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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Neal Livingston: We need good public policy to drive the transition to better forestry in Nova Scotia

Posted on May 22, 2017 by admin

Specifics are given in an 8-stage plan to transition from clearcutting to a selection cutting forest economy

How can we make the transition from clearcutting to selection management in Nova Scotia? The same way we transitioned to recycling, with defined stages and absolute deadlines, says Neal Livingston.

Margaree Environmental Association activist, woodlot owner, power producer and filmmaker Neal Livingston, interviewed about forestry on the Sheldon Macleod show the day after the Leader’s Debate, said that he has been looking at what’s happening in other jurisdictions, Ontario and Quebec in particular. There, large scale clearcutting is largely restricted to the boreal forest in the north and there is much more selection management in the mixed forests and hardwoods in the south.
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Clearcutting comes up in Nova Scotia Leaders’ Debate

Posted on May 19, 2017 by admin

It’s a sign of the times, I guess, that questions related to environment were not posed by the CBC hosts during the first 70 minutes of the 90 minute Leaders Debate yesterday evening.

They did come up in questions from viewers in the last 20 minutes, initiated by a question about the leaders’ positions on environment. Gary Burrill said the NDP would bring in an Environmental Bill of Rights; Jamie Baillie said the PCs would strengthen EGSPA, and Stephen McNeil said the Liberals are proud of their record on environment, citing the introduction of a cap and trade system that won’t impact Nova Scotian’s wallets as amongst the accomplishments. (I can’t see how how a cap and trade could work except by impacting wallets.)
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Posted in clearcuts, Conservation, Economics, Private Woodlots, Pulp & Paper | Leave a comment

Nova Scotia election: only the Greens are unequivocal about clearcutting

Posted on May 17, 2017 by admin

Aerial imagery of “sustainable harvests” on crown land after 10+ years. To date, Conservative, Liberal and NDP governments have all had a hand in maintaining excessive clearcutting on the Nova Scotia landscape.

Candidates representing the environmental platforms for the Liberals, Conservatives, NDP and the Greens made short presentations and participated in Q&A in an Environmental Issues Election Debate yesterday. The event, held at Kings College in Halifax, was sponsored by the Ecology Action Centre and the Sierra Club, Atlantic chapter.

Question: Will you implement the commitments in the Natural Resources Strategy including the reduction of clearcutting to no more than 50% of all clearcutting and the reform of forestry practices?

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Editorials and letters about forestry in Nova Scotia, continued..in AFR for May017

Posted on May 12, 2017 by admin

Two letters in the May 2017 issue of Atlantic Forestry Review reflect on N.S. Crown land management issues.

Tom Miller of Green Hill, N.S. focusses on the need for better management of Crown land hardwoods, not that softwoods don’t also need it, he says, but because he is tired of fighting that [softwood] battle. “Let’s start the conversation about how to revive the rural areas and do a better job of managing our hardwood resources.

“Firstly, take all crown land hardwood out of the softwood users’ control. They don’t use it, and have a low regard and understanding of it. All the hardwood. Red maple and white birch can make high value products; they just need an “understanding champion” on their side….Set up a separate department in DNR to look after this segment and promote this value-added industry. Find new management people, because the present ones are softwood people with the short rotation view. This will be a truly long-term vision, with a 100-300 year time frame…Don’t think in terms of a large mill with two or three shifts per day. We need small- to medium-sized operations of 10-30 people spread around the province in small town areas.”
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Posted in clearcuts, Economics, Letters&Editorials, NSDNR, Selection Harvest, Social Values, Wood Construction | Leave a comment

Nova Scotia forestry science simply wrong

Posted on May 10, 2017 by admin

Donna Crossland talks about the soil profile and what it tells about past forests at the MTRI Old Forest Conference in 2016

Speaking at the Tupperville, Annapolis Co. Community Hall on May 9, 2017, forest ecologist Donna Crossland reiterated her oft repeated criticism of NSDNR’s claims that its harvesting methods mimic natural disturbances. It simply isn’t true, she says, as reported in the Digby Courier.

Crossland, co-author of Restoring the Health of Nova Scotia’s Forests (2010), emphasized that while she works for Kejimkujik Park, “she was not representing Parks Canada.”
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Forestry becoming an election issue in Nova Scotia

Posted on May 10, 2017 by admin

The N.S. Liberals made some key environmental commitments on May 8 including

  • Maintaining the moratorium on fracking (the Liberal government introduced a moratorium on fracking in 2014);.
  • Introducing a new Coastal Protection Act;
  • Introducing a new Biodiversity Act and launching a Biodiversity Council;
  • Initiating a “thorough and independent review of our current forestry practices. Until that review is complete, there will be no additional long-term timber harvesting leases issued for Crown Land…That review will begin immediately, with an independent expert beginning in the western region.

View Press Release

From what I have heard from environmental and sustainable forestry folks so far, the first item is widely applauded, the second and third are welcomed but people want to see details, while there are mainly questions and skepticism about the commitment to an independent review of forestry. Continue reading →

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

Are biofuels from Nova Scotia forests good for the environment? Show us the science!

Posted on May 4, 2017 by admin

Above: Brazil decimated its Atlantic rainforest to grow sugarcane for ethanol. Below: An old yellow birch left standing in a clearcut in N.S. Will biofuels replace pulp and paper as the final agent of destruction of our native Acadian forest?

A recent opinion piece in the LocalXpress by Rod Badcock of BioApplied Innovation Pathways extols the potential benefits of a high-tech “bioeconomy” for Nova Scotia.

He cites Cellufuel in Brooklyn N.S, as “forging a new innovative path, developing a renewable diesel that can be made from wood chips (a byproduct from sawmills)” and notes that “The province has been supportive of this innovation”. Reducing carbon-emissions associated with petroleum fuels is cited as a major benefit.

Use of genuine by-products from sawmills to produce biofuels could reduce carbon emissions compared to use of petroleum products. However, that’s a slippery slope as we have seen in the case of our larger biomass energy plants which take in primary forest biomass when there are not enough wastes, or just because it’s cheaper.
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Posted in Acadian Forest, Biomass, clearcuts, Climate Change, Economics, Show Us the Science | Leave a comment

Re-commit to the Natural Resources Strategy & regulate clearcutting says EAC

Posted on May 3, 2017 by admin

regulate clearcuttingRegulation of clearcutting is one of four Green Priorities the Ecology Action Centre has identified for the next Nova Scotia Government to implement (Nova Scotia will elect a new government on May 30, 2017):

Nova Scotia needs to regulate clearcutting and other destructive forestry practices as per the commitments in the Natural Resources Strategy. Continue reading →

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PHP: eyeing diversification as challenges mount

Posted on May 2, 2017 by admin

“Bottled water didn’t work. Maybe sea bass will. With the price of its glossy printing paper falling and an ongoing battle against American countervailing duties, the Port Hawkesbury mill continues to try to diversify…” view CH (May 1, 2017)


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