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Will Martin explains Woodscamp at Open Forest Day (June 25, 2016)
Co-owner Allistair Jarvis comments: “One of the things that characterizes those exchanges [between a private woodlot owner and a mill seeking wood] is the asymmetrical information. Mill owners understand the value of timber and they know what the market demands. Land owners don’t have that information, especially if they’re not working the land on a consistent basis.” Continue reading
It’s certainly the first time I have welcomed a really wet Thanksgiving Monday, but welcome it is. Patrick Duplessis, a PhD in Physics & Atmospheric Science at Dalhousie University tweets about weather and early today it reads “Big numbers for total #rainfall across #NovaScotia & there’s much more to come for the Ern parts. 77mm in #Halifax YAW. #NSstorm #CapeBreton“. Continue reading
Fall in Long lake Provincial Park
I think it’s no coincidence that just under a year ago Martin Willison, a Halifax based naturalist, publicized an illegal cut in Long Lake Provincial Park. It generated widespread condemnation. In March of 2016 charges were laid against three firms.
It’s a fair bet that a selective cut in the same area would not have generated the same reaction from the public.
This piece caught my eye recently: Gigantic wooden megaphones amplify the sounds of the forest in Estonia 
. It begins: “If you’ve ever enjoyed a walk in the woods, you’ve probably noticed the simultaneous “peace and quiet” and subtle busy-ness of Mother Nature. Students in Estonia certainly did – and for an extra dose of awesome, they decided to amplify these natural sounds with three huge wooden megaphones in a lush wooded area. Photographer Tõnu Tunnel captures the graceful giants.in all their glory”.
I could very much appreciate what the artist wanted to convey. One of the reasons I like to hike alone is to be absorbed in the sounds of nature, and especially those of our forests. I call it the sound of silence, referring of course to human activity (and incidentally to Simon and Garfunkel).
Continue reading
Hemlock was a common Witness Tree in historical documents for the Kouchibouguac area, but is not common on that landscape today
I attended an earlier version of this presentation at the Nature Nova Scotia 2016 Conference & AGM held at Acadia University in late May. Donna put together a fascinating perspective that covered time spans over the full history of the earth (4.65 bya), the last 350 years, the last 60 years, and then looked into the future. She talked about her research in the area of Kouchibouguac Park in New Brunswick in which she used Witness Trees in land ownership documents to indicate the composition of forests in the early days of European settlement. She compared that state to the composition today and explored the factors that have led to the very different forests we see today in NB and NS, and the ongoing challenges.
Continue reading
Western Crown lands, modified from CPAWS map (2012)
From the Kings Co. Advertiser/Register:
“Larry and Greta Goodwin will be officially recognized as Woodland Owner of the Year for the Western Region of Nova Scotia during a public field day on their Hillgrove property this Saturday, Oct. 1.
“The Goodwins manage 93 hectares with a variety of species, some old growth forest, and some new growth stocks. They run a small maple syrup operation on their land and are building and maintaining a growing network of public hiking trails.”
They have also been recognized for their trail work – see Digby Courier.
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Hemlock forest in SW Nova Scotia. NTFPs can be more valuable than the wood.
“Non-timber forest products (NTFP) are the goods and services provided by the forests other than conventional wood products (timber and pulp). They include medicinal plants, resins, saps, essential oils, fruits, nuts, vegetables, fish and game, greenery, and a range of ecological goods and services such as clean water, wildlife habitat, and aesthetics.”
Sponsors are UNB, BioNB, Wood Science and Technology Centre at UNB, ACOA, Province of New Brunswick. Continue reading
What’s it worth?
According to a NSDNR press release of Sep 21 forestry employed 11,500 Nova Scotians in direct or indirect jobs in 2015 and added $800 million to the province’s gross domestic product. (The GDP for Nova Scotia in 2014 was $39 billion.) A Royal Bank Report indicates there have been declines exports of paper and wood products from Nova Scotia in 2016.
It would be nice to see a more complete economic picture, Continue reading
Bur Oak grown horticulturally at Grand Oaks on Grand Lake, Halifax Co., Nova Scotia. It occurs naturally in N.B. and elsewhere on the eastern seaboard, why not in N.S?
There are a dozen species of oak in Massachussetts, while there is only one species (red oak) native to NS. Should we be introducing species from New England to our forests to better adapt to climatic warming?
Nova Scotia is in the same boat, as Prof. Bourque and colleagues reported in a 2010 document prepared for NSDNR on Modelled Potential Species Distribution for Current and Projected Future Climates for the Acadian Forest Region of Nova Scotia, Canada:
“…Results for current and future climates indicate that boreal species in the Acadian forest of NS (e.g., balsam fir, black spruce) would be restricted to the cooler areas of the landscape, i.e., adjacent to cold water bodies (e.g., Bay of Fundy in the northwest and Atlantic Ocean on the south-to-northeast of the province) and high elevation areas, such as the Cape Breton Highlands and Cobequid Hills. Under similar climatic conditions, temperate hardwood species (e.g., red oak, beech) are projected to benefit Continue reading
