Jonathan Riley in the Truro Daily News for May 23, 2017):
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NSLFFPA blasts NDP support of 50% clearcutting goal

Posted on May 23, 2017 by admin

The Nova Scotia Landowners and Forest Fibre products Association (NSLFFPA) has placed an ad in the CH under the banner ATTENTION POLITICIANS (see page A5 of the print ed for May 23, 2017).

It begins with “Don’t mess up Nova Scotia’s private woodlots program”, goes through NSLFFPA’s history and adoption of FSC certification (“Eastern woodlot owners now comprise the fastest-growing FSC group certificate in Canada”), and then takes a blast at the “NDP promise to return to imposition of its previously discredited and repudiated notion of a 50% percent clearcut regulation…[which is] arbitrary and meaningless.”

The NSLFFPA clearly believes that its adherence to FSC standards ensures that its members are practicing good forestry. That could well be the case. However the oft-repeated statement that the 50% percent clearcut regulation is “arbitrary and meaningless” is simply not correct.
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Posted in clearcuts, Economics, Forest Certification, NSDNR, Private Woodlots | Leave a comment