From Bev Wigney To Forestry Maps, May 4, 2021:
Why are these parcels (#AP068726 and #AP0998) up for approval again?
These parcels were removed in 2014 after the community of Annapolis Royal spent several months having them removed – although apparently someone did go in and chop down a shelterwood cut on the south parcel after people were told it wouldn’t be harvested.
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From the posting on https://jobs.novascotia.ca/
Competition # : 30112
Department: Energy and Mines
Location: HALIFAX
Type of Employment: Term
Union Status: Exclusion – Non Union – NSPGClosing Date: 5/12/2021
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Said Rankin “Nova Scotia has protected more provincial Crown land than other jurisdictions in Canada”. According to federal 2020 stats, we trail Alberta, British Columbia, NWT and Quebec.
Screen capture from the News Release
According to Premier Rankin,
Nova Scotia has protected more provincial Crown land than other jurisdictions in Canada
– NS Government News Release announcing the government’s intention to “designate 61 more wilderness areas, nature reserves and provincial parks”, Apr 22, 2021.
Here is a screen capture of latest numbers from the Canadian Protected and Conserved Areas Database:
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For a while, this scene has been in my mind, but especially today.
| I like to spend some time at this site at Nova Scotia’s Five Islands Provincial Park at least once a year. It is surely one of the most spectacular sites in Nova Scotia. It is also humbling.
The exposure records the Triassic/Jurassic boundary (whitish layer) of 201 million years ago. It coincides with the 4th Mass Extinction Event of 5 major extinction events that occurred after the the Cambrian Radiation. The Triassic/Jurassic extinctions were associated with environmental impacts of a massive lava flow, recorded in the dark basalts above the whitish layer. Continue reading |
The report was scheduled initially for spring of 2020; one might say ‘Better Late than Never’, but in this case that will depend very much on the content of Prof. Lahey’s Progress Report and on whether Forest NS and allies are able to thwart any action on what they don’t like about it.
Report from the Independent Review of Forest Practices in Nova Scotia released (Post, Aug 21, 2018)
Independent Review Press Release
Good overview in Bill Lahey Slide Set from UNB presentation Nov 19, 2018
View L&F: Ecological Forestry Implementation for the related reports and updates.
View:
Progress report on N.S.’s effort to shift to ecological forestry expected in June
Michael Gorman · CBC News, Apr 14, 2021 “Lands and Forestry Minister Chuck Porter said during budget debate on Tuesday at the legislature that University of King’s College president Bill Lahey will provide an update to his department this month and have a finalized review complete for public release about two months later.”
As originally scheduled, there was to be “A one-year assessment of the Province’s progress” in early 2020, and “A longer-term framework to guide the preparation of on-going evaluations to assess progress towards achieving the ecological model of forestry management in Nova Scotia as envisioned in the Review” by the spring of 2020. View Evaluation of the Implementation of the Ecological Forestry Model (document dated 2019-12-12, accessed today on L&F’s Ecological Forestry page). Continue reading
In an effort to answer the question, Bob Guscott went to the one place where he could find the two candidates – Eastern Dwarf Mistletoe and Skunk Cabbage – close together
Eastern Dwarf Mistletoe (left) and Skunk cabbage (right) were both in flower on the Balancing Rock trail on March 30, 2021. Photos by Bob Guscott
Click on image for larger version
Migrant Songs Of Spring
Article by Scott Leslie in the current issue (April/May 2021) of Saltscapes Magazine, available as a sample.
He describes with photos and text the “beautiful vagabonds” singing their songs as they rejoice in another Atlantic Spring, but are in turn challenged by logging operations during breeding season – up to 160,000 nests now being destroyed each season in Nova Scotia.
Thx to Bev Wigney for highlighting this article in a post on Annapolis Royal & Area – Environment & Ecology, shared from a post on facebook by DC Continue reading
Spring and remnants of the Natural World in Nova Scotia beckon; we need to learn from those remnants while they are still with us.
‘I expect NSFN to re-emerge with a different focus.
‘Dunno when.
For the time being, the current content (June 21, 2016 to Mar 25, 2021) will remain posted; it is also archived on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
Mar 29, 2021: I am providing some ‘In the News’ Updates in these two posts:
– David P
Mar. 29, 2021 – Law Amendments Committee Proceedings
Lindsay Lee talks to Law Amendments Committee
NSDNR Minister MacDonell at rally in 2010: “There’s gonna be a reduction in clearcutting in Nova Scotia.” View video
Big Forestry has managed to get a taboo on regulating just about anything on private lands in Nova Scotia and to continue to get what it wants from our Crown (public) lands while degrading their ecological and social value. It illustrates Big Forestry’s remarkable clout, given that Forest Products-related GDP amounted to only 0.9% of Nova Scotia GDP in 2018. The rest of us, and the natural world in Nova Scotia, are paying for it.
Victory #1 A taboo on any regulation of clearcutting on private land
2010: Natural Resources Strategy Recommends 50% reduction in clearcutting on Crown and Private lands; DNR Minister Macdonell promises to follow through.
2011: Big Forestry’s first Big Win of the decade with NDP Premier Dexter’s transfer of Minister MacDonell out of DNR (to Agriculture) in early 2011.
2018: Taboo reasserted by Lahey 2018
(Credit Dexter & McNeil Governments). Continue reading
UPDATES
– Why we need a clearcutting moratorium – a brief history lesson
David Patriquin in the Nova Scotia Advocate, Apr 4, 2021
Forest Nova Scotia & the 6 to 1 Fillmore Slam Dunk (video)
The Naturalist, Apr 2, 2021
– Province House round-up: Rankin defends resource policies
Jennifer Henderson in the Halifax Examiner Mar 31, 2021. Said Rankin in an interview: “The report does not ask for a moratorium on clearcutting, nor does it actually recommend eliminating clearcutting. So I think that for those that are really interested in evolving to ecological forestry, they should read the report and they should go over the different aspects that actually allow us to get to ecological forestry by working together and by sustaining the industry in the long run.”
– Crowds gather across Nova Scotia to protest changes to Biodiversity Act
Michael Gorman · CBC News Mar 30, 2021
– This just in: Jacob arrested late this afternoon following a sit-in at the Department of Lands and Forestry in Halifax.
Larry Powell, post on Annapolis Royal & Area – Environment & Ecology (public Facebook Group) circa 4 pm Mar 30, 2021: “Jacob has been arrested late this afternoon following a sit-in at the Department of Lands and Forestry in Halifax…He ended the hunger strike today but our own Nina Newington and many others from Extinction Rebellion took up Jacob’s cause today by occupying Lands and Forestry offices across the province.”
Halifax, Mar 30, 2021. I was asked to talk; view my speaker notes
