UPDATE (Sep 9): The herbicide info meeting didn’t go so well. “A meeting intended to reassure people on the safety of glyphosate use on forests became heated at times, with many residents expressing their concerns.” Read more in the Truro Daily News.
Original Post (Sep 7, 2016): ForestInfo is holding an “interactive session to learn more about the science of forest renewal and herbicide use” in Truro this evening. Continue reading
Not to be outpaced by N.B. (view previous post), now the science of the effects of glyphosate related to spraying forest land has entered the arena in Nova Scotia. “Nova Scotia’s top medical official says herbicide concerns are ill-founded” (CBC Report).
Raymond Plourde pointed out the obvious: “You don’t need to spray if you don’t clear cut….Working with a more natural stand of forest with a constant canopy would solve the problem, he said.” We might say that is an issue of Ecosystem Health; not to mention effects of glyphosate and the inert carriers on health of soil organisms and our gut microbiota. Continue reading
It’s curious (and concerning) that the recently released Progress Report on the 2011-2020 Natural Resources Strategy and the related Press Release dwell on feel-good items such as the Community Forest, establishing a Forest Biodiversity Science Advisory Committee and a new forest operating agreement with Mi’kmaq but fail to mention the first two of five priorities for forests cited under the NSDNR Business plan for 2016-2017:
– Complete projects to assess the current state of Provincial fibre supply/cost and identify/qualify target markets for biorefinery products, in collaboration with provincial, federal and private sector partners.
– In collaboration with other government departments and agencies, engage with targeted companies to attract biorefinery investment to Nova Scotia. Continue reading
Our tall pines were once reserved for the British Navy, but did even they know that “Nova Scotia can lay claim to the oldest known pine tree fossils, which date back to the time of the dinosaurs”?… “After examining the remains of charred twigs found in a gypsum quarry near Windsor, N.S., Howard Falcon-Lang, Viola Mages and Margaret Collinson—researchers in the department of Earth sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London—determined the fossils to be around 140 million years old.” View Canadian Geographic post.
“New Brunswick’s chief medical officer of health was working on a study of the controversial herbicide glyphosate when she was put on leave, CBC News has learned… The International Agency for Research on Cancer, a branch of the World Health Organization, deemed glyphosate “probably carcinogenic to humans” earlier this year. In a letter to Bass River resident Ann Pohl in August, Cleary said she and her staff concurred with the IARC finding and would look into it…” View CBC Report. Also view Glyphosate Battles.
CH award-winning editorial cartoonist Bruce MacInnon depicts the Premier giving Nova Scotia forests a haircut, this following the comments by Donna Crossland reported in the CH earlier in the week. View Cartoon.
It wasn’t the first MacInnon editorial cartoon related to forestry this year: view 2016-05-18 (related to illegal cutting) | 2016-03-02 (related to Petition to close wood fibre power plant
Photo by Tom Bruton
So reads the title of a front page article in the Sept 1 print version of the CH following an interview with Donna Crossland. She was a co-author, with Bob Bancroft, of Restoring the Health of Nova Scotia’s Forests, a Panel of Expertise Report for the 
Natural Resources Strategy 2010 process. The article gives some of the history of that process and the followup. Amongst the consequences of failing to significantly reduce clear cutting are likely declines in species that rely on continuous forest land for survival such as marten and fishers, and more stress on salmon and trout. “If ever there was a time for Nova Scotians to cry out over the destruction of forests and wildlife habitat—it is now” says Crossland. View CH article & UPDATE
Continue reading
Two woodlots in Nova Scotia: are harvests on both “aligned with the nature-based requirements of Nova Scotia’s lands?”
I’m sorry, I wish it were true, but I don’t buy it. Read why
“Northern Pulp applied to government for permits to spray more than 1,300 hectares of woodlands in Colchester and Halifax counties. The aerial and ground herbicidal spray program was tentatively scheduled to begin on Thursday but the Environment Department hasn’t granted approval.” Read full story in LocalXpress; Also Glyphosate Battles (posted Aug 7, 2016); Party Wars and EAC (Aug 26)
