Commentaries/Op-eds

This page is a subpage of nsforestmatters.ca/
Ecol. Forestry & Conservation


A selection of recent and older items still relevant to the State of our Forests in NS

What happens on the South Mountain…
Nina Newington, July 25, 2024.

Nina Newington on the revised SGEM for Nova Scotia: some big improvements and some trap doors 15Feb2021
Nina Newington, posted on Extinction Rebellion Nova Scotia (Public Facebook Group, feb 15, 2021; reproduced with permission on NS Forest Notes. View as PDF From the intro to it: “Nina’s comments are another example of Nova Scotians taking the time to carefully examine proposed changes  in forest management on our Crown lands in response to the Lahey Report and to offer thoughtful, constructive suggestions on how to improve them.  The words also say, “We Care”, Please Listen to Us”.”

Nina Newington to Law Amendments Committee on Bill 57: The climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis are intertwined 1Nov2021
“In the early afternoon, Nina Newington, speaking on behalf of the Annapolis County chapter of Extinction Rebellion, urged that the Act recognize the necessity to take actions that simultaneously fight the climate and nature crises; the latter, she contends is not adequately addressed in the first reading of the Act. She gave NSFN permission to reproduce her submission here (On NS Forest Notes].”

BDO Zone Initiative issues an “A-rating” for Southwest Nova Scotia as a location to develop “Bioeconomy Projects”4Feb2024
David Patriquin on versicolor.ca/nstriad Feb 4, 2024 “This latest “Bioeconomy” initiative would involve use of 550,000 green metric tons per year of sawmill residuals and by-product wood fibre from the forest sector. In the formal BDO Zone Report, cautions are expressed that are not amongst the highlights cited in PR lit about about the Bioeconomy prospects for SW Nova Scotia and presumably are why a higher rating (AAA or AA versus the A-rating given) was not realizied, e.g. related to nutrient limitations, uncertainty about buy-in of private woodlot owners…”

Logging one-tree-at-a-time in Nova Scotia 18July2019
Post on NS Forest Notes, July 18, 2019. View as PDF“It’s not rocket science, says Ken Gray, interviewed in the field by Phlis McGregor for CBC’s Information Morning – Halifax… It’s “A call to ban clear cuts. Ken Gray is dedicated to selective harvesting [and] says clear cut forests are not growing back fast enough and we’re going to run out of wood in 25 years.”I’ve got grandchildren. I have come from five generations of guides, hunting and guiding in East Camp and we rely on the forest and we always will in one shape or form and if nothing else, then to create the oxygen we breathe and to sequester the carbon that we are polluting the earth with and if we knock it all down, cut it all down, it’s not going to be there.” An “abbreviated transcript” of the words from this man of basic good sense who has “worked in forestry and selection harvesting in SW Nova for the last 35, 40 years” is provided.”

On Reversing Forest Degradation in Nova Scotia
David Patriquin in nsforestnotes.ca, Jun 8, 2022. View as PDF
CONTENTS
1. SUMMARY
2. Deforestation’  versus ‘Forest Degradation’
3. We can no longer ignore effects of  “forest degradation”
4. Current Landscape level goals for Old Forest conservation
5. Forest degradation in Nova Scotia: Highgrading at the Landscape Level
6. How much Old Forest do we need?
7. & What about the wood supply?
8. Conclusion: can Nova Scotia be a model for the practice of Triad Forestry?