Nova Scotia Forestry Petition 2.0 calls for fundamental changes in forestry management on Crown lands

Posted on February 14, 2017 by admin

Petition targets clearcutting and WestFor license

UPDATE March 3: 1509 have signed on to the petition at change.org
Apparently there have been significant sign-on challenges at the change.org site, so HG informed me that she has also posted the petition at avaaz.org, worded slightly differently to suit the format. So sign on to one or the other if you wish to support the petition. Signing on at avaaz.org site is reportedly more straight-forward.
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helga300

Helga Guderley with anti-forest biomass petition at NS Legislature, Nov 1, 2016.

Just a little under a year ago, St. Margaret’s Bay resident Helga Guderley launched a petition calling on Premier McNeil to stop using forest biomass for electrical power generation. It garnered over 25,000 signatures within 10 days. In the fall, a paper version was tabled in Nova Scotia Legislature.

The success of the petition elicited a Bruce McKinnon cartoon, and likely contributed to or at least speeded up the Nova Scotia Government decision to stop the Must-Run provision for the Pt. Tupper Biomass plant. The petition also mobilized a lot of public discontent around clearcutting in Nova Scotia which led to the formation of the Healthy Forest Coalition.

Yesterday (Feb 13, 2017) Guderley launched version 2.0, calling on the Premier to “Ban clear cutting on Crown land, favour selection management and cancel WestFor’s license”.

View Petition
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Posted in clearcuts, Letters&Editorials, NSDNR, WestFor | Leave a comment

Small private woodlots are big contributors to forest economy in Finland, could be in NS

Posted on February 13, 2017 by admin

finlandgoogleReporter Michael Gorman talked to Harold Alexander about his trip to Finland in the fall to learn how small private woodlots are thriving in Finland. “We have a forest policy right now that I think, for the most part, doesn’t pay enough attention to the small private woodlot sector,” says Alexander. But in Finnland, “small private woodlots account for 60 per cent of forests in Finland, yet they produce 80 per cent of annual harvests, something Alexander attributes to organization. Nova Scotia’s proportion of private ownership is similar, yet it lags far behind in terms of supply.” Read more in CBC news item Looking to the Finland model to find Nova Scotia’s forestry potential (Feb 13, 2017).


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Posted in Economics, Private Woodlots, Social Values | Leave a comment

Editorials and letters about forestry in Nova Scotia, continued..11 & 21 Feb,2017

Posted on February 13, 2017 by admin

Issues with maps, databases and penetrating NSDNR’s “Specialized Skills Firewall”

UPDATE Feb 23, 2017: View Op-ed by Bob Bancroft Public forests should not be private resource (CH Feb 21, 2017), in which he responds to Marcus Zwicker’s Op-ed, cited below.

Choices: two woodlots, two approaches to forest management in Nova Scotia. Which one would our grandchildren’s grandchildren want us to choose?

In Saturday’s CH, a retired NSDNR extension forester and a private industry forester continue the debate in the Letters and Op-ed columns about NSDNR’s forestry management. Both reference the Op-ed by Donna Crossland in the CH, Jan 14, 2017: Satellites reveal forest loss is more serious in N.S. than the government would have you believe.

Continue reading →

Posted in Acadian Forest, clearcuts, Letters&Editorials, NSDNR, Show Us the Science, WestFor | Leave a comment

Feds’ Satellite Forest Monitoring Map illustrates intensity of forest harvesting in Nova Scotia

Posted on February 11, 2017 by admin

Nova Scotian forests appear to be the most intensively harvested in Canada, recently and historically – on the poorest soils

Opening page for interactive map at forests.foundryspatial.com/

The Canadian Forest Service of Natural Resources Canada, in partnership with University of British Columbia, and support from the Canadian Space Agency has developed an interactive Satellite Forest Monitoring Map showing changes in forest cover associated with fire, infrastructure, harvest and in an “Untyped” category for all of Canada over the interval 1985 to 2011.
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Posted in clearcuts, Show Us the Science | Leave a comment

Subsidizing industrial forestry in Nova Scotia, continued?

Posted on February 8, 2017 by admin

Two approaches to forestry in Nova Scotia: which one would our grandchildren’s grandchildren want us to pursue?

Word on the Street has it that the Liberal government is about to announce big forestry changes and that the troops are being asked to prepare for public backlash.

I would like to think the changes finally put an end to concessions, handouts and “investments” to keep the fibre industry alive in Nova Scotia and that the government will NOT be signing over its responsibility to manage the Western Crown Lands to the Westfor Consortium.

However, climate change, loss of biodiversity, changing public values, NSDNR’s own soils research and EGSPA notwithstanding, I would be surprised if the current government – unfortunately any NS government as so sadly illustrated by Dexter & Co and all earlier governments back to The Big Lease – didn’t drive us further down the Industrial Forestry abyss.

I hope I am wrong.


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Posted in Acadian Forest, clearcuts, Economics, NSDNR, Pulp & Paper, Show Us the Science, WestFor | Leave a comment

Hefler sale complicated, biomass power plant separated out

Posted on February 4, 2017 by admin

Is, or could the biomass plant become, a net emitter of GHGs compared to coal?

heffler300 Details of the sale of Helfler Forest Products operation in Lower Sackville NS are just emerging. The profitable biomass power plant will apparently be run as a separate business in the future, which is new to Kevin Bromley, a PricewaterhouseCoopers partner who is quoted by the CH Feb 2, 2017: “I’ve never seen (a biomass power plant) run independently. Every one I know has been tied to a forestry company. This is the first time I’ve seen a purchase by a non-industry buyer.”

It’s clear according to the article that a priority will be for the biomass power plant to continue “sell electricity to Nova Scotia Power under an ongoing 20-year deal”, while it’s not so clear what will happen to the sawmill operation. “Operating the sawmill, though, is something the new owners are strongly suggesting they want to farm out to someone else.” Continue reading →

Posted in Biomass, clearcuts, Climate Change, Economics | Leave a comment

A sweet spot in Nova Scotia’s hardwoods

Posted on February 4, 2017 by admin

Sugar maples on the woodlot of the late Wilf Creighton

An article in the business section of the CH for Feb 2, 2017 provides some upbeat news about NS forests and forest industry for a change. Chris and Anna Hutchinson “wanted to return to Nova Scotia from Ontario and maple production provided a way in.” Says Anna: “We started out with 60 acres, and we found we loved it — working spring and winter, seeing the sap come out of the trees, cooking it. It’s an exciting thing to see happen every single year.”

The Hutchinsons have now taken their challenge – “what to do with delicious, organic Nova Scotia maple syrup flowing from 60,000 taps spread over 1,500 acres in Lake Paul — some they own, some they lease from the Crown” – to The Dragons’ Den; they will be featured on Feb. 15. Read CH article.
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Posted in Economics, Ecosystem Services, Private Woodlots | Leave a comment

Neighbours get no notice about clearcut on Crown land

Posted on February 3, 2017 by admin

Not good for the neighbourhood

A CBC report on Information Morning this a.m. records the stress caused to a rural resident when she was asked to move her vehicle so the clearcutters could access neighbouring land. It was only then that she she learned about it. It didn’t help that the license plates were from Quebec and New Brunswick.

Another resident was “frustrated by the cut and the amount of clear cutting in general. If they were going to use it for farmland clearing that would be fine, but it just sits there for years and slowly grows up in weeds….[they] don’t seem to be leaving anything for future growth”. View CBC report Continue reading →

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Highway tolls could destroy western Nova Scotia’s sawmill industry

Posted on February 1, 2017 by admin

…says Barrett Lumber Company’s David Barrett, reported in the CH Jan 31, 2017. He ” penned an open letter to provincial and federal politicians, warning that highway tolls would cause the “complete destruction,” of western Nova Scotia’s sawmill industry.” Read more in CH article



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Posted in Economics, Lumber | Leave a comment

Crown lands recently purchased by Nova Scotians now managed by private interests

Posted on February 1, 2017 by admin

Western Crown lands, modified from CPAWS map (2012)

Western Crown lands, modified from CPAWS map (2012)

A blog post on the Healthy Forest Coalition website Jan 31, 2017 notes that “Behind closed doors, Nova Scotia’s Department of Natural Resources has quietly transferred the management of 1.4 million acres of Crown lands to WestFor, a consortium of 13 privately owned mills. Some of these mills are local companies with a long history in their communities (Turner, Ledwidge, Freeman), others are decidedly international (Northern Pulp, Louisiana Pacific). All answer to their owners or stockholders, not to the public…”

“Should private industry be the steward of public lands?” asks the writer.
Continue reading →

Posted in Acadian Forest, clearcuts, NSDNR, WestFor | Leave a comment