In the News

View also the subpages

Items “In the News” that have come to our attention for publication,
dates June 1, 2024 and onward. Most recent at the top.
Tip of the Hat to Tree Frog Forestry News for alerting us to many of these items.

Oct 2, 2023:
– Kings, N.S., site spared, others sprayed before 2024 aerial glyphosate season ends
Kirk Starratt on Saltwire. Subscription may be required
– Frontline Machinery expands CBI distribution to Eastern Canada
By CFI Staff “Frontline Machinery has extended its distribution network to Eastern Canada, now offering CBI grinders and chippers across Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. The move provides access to industrial material processing equipment known for handling wood, green waste, and construction debris…The expansion taps into Eastern Canada’s growing biomass sector… ”

Oct 1, 2024:
– Lichen Camp at Goldsmith Lake, Nova Scotia, Celebrates and Packs Up 1Oct2024
Post on this website. By Nina Newington & Lisa Proulx

Sep 30, 2024:
Letter: Geographers needed to explain impact of N.L. land loss to mines, wind-to-hydrogen projects
Letter by Allan Hann, NL, in Saltwire (Subscription may be required). “Dear geographers, it seems the island of Newfoundland teeters at the edge of the most extreme cumulative environmental disaster in its history (at least above water). Massive areas of wild places will be cleared, and endless new roads will be cut into our forests to accommodate clearcutting operations, mines and wind-to-hydrogen projects. The colourful maps provided for these projects are vague and difficult to interpret… Dear geographers, please let us know how much living space we’re going to lose in the coming decade. For example, how many miles of hard compacted roads will be built to accommodate clearcuts and energy projects? I mean, if you added all the new roads together, how big of an area will be lost? Something the size of the mall, 10 malls, or more? How much land will be covered in concrete? Please help us visualize and understand these impacts. Will caribou and other species have a quiet place to give birth? What do these projects and roads mean for the climate? Will wind-to-hydrogen lower our light bills? What’s the overall carbon footprint? How will increased vehicle access to wild places, paired with biodiversity loss, affect our communities and culture?…”

Sep 27, 2024:
– Sugar Maple Stands & Ecological Forestry (Audio)
Blomidon Naturalists In Conversation series. “In this episode, we chat with local sugarbush farmer Chris Hutchinson, whose ecological forestry practices help keep over 700 acres of forest healthy. Then we chat with Alan Warner about the proposed Chain Lakes Wilderness area and how those same ecological forestry practices can help safe guard our forest for the future.”
– JOHN DeMONT: How a long-haired wave of dropouts changed Nova Scotia
In Saltwire. Subscription likely required. References a new book by Christopher Murphy, Far Out! The Untold Story of the ‘60s-Inspired “Back-to-the-Land” Migration that Changed Nova Scotia. View publisher’s post about the book. From deMont: The unlikely spontaneous influx of idealistic, long-haired dropouts who felt that Nova Scotia was the answer to their dreams of living sustainable, alternative lives lasted for just a decade… You will meet 50 of them in Murphy’s book Far Out…Learning about Nova Scotia via what Murphy calls “the hippie grapevine” — word of mouth — they arrived in Antigonish County, the Annapolis Valley, the Eastern Shore, the far reaches of Cape Breton and every rural corner of the province. Some just seemed to find their way here by chance like Dirk van Loon, the New York City-born newspaperman Murphy interviewed. He was on the way to Maine when he saw a Nova Scotia licence plate. On a whim, he followed the car right to the border, where a Canadian guard was handing out citizenship papers…”
– Wildfire risk from Fiona debris has lessened in P.E.I.’s forests, says official
CBC News ·”Over 1,200 hectares have been salvaged to date, says P.E.I.’s forestry director”

Sep 26, 2024:
With old-growth forests still standing, citizen scientists set to celebrate closure of Annapolis County ‘Lichen Camp’
Yvette d’Entremont in Halifax Examiner. Subscription requried. Intro in Morning File “As Joan Baxter reported last month, a group of citizen scientists and supporters have been camping since March at a site they call the “Lichen Camp.” Located near Goldsmith Lake about 20 km south of Bridgetown, the forested Crown land was slated for harvesting by WestFor, a consortium of 11 large mills, including Northern Pulp…In a media release Wednesday, Citizen Scientists of Southwest Nova Scotia said it’s closing the camp, and members and supporters plan to celebrate this weekend. “The forests are still standing around the camp, and they have put Goldsmith Lake on the map, literally,” the release said. “Their new map of the 3900 hectare proposed Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area shows not only the 77 species at risk occurrences they have identified, but also 20 stands of old-growth forest.”

Sep 25, 2024
Brian and Steven Eadie of Antigonish County named 2024 Eastern Region Winners of the Woodlot Owner of the Year Award
on www.989xfm.ca; inlcudes an audio file. “The eastern region winners of the 2024 Woodlot Owner of the Year Award are brothers Brian and Steven Eadie, owners of the Greenwood Poultry Farm Limited, in Antigonish County. Greenwood Poultry Farm includes 500 acres of farmland and woodland, with the woodlot staying with the Eadie family for several generations.A release from the province states the woodlot has a well-developed access road system and biodiversity is abundant in the mature hardwood forest. It is managed with a selection thinning approach, done by K.A.T. Forestry & Pallets, to use natural regeneration of tolerant hardwood species.” Also view Meet the 2024 Winners: Woodland Owner of the Year (DNRR webpage). Other winners for 2024: “The western region and provincial winners of 2024 Woodland Owner of the Year Award are Judy and Thomas Mailman of Bridgewater, Lunenburg County. The central region winners of the 2024 Woodlot Owner of the Year Award are Julia and David MacMillan of Tatamagouche, Colchester County.”

Sep 23, 2024:
Nova Scotia seeking Manager, Sustainable Wilflife Use
On Indeed.com “Manager, Sustainable Wildlife Use. “Province of Nova Scotia, Kentville, NS $6,094.44–$8,379.90 a month – Permanent, Closing Date: 07-Oct-24 “…As a vital part of the Wildlife Division, the Sustainable Wildlife Use program is responsible for conserving the diversity of wildlife species and the integrity of habitats upon which wildlife depend. Ensuring that planning, decision making and management action involving wildlife species and habitats are based on the best scientific and traditional knowledge available. Reporting to the Director of Wildlife, the Manager leads the development, implementation and evaluation of programs, legislation, policy, research and management strategies and plans that promote and enable the conservation and sustainable use of Nova Scotia’s harvestable large mammals, furbearers and upland game species, and that manages conflict between humans and wild species….” Comment: Advertisements for replacements, new positions are pretty well all the public ever learns about staffing in NRR. There are no annual reports to the public of what different people do, of the projects and their progress and there are no general directories of Staff personnel on the government website (novascotia,ca), Communications between the public and staff personnel,  except at some of the regional offices, are handled by “Communications Nova Scotia”.  It is difficult,  for example, for a scientist outside of NRR to communicate freely with scientists within NRR without the intervention of Communications Nova Scotia  The forest industry has their own channels, but those are not shared with the public.

Sep 21, 2023:
– Anglers’ group test New Brunswick rivers for glyphosate 21Sep2024
Post on this website inlcudes reproduction of a post by the Hammond River Angling Association on their Facebook page
– MLAs call for “interprovincial inquiry” to “address surge of atypical neurogenerative illness.”
Linda Pannozzo in the Qualing Swamp Journal/ “Early last week, two MLAs issued a joint press release calling for federal and provincial “cooperation” to address a “surge of atypical neurodegenerative illness.” Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin, MLA for Cumberland North in Nova Scotia, and Megan Mitton, MLA for Memramcook-Tantramar, in New Brunswick, say there are patients on “both sides” of the border and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) should step in and lead an interprovincial inquiry.”

Sep 20, 2024:
– Province House: Chignecto dispute continues, pharmacies expand care
Jannifer Henderson in the Halifax Examiner, subscription required. Intro in Halifax Examiner Morning File “Premier Tim Houston is keeping quiet about whether the province will accept an offer of $325 million from the federal government to pay half the estimated cost of shoring up the Isthmus of Chignecto at the Nova Scotia-New Brunswick border,” reports Jennifer Henderson: A letter from federal cabinet ministers Dominic LeBlanc and Sean Fraser was sent to both Houston and New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs last week. Higgs accepted the money and as of yesterday, is campaigning in a provincial election. It’s a different story in Nova Scotia where Houston publicly lambasted the federal government for suggesting Nova Scotians should be willing to accept payment for half the cost when Ottawa should pay the full shot. The narrow, 24-kilometer stretch of highway that connects Nova Scotia with New Brunswick and the rest of Canada is at risk of being flooded out by rising sea level due to climate change. One Category 3 hurricane coming up the Bay of Fundy at high tide could turn Nova Scotia into an island. There should be more urgency about this than is being demonstrated.”
– Dartmouth bear
Tim Bousquet in the Halifax Examiner Morning File “Wednesday night, I was completely unaware that a bear was running around Dartmouth, startlingly close to my house. I was in downtown Halifax all day Thursday, so missed the drama, but it turns out that in the early morning the bear wandered from the Dartmouth Common over to Sullivan’s Pond and then back to the Common.

Sep 18, 2024:
Simply Blue launches renewable energy project in Goldboro
By Alec Bruce in www.guysboroughjournal.com “More than 130 area residents of all ages enjoyed popcorn, cotton candy, lunch, live music and even a bouncy castle at the Goldboro Interpretative Centre Sept. 14, as they attended the official launch of the project, the details of which had been a closely guarded secret for almost three years…The project, which the company expects to be fully operational in 2029, involves installing solar collectors and as many as 100 wind turbines on 46,000 acres of land the company has secured through a private lease agreement near Caledonia in the Municipality of the District of St. Mary’s. From there, a new transmission line would send approximately 300 megawatts of solar-generated – and 800 megawatts of wind-generated – electricity a year to a new plant on 266 acres the company recently purchased for $12 million from Pieridae Energy in the Goldboro Industrial Park (with a three-year option on an additional 489 acres owned by the Municipality of the District of Guysborough – MODG). That facility would convert leftover wood chips (biomass) from the forest and saw milling industries into green hydrogen to make SAF for international distributors.According to Simply Blue Chief Operating Officer and Director of Hydrogen and Sustainable Fuels Michael Galvin, the company has signed an agreement to buy 700,000 tonnes of biomass annually from Truro-based woodlot manager Wagner Forest Management to produce approximately 150,000 tonnes of SAF a year. “Wagner will act as our agents to gather it,” he told The Journal. “In order for us to be able to certify our end product as sustainable, we’ve got to make sure that it’s the type of fiber that nobody else wants – that it’s a byproduct.”

Sep 17, 2024:
Investigation raises concerns about logging impacts on watersheds
By Tanner Senko for BC Forest Practices Board “An investigation into a complaint about the amount of timber harvesting in the Kettle River Watershed and its potential impacts on water flows has highlighted a need to improve watershed oversight.”

– ‘Small victory’ for anti-spray group near Advocate Harbour
Joan Baxter in the Hfx Examiner. Subscritpion required; intro in Morning File for Sep 17, 2024 “Joan Baxter reports on the “small victory” by activists who camped out for weeks in Cumberland County to prevent the aerial glyphosate spraying of nearly 900 acres owned by Bragg Lumber at Allen Hill.”

Sep 15, 2024:
– Shell Camp Lake (Annapolis Co.) Forest Glyphosate Spray Site is within Cornwallis Park Water Supply Area
Bev Wigney, post on Annapolis Environment & Ecology (Public Facebook group – ‘may require visitor to be on Facebook). “About a week ago, a very observant member of one of our forest groups commented that he thought Shell Camp Lake was part of the water supply for Cornwallis Park. I did some checking into this and did confirm that it is part of the official Water Supply Area. You can see that in the map which I’ll re-post here – I posted it last night after finding the actual outline of the Water Supply Area for Cornwallis Park. I also found a webpage on the Municipality of Annapolis that stated that: “no person shall: place, deposit, discharge or allow to remain therein any material of any kind that may impair the quality of water; or bathe, wash or otherwise impair the quality of the water…”
– Nova Scotia premier repeats calls for Ottawa to pay for protecting Chignecto Isthmus
The Canadian Press/Yahoo News.

Sep 13, 2024:
Irish company planning to produce jet fuel in Goldboro, N.S., at former LNG site
By Michael Tutton, The Canadian Press , posted on halifax.citynews.ca “An energy firm based in Ireland says it is planning to produce sustainable aviation fuel at the site where a liquefied natural gas project had been proposed on Nova Scotia’s eastern shore…Simply Blue Group announced Friday that construction would begin in 2026 with the biofuel project expected to be operating by 2029 in Goldboro, N.S., about 165 kilometres northeast of Halifax…The company says it has secured about 305 hectares of land for development, including 108 hectares previously owned by Calgary-base Pieridae Energy, which had planned to build a $10-billion liquified natural gas export terminal at the site. But the project, proposed in 2012, was shelved in 2021…Simply Blue says that every year its Goldboro project will source about 700,000 tonnes of wood biomass through Wagner Forest NS Ltd. to produce 150,000 tonnes of the fuel. Wood biomass is typically defined as residue from the wood processing industry and material left behind by forest management, but it can also be created by harvesting smaller, less-desirable trees…Meanwhile, the company also said it will make use of wind and solar power to produce the fuel. Tory Rushton, the province’s natural resources minister, issued a statement saying the plant could represent a new market for the province’s forestry sector. “We know many landowners have an abundance of low-grade wood fibre …. so this is another renewable energy project coming to Nova Scotia,” the minister said, adding that the project requires environmental and safety approvals…Raymond Plourde, wilderness co-ordinator at the Halifax-based Ecology Action Centre, said in an interview the term “low-grade” biomass doesn’t only refer to the wood chips and sawdust created in sawmills, but it can also include cutting species of trees unwanted by sawmills. He said 700,000 tonnes of biomass a year is “huge,” and he estimates it represents the “consumptive capacity” of a medium-sized pulp mill. ”

Sep 12, 2024:
– Nova Scotia not to blame for U.S. softwood lumber duties: Premier
By Tim Houston on Danadian Forest Industries – See Post under Sep 3, 2024 below for context.
– Integrating ancient resource management wisdom with modern forestry practices – First Annual Indigenous Forestry Conference draws hundreds
By Denise Titian in www.hashilthsa.com “The Best Western Barclay Convention centre was packed with Indigenous leaders and foresters who were there to share ideas, resources, and successes as they move forward in a new era of sustainable, First Nations-led forestry practices in their territories.”

Sep 11, 2024:
– Are BC’s Forests Running Out of Trees?
Zoë Yunker in The Tyee. “The province prides itself on its sustainable forestry. But even industry is now sounding the alarm.”
– Bridgewater Couple Named Woodland Owners of the Year
Natural Resources and Renewables News Release “Judy and Thomas Mailman of Bridgewater are the western region and provincial winners of the 2024 Woodland Owners of the Year Award. The Mailmans have worked hard to take care of their woodland. They have taken part in a project on silviculture for hemlock woolly adelgid – an insect that attacks hemlock trees – hosted classes from Nova Scotia Community College, worked with researchers on tree care and wood heating, and put up birdhouses. They have also teamed up with the Western Woodlot Services Cooperative to promote their woodlands.

Sep 10, 2024:
Canadian government: Please stop greenwashing tar sands pipelines
Gregory M. Mikkelson et al., in National Observer (subscription may be required). “This past June, the Canadian Parliament amended the Competition Act to crack down on corporate greenwashing. These amendments prohibit — for the first time, believe it or not — companies from making groundless claims about their environmental impacts. “[W]ithin minutes”, a group of tar sands companies called the Pathways Alliance “removed its entire online presence.” All six members of the group — Canadian Natural Resources, Suncor, Cenovus, Imperial Oil, MEG Energy, and ConocoPhillips — “deleted their corporate sustainability reports from their own websites.” The federal government’s small but important move to protect society against fossil fuel propaganda came as a welcome surprise to us. At the same time, however, it brings into stark relief the question of how to stop the government itself from greenwashing.”

Sep 9, 2024:
Annapolis County resident exposed to glyphosate after aerial spraying in Phinneys Cove
Kirk Starratt for Saltwire  Subscription may be required. “Round Hill resident Cameron Stiff, who opposes the aerial spraying of the herbicide glyphosate for forestry purposes, says he was inadvertently exposed to the chemical Aug. 30 after it was applied to a recovering clearcut in Phinneys Cove.”

Sep 7, 2024:
– ‘Sustainable’ logging operations are clear-cutting Canada’s climate-fighting forests
C. Kirkham et al for a Reuters Special Report. “Nonprofit environment watchdogs put their stamps of approval on countless wood products that get touted as responsibly produced. But Reuters found that the timber firms these groups certify are harvesting large swaths of Canada’s older forests, which are critical to containing global warming…The rapid loss of older Canadian forests highlights the flaws of certification programs that have come under heavy influence of the logging and forest-products industries, a Reuters investigation has found.”
– ‘We’re really determined: Residents with environmental, health concerns setting up protest encampments against aerial glyphosate spray
by Ken Starratt in the Annapolis Valley Register, Saltwire (subscription required) “Concerned Annapolis Valley residents are once again camping out on forestry land approved for aerial spraying of the herbicide glyphosate…The provincial Department of Environment and Climate Change issued three new approvals for aerial herbicide spraying for forestry purposes, covering 1,817 hectares. This is up from the 1,415 hectares approved for spraying in 2023…For those protesting, Newington said, there is a growing sense of frustration as the practice continues. “It’s extremely anxiety provoking,” Newington said.”
– Citing health, environmental, and wildlife concerns, citizens aim to stop aerial herbicide spraying near Advocate Harbour
Jan Baxter in the Hfx Examiner (subscription required, def worth it!). “Since Aug. 23, a group of self-described “forest protectors” have been gathering on the edge of the Pugwash River Road behind a sign that says “Private Property, Keep Off.” They’ve got their own “No Spray” signs to prop on their vehicles and hold up to people driving by. Nearly everyone honks and offers them a smile or thumbs up…Purdy is also trying to keep in touch with people at other sites where Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change (NSECC) has issued permits for the 2024 aerial spraying of glyphosate-based herbicides over forestry lands…the spraying she wants stopped is on three woodland properties on the Pugwash River Road… the three properties where spraying has been permitted off Pugwash River Road are owned by Bragg Lumber of Collingwood, belonging to Nova Scotian billionaire John Bragg, who among other business holdings owns Oxford Frozen Foods and Eastlink…The spray site on Pugwash River Road is about a kilometre from the Pugwash River, which worries 73-year-old Betty Hodgson, chair of the group ‘Friends of the Pugwash Estuary.’ “Whether the spray companies or the forestry industry like it or not, water runs downhill,” Hodgson said. “So if you spray at the top of the hill, it’s going to end up in the river sooner or later.”

Sep 6, 2024:
– ‘Ludicrous’ to subject environmental groups to greenwashing rules, says MP
By Natasha Bulowski in Canada’s National Observer. “One of Canada’s most powerful oil lobby groups wants environmental organizations to be bound by a new federal anti-greenwashing competition law. The proposal, from the Canadian Association for Petroleum Producers (CAPP), is “absolutely ludicrous,” said NDP MP Charlie Angus…”
– ‘Don’t spray Cumberland County’: citizens mobilize to protest aerial spraying of glyphosate herbicides by forestry companies
Joan Baxter in HfxExaminer (Subscription required), Intro in Morning File
Joan Baxter travelled to the Pugwash area and reports on “a group of self-described “forest protectors” fighting to stop aerial spraying of glyphosate….”

Sep 5, 2024:
Canada’s Forest Sector Responds to Activists’ Report on Forest Carbon Emissions
Forest Products Association of Canada “Earlier today, Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) issued the following statement regarding a carbon emissions report released by anti-forestry activists: “The Canadian government’s approach to forest carbon reporting and accounting continues to be based on science and evidence. The approach is consistent with the guidelines of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).”

Sep 3, 2024:
– Blame Nova Scotia for billions Canada will pay in softwood lumber duties
By William Pellerin in The Globe and Mail. Summary from TreeFrog: “The recent U.S. decision to increase softwood lumber duties to nearly 15% is a blow to Canada. …Since 2017, Canadian lumber producers have paid more than $9-billion in duties. Many Canadians would be surprised to learn that Nova Scotia bears a heavy portion of blame. …The province of Nova Scotia… invests considerable effort to produce the benchmark information that it then shares with the United States. …Few Canadians know that softwood lumber produced in Nova Scotia is exempt from the U.S. duties. When U.S. lumber producers petitioned the U.S. government for the duties, they presented data on Nova Scotia’s timber pricing to support their allegations that other Canadian provinces were subsidizing producers. While Nova Scotia has benefited from securing its exclusion from the U.S. duties, other Canadian provinces bear that heavy burden. …It sets a dangerous precedent where a Canadian province collaborates with a foreign government at the expense of other provinces. [to access the full story a Globe and Mail subscription is required]”
– Some want a robust gold industry in Nova Scotia. Others say good riddance
Taryn Grant | CBC News “Industry says provincial government is hindering its efforts”

Sep 2, 2024:
Residents hope a road that threatened old-growth forest will be rerouted
Moira Donovan · CBC News “Ron Cousins’s family has owned the woodlot for 80 years…Several trees on his property are hundreds of years old, he said, including a hemlock that’s at least 218 years old and a yellow birch that naturalists have said may be the largest in the province.”

Aug 30, 2024:
– Annapolis Valley, N.S., residents setting up protest encampments against aerial glyphosate spray
Kirk Starratt for Saltwire. Subscription may be required. “Concerned Annapolis Valley residents are once again camping out on forestry land approved for aerial spraying of the herbicide glyphosate.”
– Saving old forests in Nova Scotia
Joan Baxter in the Halifax Examiner. (Subscription required) “Citizen scientists, lichen hunters and intrepid campers work to protect endangered species and biodiverse forests on public land”
– In Tiny Letters: Warnings about eating berries on forest glyphosate spray sites in Nova Scotia
Page on this website, From a Post by Nina Newington – Stop Spraying & Clear-Cutting Mi’kma’ki (Nova Scotia) shared on Woods and Waters Nova Scotia.

Aug 29, 2024:
– 5 things to know about B.C.’s lucrative salvage logging industry
By Zoë Yunker, Photography by Taylor Roades in The Narwhal “Despite the ecological risks, it’s cheaper and easier than ever to clear cut the last living trees in wildfire-impacted forests”
Nanoplastics found to interfere with tree photosynthesis
– Nanoplastics found to interfere with tree photosynthesis
on www.swissinfo.ch “After absorbing plastic particles, the trees no longer used part of the sunlight’s energy for photosynthesis, but dissipated it as heat. This is a typical stress reaction of trees, wrote the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) in a press release on the study on Thursday. The SNSF funded the research project.”

Aug 28, 2024:
– Robots Are Starting (Good) Fires in California
By Coco Liu in Bloomberg “BurnBot’s tank-like robot helps manage wildfire risk by conducting controlled burns with no open flames, minimal smoke and much less manpower.”
–Study explores how active management relates to Australian forest management
By Forestry Australia on Phys.org “A new paper, “Active management: a definition and considerations for implementation in forests of temperate Australia,” published in the journal, Australian Forestry, “Explores where active management sits in relation to a sometimes-confusing array of related concepts including passive management and adaptative management,”
– Wildsight’s Eddie Petryshen discusses impacts of salvage logging
Paul Rodgers in Kimberley Bulletin “Wildsight conservation specialist Eddie Petryshen says the impacts of post-disturbance salvage logging outweigh the short-term benefits to the timber supply…In addition to damaging nitrogen-fixing plants that sprout soon after fires, Petryshen said another impact is on water. He cited a recent study from the southern Rockies in Alberta that found that sediment was nine times greater in burnt watersheds than in unburnt, but 37 times greater in salvage-log watersheds. ”
– Nova Scotia shelter village opens in time for peak of hurricane season
The Weather Network “Nova Scotia has purchased 200 shelters, just in time for the peak of hurricane season, and they’re now being placed around the province to support people experiencing homelessness.”

Aug 27, 2024:
– Version 2.0 of the Canadian NLT guide is now available!
Message received from www.naturallywood.com “The NLT Canadian design and construction guide 2.0 is the only comprehensive nail-laminated timber (NLT) resource available that combines design, construction, and fabrication expertise from built projects into an easy-to-use reference.”

Aug 26, 2024:
– Natural Resources says there was no bear attack on Halifax-area trail
CBC News  “Nova Scotia’s Department of Natural Resources says an investigation has concluded there was no bear attack on a Halifax-area trail. The department said Monday it was investigating an “unconfirmed bear attack” after someone was injured on Shearwater Flyer Trail in Cole Harbour.” Related: Bear Attacks in Nova Scotia, by Ross Hall for NRR Wildlife, archived 2011
– Post-Fiona forestry report suggests changes for resilient forests
PEI Gov. “Updated analysis reveals further details on how post-tropical storm Fiona affected Island forests.” View Post-Fiona Forest Update
Aug 25, 2024:
– N.S. First Nation to build third lodge along traditional canoe route to Kejimkujik
Luke Ettinger · CBC News ‘We wanted to develop something that we could share our story with everybody else in the world’
– EU Deforestation Regulation: Is the European forest products industry content? NO!
By Ed Pepke et al. for Dovetail Partners Inc.

Aug 25, 2024:
Nina Newington meets Gini Proulx, a citizen scientist (interview)
On www. soundcloud.com “Interview of Gini Proulx, a citizen scientist in Mi’kma’ki (25 Aug, 2024) Interviewer: Nina Newington Documentation: Haeweon Yi. 53 min. On a sunny afternoon in late August 2024, Nina Newington met up with Gini Proulx and had a great conversation about citizen science. Gini is a citizen science trailblazer in Southwest Nova Scotia – even before “citizen science” became a thing. Gini shared her stories with Nina and talks passionately about her adventures adventures observing and documenting the natural world from her family’s camp near the Tobeatic and all along the Digby Neck and everything in between!

Aug 22, 2024:

Forests Worth Knowing Education for Teachers Click on image for larger version

– We are pleased to announce the success of the 2024 Forests Worth Knowing  Atlantic Teachers’ Tour
(NS) Forestry Sector Council on linkedin.com. More about the program and Teachers 2024 here (page with links etc on this website).

– Earth’s ‘combined crisis’ demands common solutions, officials say
By John Woodside in the National Observer ““We see in recent years increasing incidents of fires, of floods, of droughts, of heat waves, and these are rightly attributed to climate change,” he [David Cooper] told reporters on Wednesday. “But it’s also related to biodiversity loss, and it’s also related to ecosystem degradation.”

– Uncertainty over Ottawa’s anti-greenwashing rules could silence promotion of net-zero efforts, industry groups warn
By Jesse Snyder in The Logic (subscription rquired) “Lobby groups representing industries from automotive to mining to manufacturing are raising alarm over the federal government’s new anti-greenwashing rules, warning that they limit companies’ ability to promote environmental achievements and could even hinder access to capital…Corporate greenwashing has become a global issue in recent years, as activists warn that lack of regulatory oversight lets companies claim environmental bona fides without earning them. In particular, carbon offsets, or schemes in which companies purchase land or virtual renewable power contracts to offset their emissions, have failed to meaningfully reduce CO2 output…In Canada, environmental groups including Ecojustice, Équiterre and the Quebec Environmental Law Centre lobbied for even more stringent amendments to the law that would’ve outright prohibited certain forms of greenwashing. Keith Stewart, senior strategist at Greenpeace Canada, said the ability to track and assess industrial activities is key to meeting global climate targets, and anti-greenwashing provisions support those efforts by forcing companies to adhere to specific reporting requirements.”

Aug 21, 2024:
– Canada and Nova Scotia to Plant up to 21 Million Trees and Restore Ecosystems Affected by WildfiresNatural Resources Canada. Also view: Provincewide Tree Planting Starts in Neighbourhoods Affected by Wildfire, By Natural Resources and Renewables. Comment: A form of greeenwashing/subsidizing excessive forest harvesting?
– Largest study of 2023 wildfires finds extreme weather fuelled flames
By Bob Weber, The Canadian Press ON halifax.citynews.ca. References: Drivers and Impacts of the Record-Breaking 2023 Wildfire Season in Canada. P. Jain et al., Aug 2021 in Nature Communications.“Standardized anomalies of the Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI) System’s Drought Code (DC), show similar trends, with severe drought conditions in some northern and western areas in May, and new-onset drought conditions in Quebec and Nova Scotia in June (Fig. 3d, e). Early-season drought is a common occurrence in western Canada26, due to persistent drought carried over from the previous year and exacerbated by a low winter snowpack27 (Fig. S1). In contrast, the 2023 fire season started with near-average levels of soil moisture following snowmelt in the eastern provinces, but above-average temperatures and rapid drying caused what could be described as a ‘flash drought’, an emerging phenomenon that we are only beginning to understand.”

– Climate change is pushing wildfires closer to urban areas. Firefighters say they’re not prepared
By Nicola Seguin CBC News “A new report from Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency sheds light on what firefighters faced over the nearly three-week operation to put out the fire that broke out on May 28, 2023, in Upper Tantallon, 30 kilometres from downtown Halifax (and burned more than 900 hectares, forcing more than 16,000 people to evacuate and destroying 151 homes), and points out how the urban, structural firefighters didn’t have the training, experience or equipment to deal with a wildfire.” Related on halifax.ca: HRFE Post Incident Analysis Wildland Urban Interface Fire May 2023, and this doc: HRFE Post Incident Analysis Wildland Urban Interface Fire: May 2023 FINAL REPORT July 3, 2024.

Aug 20, 2024:
– How ‘green’ electricity from wood harms the planet — and people
By Melba Newsome, Nature News Briefing.”Many nations have embraced burning wood pellets to produce electricity — under the assumption that it is carbon neutral. But research shows this approach can boost greenhouse-gas emissions and threaten the health of local communities. ”
– NS government once again approves aerial spraying of NS woodlands – with a probable carcinogen
Joan Baxter in the Hfx Examier. Intro in Morning File “…The NSECC approvals for the aerial spraying of glyphosate over Nova Scotia come just one day after the New York Times published an in-depth investigationinto the mysterious degenerative neurological disease that has affected dozens of people in New Brunswick and may be linked with glyphosate “that is regularly used as part of the forestry industry in New Brunswick.”
– Enbridge is getting millions in hydrogen funding from feds
By John Woodside in the National Observer (subscription may be requred for full access) “Gas giant Enbridge is receiving millions of dollars of new federal funding to help build Canada’s hydrogen economy…Canada’s hydrogen strategy envisions scaling up a low-carbon hydrogen sector, using a regional approach. In places with strong renewable energy potential, such as Atlantic Canada, there are plans to produce “green” hydrogen using renewables. In Western Canada, the approach is largely focused on “blue” hydrogen produced with natural gas equipped with carbon capture. The federal government interchangeably calls the various colours “low carbon” or “clean” hydrogen — umbrella terms designed to capture both varieties, even though the emissions associated with the different types of production vary significantly. In 2021, Cornell University professor Robert Horwarth and Stanford professor Mark Jacobson published the first peer-reviewed study of blue hydrogen’s greenhouse gas emissions and uncovered its greenhouse gas footprint is more than 20 per cent higher than burning natural gas.”

Aug 18, 2024:
Net Zero’s Carbon Removal Conundrum
By Alastair Marsh on Bloomberg News. “Two Oxford academics argue that while new technology for removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere is essential, cutting emissions should be the primary weapon for slowing global warming…University of Oxford researchers just devised a “carbon removal budget” to address the issue…Carbon removals are not free and face some significant economic constraints,” Caldecott said in an interview. “So if a company that could easily abate emissions decides instead to use a chunk of the available carbon removal budget, what will that mean for other actors? There has to be equity in the way this finite resource is distributed, and there will undoubtedly be tradeoffs.” In other words, industries that can more easily cut emissions should maximize that effort, leaving more of the world’s limited capacity to remove carbon from the atmosphere for those that, because of their very nature, are limited in their ability to do so. Companies in so-called “hard to abate” sectors like steelmakers and airlines might have greater need for such removals under certain scenarios, the authors said.”

Aug 14, 2024:
– Canada’s 2023 wildfires released almost 10 years worth of carbon dioxide in one of the world’s worst fire seasons, report finds
By Kate Helmore, The Globe and Mail (Subscription Required),  Summary from Tree Frog Forestru News: “An international report published Wednesday found that Canada’s 2023 wildfire season burned six times more area than usual and released nine times the usual amount of carbon, ranking it as one of the worst across the globe. These wildfires, which raged from Nova Scotia to Vancouver Island, emitted almost a decade’s worth of carbon dioxide, compared to the average for the area, said the inaugural State of Wildfires report, published in the journal Earth System Science Data which included expert panels from continents across the globe. “Whatever statistic you look at for Canada last year is absolutely striking,” said Dr. Matthew Jones, lead author of the report and research fellow at the Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia in Britain. “If you look at the number of fires, the area burned, emissions, the size of the fires … pretty much every record was smashed.” Cites this paper: State of Wildfires 2023–2024 by MW Jones et al., in Earth System Science Data
– U.S. nearly doubles duty on Canadian softwood lumber
Rafferty Baker · CBC News “The sharp increase in duty was signalled in February, but the 14.54% rate went even higher than expected”. A Reader Comments: “Quite interesting about the U.S. tariff increase — and that they are responding to what they consider unfair subsidies in the Canadian softwood industry. This morning, the National Observer just ran an article about the increase in permits for Temporary Foreign Workers in Canada — and the logging sector was singled out as increasing its use of foreign workers… So much for the forest industry “making work” for communities. Here is a link to the story: Sharp rise in temporary foreign workers in Canadian logging By Hope Lompe. August 14th 2024 in the National Observer (subscription may be required for full access).
– Logging after wildfires is a hot industry in B.C. Could it do more harm than good?
By Zoë Yunker in The Narwhal “This story is part of In the Line of Fire, a series from The Narwhal digging into what is being done to prepare for — and survive — wildfires…Forestry companies get a slew of profitable perks to harvest areas burned by B.C. wildfires. They’re also allowed to log living trees that could be key to species and ecosystem recovery in burn zones”
– Will logging more in healthy forests reduce wildfire risk?
On www.davidsuzuki.org “…There is no one-treatment-fits-all approach to address wildfires; we are likely to have failures along the way and we must learn to adapt. But increased wildfire activity should not be used as a Trojan horse to give the forestry industry even more power over decisions that affect forests in Canada under the guise of “fixing” a problem. Expanding industrial logging into remaining unlogged forests is not the solution; more comprehensive forest management is.”

Aug 13, 2024
– Carbon capture? A river runs through it
By Pam Sullivan for National Observer. (Subscription may be required for full access). Succinct outline of the operation, financing of this project “…CarbonRun’s first official dosing operation — for carbon removal, and separate from the NS Salmon Association — is about to launch in West River, Pictou, and will be an impressive first in the world of CO2 removal operations. The doser, which will run autonomously, 24 hours a day, will constantly be adding ground limestone as needed, with sensors controlling and administering based on water flow; all of which will be remotely communicated through computer and cell phone, recording data as it goes. And investments, Sterling says, are now coming from leading carbon credit buyers outside the country, which though on its face might seem unusual, is actually a win — not only for CarbonRun, but for the province itself.”
Comment: Rigorous science and accounting are behind the scientific, financial and practical success of this NS-born carbon sequestration project; no hype. A mark contrast to NS Biofuel and Green Hydrogen projects. More about it
– Clean Fuel Fund helping transition Nova Scotia industries to biofuels, biomass
By Canadian Biomass staff In www.canadianbiomassmagazine.ca. Also view: Funding Available for Industries to Move Toward Cleaner Fuels, NRR News Release Aug 13, 2024.
– How Maine is unique in fighting emerald ash borer
By Elizabeth Walztoni in The Bangor Daily News “The larvae of long, green beetles are winding their way under the bark of Maine’s brown ash trees in northern and southern pockets of the state. Known as emerald ash borers, the insects have decimated ash trees in the Great Lakes already. They likely will do the same here one day, local researchers said. But for 20 years, Maine has been preparing with a focus on protecting Wabanaki traditions and including Indigenous knowledge, an approach setting it apart from other states.”

Aug 12, 2024
– Logging industry’s wildfire claims are misleading the public
Chad Hanson in The Hill. “The Park Fire in northern California has reached approximately 400,000 acres in size, and already logging industry advocates are pushing out misinformation about the fire in an attempt to promote their deceptively-named Fix Our Forests Act logging bill. The timber industry’s political apologists tell us that the Park Fire grew so big, so fast ostensibly because public forestlands are “overgrown” and in need of “thinning…The truth is that this “overgrown forests” narrative, which is being spun by the logging industry and its political apologists, is a new and insidious type of climate change denialism.”
Chad Hanson, Ph.D., is a forest and fire ecologist with the John Muir Project, based in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, and is the author of the book, “Smokescreen: Debunking Wildfire Myths to Save Our Forests and Our Climate.”

– Mature trees offer hope in world of rising emissions
Esme Stallard for BBC News/ “Older trees are able to accelerate their rates of absorbing planet-warming emissions, scientists at the University of Birmingham have found. A forest of mature oak trees was exposed to elevated levels of carbon dioxide for seven years and in response, the trees increased their production of wood – locking in the greenhouse gas and preventing it from warming the planet. The researchers hope the study, published in Nature Climate Change, will demonstrate the importance of protecting and maintaining mature forests for tackling climate change. References this scientific paper: Enhanced woody biomass production in a mature temperate forest under elevated CO2 by Norny et al., In Nature Climate Change published 12 Aug 2024″

Aug 9, 2024
– To hug or to cut? A new generation of foresters says do both.
By Richard Mertens & Riley Robinson in The Christian Science Monitor “American forestry has been a stage of conflict between timber interests and conservation. A new generation of ecological foresters wants both to flourish.”
– Premier Appoints New Communications Director
Premier’s Office News Release “Premier Tim Houston announced today, August 9, that Stephen Moore has been appointed Communications Director for the Premier’s Office.“Stephen has proven experience in communications, and I am excited to welcome him to the team,” said Premier Houston. “I look forward to working with him as we continue to improve healthcare and build up Nova Scotia.” Mr. Moore is currently the Executive Director of Forest Nova Scotia. Prior to that, he held positions at Saint Mary’s University and MQO Research, as well as director of communications for the Premier’s Office from 2014 to 2018.Mr. Moore’s appointment is effective August 19.”
Comment from a reader: Some of Mt.Moore’s perspectives are expressed in Q&A with Forest Nova Scotia’s Stephen Moore, February 20, 2024 By Maria Church in Canadian Forest Industries. From that interview:

– “There are some groups that are never going to be happy so long as we’re cutting a single tree. There are groups that fundraise to stop us from existing. The idea that we are going to win them over is silly.”
– “Those things need to happen (harvesting), but some people don’t want to see it happening where they go for hikes.”
– “I say we have social license. We need to stop worrying about playing nice with everybody.”
– “People are built to do certain things and I’m built to be a political animal.”

– Biomass power station produced four times emissions of UK coal plant, says report
By Jillian Ambrose for The Guardian UK. “UK — The Drax power station was responsible for four times more carbon emissions than the UK’s last remaining coal-fired plant last year, despite taking more than £0.5bn in clean-energy subsidies in 2023, according to a report.”
– Carbon offsets are bullshit
Tim Bousquet in the Halifax Examiner. “It’s true that the carbon offset program factors in a buffer for trees lost to wildfire, but the problem is that fires are increasing in both frequency and scale, and so the buffer is inadequate. (CarbonPlan studied this in detail a few years ago, and published its findings here.) This is not just a problem with California’s offset program but with carbon offset schemes generally — they all depend on both reliable long-term human management and a more or less stable environment, neither of which can be assured.” Also View Comments by Bev Wigney
– Climate change behind Atlantic Canada’s summer heat wave, research says
by Yvette d’Entremont” in the Hfx Examiner. Subscription required; Intro in Morning File.
– Forest school in Halifax started by parents who saw it benefit their son
By Lauren Phillips in The Coast

Aug 8, 2024:
Session 1: Intro to Planting Pruning & Thinning- Planting (YouTube Video)
On Nova Scotia Forest YouTube channel (NSWOOA) – View more videos by NSWOOA
“This event was part of “Ecological Forest Management in a Changing Climate: A Workshop Series for Forest Stewards”, a series hosted in 2023/2024 by the Nova Scotia Woodlot Owners & Operators Association with support from the NS Department of Natural Resources and Renewables. Led by Ryan Dickie, Forest Operations Coordinator with the Family Forest Network, this workshop was held on the Macaulay and Oprel woodlot near Glencoe Mills, Inverness County, NS in September 2023.”

Aug 7, 2024:
Cut Carbon not Forests
“The UK gives billions to energy companies that burn trees for electricity, harming our climate and forests around the world. Cut Carbon Not Forests is a campaign to stop handouts to this dirty and destructive industry. Ask your MP to help end biomass subsidies now.”

Aug 6, 2024:
– [HRM] Municipality seeking feedback on updated Urban Forest Management Plan
Survey, Guided Tours, Updadating of its 2013 Urban Forest Master Plan.
– Nova Scotia’s rivers still suffer from acid rain. Restoring them could also help the climate
CBC “Acid rain, which is caused when pollutants such as nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide infiltrate precipitation, was largely mitigated by the passage of the U.S. Clean Air Act in 1990, and by the 1991 U.S.-Canada Air Quality Agreement. But in Nova Scotia rivers, the problem never truly went away… CarbonRun is launching what it says is the world’s first carbon removal project via enhancing river alkalinity, and it’s set to begin in the coming months. Also view CarbonRun & Liming Forest Soils (page on this website).
– Revolutionary scientific discovery upends deep sea mining negotiations
By John Woodside in the National Observer. Cited here as a striking example of ‘what we dont know can hurt us’ and why we need to take a very precautionary approach to exploiting nature. “Mining the ocean floor for critical minerals was already controversial, but a new groundbreaking scientific study has thrown the industry into chaos as countries negotiate its future…Scientists discovered what they called “dark oxygen”… The scientists describe “polymetallic nodules” – lumps of rock containing minerals found around four kilometeres deep that produce a small electric current. That electric current is believed to be splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen in a process called saltwater electrolysis, similar to how hydrogen can be produced using an electric current to split water into oxygen and hydrogen…The Metals Company wants to mine those nodules and sell them to produce batteries needed for the energy transition…The Metals Company strongly disagrees with the findings.” References this paper: Evidence of dark oxygen production at the abyssal seafloor by Sweetman et al., 22Jul2024 in Nature Geoscience.

Aug 4, 2024:
Conservationists push to triple protected natural areas
By John Chilibeck, The Daily Gleaner reported in www.thespec.com “New Brunswick’s Progressive Conservative government spent two years increasing protected natural areas from just under five per cent of the province’s land and freshwater to 10 per cent, a doubling that was proudly announced in December 2022. But now there’s a push from conservationists for far more: to hit 30 per cent by 2030, the vaunted “30 by 30” that the Trudeau Liberal government pledged for the country as a whole at a United Nations biodiversity forum in Montreal a couple of years ago. The local chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and the Atlantic Salmon Federation recently released the results of a poll they commissioned, suggesting that two out of three respondents in New Brunswick support the bigger goal.”

Aug 2, 2024:
– Membertou First Nation builds area’s first mass timber commercial building
By Don Procter Daily Commercial News “The Membertou First Nation near Sydney, Cape Breton, is building the area’s first mass timber commercial building, a 92,000-square-foot office complex as part of the community’s Seventh Exchange, a new 35-acre retail and service district.”
– What could existential sustainability be? A conceptual study of existential dimensions of sustainability
Johammes Persson in PlosOne “The term “existential” is nowadays used in connection with different kinds of threat, risk and hazard–sustainability discourse included. Loss of certain forms of existence, potential, conditions and values have all been claimed to be incompatible with existential dimensions of sustainability (or “existential sustainability”, for short). In order to clarify the notion(s) of existential sustainability, two recently more discussed concepts–‘existential threat’ and ‘existential risk’–are used for comparison and contrast. With increased popularity comes the risk of conflating uses of “existential” in the sense of the meaning (fulness) of human existence and “existential” in the sense of the very existence (or annihilation) of something. It is suggested that the concept of existential might usefully be pushed in the direction of managing (the risk of) permanent or irreparable consequences related to different levels of aggregation.”

July… 2024:
Atlantic Forestry Review July 2024
Available in print form only. “Atlantic Forestry Review, launched in 1994, is a magazine for woodlot owners, foresters, contractors and technicians in Atlantic Canada. Published bi-monthly,Atlantic Forestry has rapidly expanded to become an essential source of up-to-date information for those interested and involved in forestry. 6 issues per year. Subscribe!” Currently 1 Year (6 Issues) $20.00, 2 Years (12 Issues) $35.00, 3 Years (18 Issues) $45.00. A bargain in todays Magazone World for Sure!!! In the July 2024 issue: A word or two – Building Confidence; New Products, Chips/n Slabs;  Your Neck of the Woods; Reclamation Silviculture; Snipping Away at Nova Scotia’s PCT deficit; Canadian Woodlands Forum Logging Contractor of the year; All Hands on Deck; Massive Project; The Upside of Deadwood; Inspiration from Finland; Pulling together to build the bioeconomy.”

July 31, 2024
$300 million more federal funds to support ‘green’ hydrogen production and exports from Atlantic Canada
Jennifer Henderson in the Halifax Examiner. Subscription Required. Summary in Morning File for Aug 1 “The financing [Natural Resources Minister Jonathan] Wilkinson announced on Wednesday is intended to bridge the gap between the price industries in Germany are willing to pay to convert from so-called “natural” fossil gas that is mostly methane, to more expensive hydrogen fuel, and the price it costs developers to produce it – including John Risley’s World Energy GH2 company that has proposed a hydrogen plant and massive wind projects near Stephenville, in Newfoundland and Labrador.”>reports. Henderson writes:”The financing [Natural Resources Minister Jonathan] Wilkinson announced on Wednesday is intended to bridge the gap between the price industries in Germany are willing to pay to convert from so-called “natural” fossil gas that is mostly methane, to more expensive hydrogen fuel, and the price it costs developers to produce it – including John Risley’s World Energy GH2 company that has proposed a hydrogen plant and massive wind projects near Stephenville, in Newfoundland and Labrador.”

– ‘A terrible use’ of public money: Critics slam federal government handouts for ‘green’ hydrogen exports to Germany from Atlantic Canada
Joan Baxter in Halifax Examiner. Subscription required. Summary in Morning File for Aug 1. ” In a scathing statement, Julia Levin, associate director of national climate for the Canadian environmental advocacy organization, Environmental Defence, described the $300 million handout for the Canada-Germany Alliance as a “terrible use of taxpayer money for an energy-intensive, inefficient and expensive hydrogen scheme.”… Levin noted that hydrogen is being presented as a climate change solution because when it is burned, it doesn’t create any greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. “But that hides hydrogen’s dirty secret – when it leaks into the atmosphere it actually does contribute to global heating,” Levin wrote. “And it leaks a lot.”

Jul 30, 2024:
– Nova Scotia approves another wind farm to power green hydrogen plant
Taryn Grant · CBC News. “Nova Scotia has approved a third and final wind farm meant to feed EverWind Fuels’ green hydrogen and ammonia production facility.Last week, Nova Scotia Environment Minister Tim Halman approved the Windy Ridge project, a 49-turbine, 340 megawatt wind farm just north of Debert, N.S. A spokesperson for EverWind said the company is pleased, and is on track to have its wind farms online by 2026. The company noted the approvals were conditional on further wildlife impact studies…EverWind’s wind farms will connect to Nova Scotia Power’s grid, but that is not the final destination for the energy. The company plans to build a facility in Point Tupper, N.S., that will use the wind energy to produce green hydrogen and convert it to ammonia for export to Europe. That plan has drawn criticism from some who believe any renewable energy produced in Nova Scotia should only be used locally until the province has completely transitioned off fossil fuels.”

– Government of Canada and Province of Nova Scotia Unveil Collaboration Framework to Drive Economic Growth and Create Jobs
Gov. of Canada News Release. “The Government of Canada and the Province of Nova Scotia are working together to build a low-carbon economy that drives clean growth and creates good, sustainable jobs throughout the province and across the country. The Canada-Nova Scotia Regional Energy and Resource Table (NS Regional Table) is a key vehicle for driving economic prosperity now and into the future. Launched in October 2022, the NS Regional Table is a partnership between the federal and provincial governments, in collaboration with Mi’kmaw partners — and with input from key interested parties — to identify and accelerate shared economic priorities for a low-carbon future in the province’s energy and resource sectors. Today, the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Canada’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, and the Honourable Tory Rushton, Nova Scotia’s Minister of Natural Resources and Renewables, released The Nova Scotia Regional Energy and Resource Table Framework for Collaboration on the Path to Net Zero (Collaboration Framework).’

Jul 29, 2024:
Our neighbours, the black bears
by Bob Bancroft in Saltscapes Magazine Aug/Sept 2024,  pp19-21.

Jul 28, 2024:
Mass timber’s sustainability promise: does it stack up?
Andrew Miller for www.oregonlive.com “…questions over mass timber’s sustainability matter equally to its advocates and its opponents, who have very different standards for what constitutes sustainable. And it matters to taxpayers, who have contributed millions of dollars in federal and state investment toward its research and development.”

Jul 27, 2024:

– WPAC Conference & Tradeshow to highlight The Role of Biomass in Electrification
“The Wood Pellet Association of Canada Conference is Canada’s largest gathering of the Canadian wood pellet industry. Each year, the event attracts hundreds of wood pellet, biomass and bioenergy professionals from across the country, as well the U.S., Europe and Asia, to discuss the issues that are having an impact on the industry here in Canada. The WPAC Conference is your opportunity to learn about the most important issues from industry experts around the globe.” Under 2024 Conference Schedule the theme is “Powering Sustainability The Role of Biomass in Electrification”, with SESSION #1: The Electrification Revolution, SESSION #2: The Role of Biomass in Electrification” Keynote Address for the Conference is Bob McDonald of CBC’s Quirks and Quarks. “Keynote: Solving the Climate Crisis With Today’s Technology, Bob McDonald. Moderator: Vaughan Bassett, Senior Vice President, Biomass Sales and Logistics, Drax Group”

– Scientists find rare species in survey of Chignecto Isthmus
Prapti Bamaniya · CBC News “Non-profit group will use the data as part of its ongoing conservation efforts…For wildlife that can’t fly or swim, the only path between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia is across the Chignecto Isthmus. That’s why it’s important “to maintain the genetic integrity of populations of species that need it,” says Sean Blaney, executive director and senior scientist at the Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Centre…”I was surprised in a good way by the extent of higher quality forest,” he said. “It can be a struggle to find more mature forest in larger patches in this region because it has a really long history of human occupation and quite intensive use for forestry and for other land uses that have converted the forest entirely…He said these patches of intact habitat on the isthmus are essential for animals. “It’s quite important as one of the last quite intact zones within a real priority habitat corridor,” he said.”

Jul 25, 2024:

– Nina Newington: Do what you love to save old forests
Perspective in the Chronicle Herald. Subscription required. Read Full Text here

– Insurance claims from last year’s floods, wildfires in Nova Scotia total $490 million
Michael MacDonald · The Canadian Press on cbc.ca “Canada isn’t ready to deal with more severe weather from climate change, Insurance Bureau VP says”

– How Soon Might the Atlantic Ocean Break? Two Sibling Scientists Found an Answer—and Shook the World
Sandra Upson in Wired. “A gigantic, weather-defining current system could be headed to collapse. Peter and Susanne Ditlevsen had a simple yet controversial question: How much time might we have left to save it?…The AMOC transports a staggering amount of energy. Like a million nuclear power plants. It is such a core element of the Earth system that its collapse would radically alter regional weather patterns, the water cycle, the ability of every country to provide food for its inhabitants… The two scientists made a plot of the numbers and a neat cluster emerged. Yes—2057. But that’s just the middle point: In 95 percent of the model’s simulations, the AMOC tipped sometime between 2025 and 2095… In footnote 4 of the IPCC’s latest big report, “very unlikely” meant that, in the panelists’ view, the AMOC had less than a 1-in-10 chance of collapsing before 2100. One in 10. Those odds didn’t strike him as “very unlikely.” Russian roulette is one in six, and we all agree that’s a bad idea. Plus, the IPCC had given its prognosis only a “medium confidence” rating. To Ditlevsen, that sounded a lot like “we have no clue.”

– Hemlock woolly adelgid in the Halifax Regional Municipality
Page on halifax.ca. Accessed 25Jul2024; it appears to have been posted Jul24,2024. Sections on Identifying HWA, Addressing HWA, Reducing the spread of HWA, Why is treating HWA so urgent?

– Canada’s premiers forced to confront escalating climate change-related disasters
Lyndsay Armstrong · CBC News “”It’s not lost on us that emergency preparedness for natural disasters is more important than ever,” Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said in his closing remarks on the final day of the Council of the Federation conference…Blair Feltmate, director of the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo, said discussion is not enough. He said in an interview Wednesday that all levels of government need to treat escalating climate change-related natural disasters as the crisis they are and quickly enact mitigation strategies before things get worse.”

Jul 24, 2024:
–Signal Gold wants permission to permanently destroy fish habitat for an open pit gold mine near Goldboro
Joan Baxter in the Hfx Examiner. “…the federal government is considering allowing Signal Gold to use seven waterways — valuable fish habitat — for the disposal of its mine tailings, the slurry left after gold is extracted from rock…The consultation ECCC announced is not about whether it’s a good idea to allow toxic mine waste into waterways that provide crucial habitat for fish. Rather, it’s about a plan Signal is proposing to “compensate” for destroying healthy fish habitat around its Goldboro mine by working to improve other waterways in eastern Nova Scotia.”
– St Barbara’s appeal of Nova Scotia government requirements for Touquoy gold mine reclamation gets firm ‘no’ from environment minister
Joan Baxter in the Hfx Examiner. Subscription required. Intro in Morning File for Jul 25, 2024. “In his belligerent appeal letter, St Barbara CEO harshly attacks Nova Scotia’s environment department just for doing its job.”

– Competition Bureau Canada outlines what can be considered corporate greenwashing
By Jeffrey Jones, The Globe and Mail in Business in Vancouver

Jul 23, 2024:
– Another tick-borne illness on the rise in Nova Scotia
CBC Video. “Ticks carrying anaplasmosis are found primarily in Nova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario. Watch Amy Smith’s interview with Heather Coatsworth, a research scientist at the National Microbiology Lab within the Public Health Agency of Canada.”

– Conservation North conference talks negative impacts of salvage forestry
Staff at www.princegeorgecitizen.com “Some scientists are calling for a drastic change to the way B.C. deals with forests burned by fire and affected by insects. The remarks came as the scientists took part in a webinar organized by the volunteer group Conservation North and virtually attended by more than 200 people on Monday, July 22. During the meeting, they said “salvage” logging after a fire usually causes more damage to a forest than the fire itself, and explained that logging reduces biodiversity, contributes to climate change, increases the vulnerability of the forest to further fires, and often causes soil degradation and erosion…The webinar recording is available on the Conservation North YouTube channel” – See Gaming the ecosystem: the truth about salvage logging “Have you ever wondered what “salvage” logging is, and how it affects communities, ecosystems and the climate? This webinar, held on July 15th, 2024, answers these questions. The session featured Seraphine Munroe (Maiyoo Keyoh Society), Dr. Karen Price (independent ecologist), Dr. Phil Burton (emeritus University of Northern BC professor), Dr. Diana Six (University of Montana) and Dr. Dominick DellaSala (Wild Heritage).”

– Climate change likely influenced forest fires in Labrador, says ecologist
Abby Cole · CBC News “Anthony Taylor says forest fires will likely become more common…”Newfoundland and Labrador as a whole has warmed by more than two degrees Celsius since the … late 1800s,” he said. “And in fact, Labrador itself has warmed more than a degree since the 1960s.” Although there has been close to normal amounts of rainfall in Labrador, he said, higher temperatures cause increased evaporation and drier forests, likely contributing to conditions that are conducive to fire…”While large fires do occur in Labrador from time to time, I don’t want to undersell the influence of human-caused climate change on this because it is very likely that these fires we’re seeing this year are influenced by climate change,” he said. “We just haven’t been as a society taking our role in preventing and slowing climate change enough.… And that’s primarily by reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and reducing those greenhouse gas emissions.””

– Two years after Halifax tree-girdling incident, art show reminds us of ‘importance of human relationships with trees’
By Lauren Phillips in The Coast. “Collective exhibiting artists to hold a talk this Saturday at MSVU gallery. Two years ago Thursday, “some asshole broke into the Halifax Public Gardens and vandalized trees,” as captured by a headline that ran July 26, 2022 in the Halifax Examiner. The mystery of who did this is an unsolved whodunit…Artists Miranda Bellamy and Amanda Fauteux were in the gardens in the immediate aftermath of the vandalism. With the help of city staff, they took photographs of the injured trees without their bandages on.Also view People’s connections to trees in the Hfx Examiner, Morning File by Suzanne Rent, July 24, 2024.

– 2024 Mass Timber Roadmap (PDF)
The Transition Accelerator in partnership with FPAC.ca, Canadian Wood Council, EneregyFutureesLab. Intro as cited in TreeFrog News for Jul 24, 2024. “Unlocking the potential of Mass Timber across Canada will significantly address many key challenges of building taller with wood given its ability to accelerate housing construction time by as much as 20%; drive economic activities and create jobs in rural and Indigenous communities; and reduce carbon intensity of construction and providing long term carbon storage. Canada’s forest sector is ready to scale efforts around mass timber to maximize those benefits and compete globally. In June, Canada’s Transition Accelerator launched its 2024 Mass Timber Roadmap, making the case and outlining the need for mass timber in Canada. This report was a collaborative effort of over 50 participants from Canada’s mass timber value chain — including business, government, research institutions, Indigenous communities, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). …The roadmap proposes an ambitious vision and calls on industry, business, stakeholders, and government to come together to advance and implement this vision.” Of Note Re Atlantic Canada, on page 21: “While softwoods currently provide the majority of feedstock, there are opportunities to exploit more hardwood species in certain market segments. European producers have developed glulam and LVL from species such as beech and oak, and these technologies can be expected to be applied to North American hardwoods, providing mostly opportunities for Eastern Canada, as well as the U.S. Northeast.”

Jul 22, 2024:
– Cape Breton moose are declining
Tim Bousquet in Morning File (Hfx Examiner). Vites NRR news Release of July19, 2024 (below).”The release attributes the decline to “hunting, disease and climate change,” but as my colleague Joan Baxter points out, not on that list is habitat loss because of clearcutting and carving up habitat for subdivisions.”
– A new plan for PA forests: new uses, more trails, continued logging
Ad Crable in www.bayjournal.com. “fter several years of public opinion polling and surveying the many stakeholders of state forests, the bureau has drafted a new plan called Forests for All: A Plan for Pennsylvania’s Forests and People. The aim is to keep forests and their native flora resilient while inviting more people to enjoy state forests for physical and mental well-being.” View Forests for All: A Plan for Pennsylvania’s Forests and People

Jul 19, 2024:
– Consultation on [16] New Protected Areas Begins
NS Gov. Environment and Climate Change News release. “Nova Scotians are invited to share their thoughts on 16 proposed new or expanded wilderness areas and nature reserves. Designating these sites will be one more step in helping Nova Scotia protect 20 per cent of its land and water by 2030….Nova Scotians are invited to share their thoughts on 16 proposed new or expanded wilderness areas and nature reserves. Designating these sites will be one more step in helping Nova Scotia protect 20 per cent of its land and water by 2030…The Department launched an online survey today, July 19. Public input will be accepted until September 20. The survey is available at: https://www.novascotia.ca/nse/protectedareas/…Learn more about these areas: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/5a8478fbf0264566912016b69a5d1940
– Temporary Suspension of Cape Breton Moose Hunt
NS Natural Resources and Renewables News release “The Province is suspending the licensed Cape Breton moose hunt for three years because of a significant drop in the population. The Mi’kmaq are also putting a moratorium on their rights-based moose harvest until population numbers are sustainable.”

Jul 18, 2024:
– The big life — and looming death — of a Rocky Mountain defender
By Drew Anderson in The Narwhal (co-published with The Globe and Mail) “He had been searching for elk in Alberta’s Bow Valley, perched in a hunting stand nearly eight metres off the ground. Then he fell. He doesn’t know how. He was unconscious, lying on the ground for more than an hour before rescuers arrived…“I wasn’t in pain,” he remembers, sitting in his backyard in Canmore on a June afternoon, sun streaking one side of his still-youthful face. “I was actually okay with it. It was October, the sun was on my back, I could hear trumpeter swans on the lake calling, and other bird songs, and I was like, ‘Wow, this is actually a pretty nice place to die.’ ” It’s the kind of thought that might only occur to someone who has lived like Heuer. He has traversed thousands of kilometres through the Rockies on foot and followed a caribou herd for months through the north of the continent. As a conservationist, he worked to protect wildlife corridors in Banff long before they were well known. He led the team that brought bison back to Banff National Park for the first time in 140 years. He was executive director of the non-profit conservation group Yellowstone to Yukon Initiative for a time. He is a perpetual thorn in the side of a local developer that wants to dramatically expand Canmore. And he has written three books and is working on a fourth. He was one of the early advocates of what is now known as large-landscape-scale conservation. This model takes into account the huge scope of some animals’ terrain, a departure from caring for the land in a patchwork of small protected areas.”

– Nature Conservancy of Canada receives donation of almost 100 hectares for nature reserve in Halifax area
Jeremy Hull, CTVNews.ca “Thanks to a pair of generous donors, the Nature Conservancy of Canada(opens in a new tab) (NCC) is the proud new owner of 97 hectares of intact forest in the Halifax Regional Municipality. NCC’s Porters Lake Nature Reserve is located on the north side of Porters Lake, flanked by the East and West brooks. Ann and Maurice Doucet donated the land so the NCC could conserve the land, in perpetuity, for future generations…Doug Van Hemessen is the NCC’s stewardship manager for Nova Scotia. He said he was grateful to the Doucets for their “ecologically significant” donation. “That landscape protects that whole broad area of watershed that goes into Porters Lake and contributes to landscape protection and biodiversity protection throughout that whole area,” Van Hemessen said. The NCC said the forest acts as a natural water filtration system, plays a crucial role in water cycling and creates a barrier against flooding and erosion. Van Hemessen said the forest reserve also provides opportunities for people to enjoy and learn about nature.”

Jul 17, 2024:
‘Shady accounting’ of forest biodiversity
In the Halifax Examiner Morning File, by Tim Bousquet, referencing the post by Nina Newington on this website. “Writer and citizen scientist Nina Newington (who Suzanne Rent profiled here) has posted a detailed analysis of biodiversity calculations at Nova Scotia Forest Matters.”

Forests continue to capture carbon despite challenges
University of Leeds (UK). Cites The enduring world forest carbon sink by Y. Pan et al. In Nature 631, pages 563–569 (2024)

Screen Capture from CBC News Video shows map of areas for which an Emergency Alert was issued on evening of Jul 11, 2024 due to heavy rains and flash flooding

Jul 12, 2024:
– Heavy rains, flash flooding ravage parts of Nova Scotia
CBC, YouTube Video (3.2 min). Also view CBC News post Jul 11, 2024 by Anjuli Patel.

– Nova Scotia NRR hiring Old Growth Forester
Advertised on ca.indeed.com. Department: Natural Resources & Renewables; “Location: TRURO; Type of Employment: Term; Union Status: NSGEU – NSPG
Closing Date: 02-Aug-24 (Applications are accepted until 11:59 PM Atlantic Time)…As the Old-Growth Forester, you will use your specialized field ecosystem knowledge to lead the field data collection on old-growth forest, statistical data analysis and research report writing. You will also use your technical skills using ArcPro to support department field data collection (through ArcOnline Survey 1-2-3) and Old-Growth Forest reporting. These duties will support an Environment and Climate Change Canada funded project to identify old-growth forest on crown land in Nova Scotia for their long-term conservation and protection… This may be the right opportunity for you if you have: A bachelor’s degree in forestry or master’s degree in forestry; and 1 year related experience..This is a term position with an anticipated end date of March 31, 2026; however, the position status (“term”, “temporary” or “casual”) is dependent on the start date of the successful candidate.”

Jul 11, 2024:
Unhappy with new greenwashing rules, Alberta and fossil fuel companies push back
Benjamin Shingler · CBC News “Consultations planned for law aimed at cracking down on misleading environmental claims”

Jul 9, 2024:
– Intermission: Unplugging to recharge, and announcing upcoming ‘Lichen Songs’ Series
Linda Pannozzo in The Quaking Swamp Journal. It begins “Do not try to save the whole world or do anything grandiose. Instead, create a clearing in the dense forest of your life and wait there patiently, until the song that is your life falls into your own cupped hands and you recognize and greet it. Only then will you know how to give yourself to this world so worthy of rescue.— Martha Postlethwaite…In 2016 I had the fortunate occasion of meeting Frances Anderson for a piece I was writing about the boreal felt lichen…In 2016 I had the fortunate occasion of meeting Frances Anderson for a piece I was writing about the boreal felt lichen…”

Jul 4, 2024:
Okanagan fire/drought/flood: The Emperor Wears No Clothes
Danica Djordjevich in the Vernon Morning Star. “Poor forestry stewardship exacerbates existential risks to rural British Columbians”

Jul 3, 2024:
– Climate change drives tree species towards colder, wetter regions
University of Birmingham “Climate change is likely to drive tree species towards colder and wetter regions of their geographical distribution, a new study has shown. The research, led by the University of Alcalá (UAH), in Spain, and including researchers at the University of Birmingham, draws together data from across Europe and North America to show that tree species in the Northern Hemisphere are starting to become denser in colder and wetter regions.” The article relates to this paper: Relative decline in density of Northern Hemisphere tree species in warm and arid regions of their climate niches, Julen Astigarraga et al., 2024 in PNAS.

Jul 2, 2024:
– Province collects no reclamation security for large wind projects
Joan Baxter in the Halifax Examiner “In April this year, Premier Tim Houston hosted a town hall meeting in Pictou County about the proposed 100-turbine wind farm being proposed by Bear Head Energy, and found himself pummelled with tough questions from the audience. Many worried about the project’s environmental impact on their picturesque corner of the province with its rolling, wooded…”
Into in Morning File

– Tree marking course showcases sustainable forestry in action
Nova Scotia Community College/ Centre of Forest Innovation success stories. View also post on this website, Jun 20, 2024

Jun 28, 2024:
– Membertou First Nation celebrates construction of mass timber office building
By Indigenous Services Canada in Canadian Forest Industries “Today, Membertou First Nation and Indigenous Services Canada announced the construction of a new gas bar and a mass timber office building at the Seventh Exchange retail district in Nova Scotia.

Jun 27, 2024:
– Nova Scotia wood chips dumped into Iceland coastal waters and called ‘carbon capture’
By Joan Baxter in The Halifax Examiner (subscription required, intro in Morning File) “In 2022, credulous media were writing flamboyant headlines venerating Running Tide CEO Marty Odlin as “the guy who wants to help save the planet with thousands of buoys, seaweed and giant antacids.” … Spotify and Microsoft were so taken by the hype that both bought carbon credits from Running Tide, which bills itself as a carbon-sequestration company that can “fix the planet.” …Two years after those big headlines Running Tide is being shut down. … On June 14, the Icelandic weekly newspaper, Heimildin, known for its investigative journalism, published an article about Running Tide’s carbon capture scheme, noting that it sounded “too good to be true.” That’s because it was. … last summer Running Tide dumped 19,000 tonnes of wood chips into Iceland’s coastal waters, “completely unsupervised.” … the “Canadian” wood chips Running Tide dumped were shipped from Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia … On June 14, Odlin reported that he was shutting down Running Tide’s global operations…”

Jun 26, 2024:
– S5 EP1 | Keeping up with the Competition Act (Podcast, 45 min)
On /www.nortonrosefulbright.com/ “Transformative changes to the Competition Act are here. How will they affect the competition disputes landscape? To kick off season 5 of Disputed, hosts Ted Brook and Erin Brown sit down to discuss the changes with guests Chris Hersh, Partner and Canadian Head of Antitrust and Competition based in Toronto, and Eric Lefebvre, Partner and litigator based in Montreal. In addition to the changes to the Competition Act, this episode covers the current status of bills C-59 and C-56 and their compounding effects on the potential for expanded competition litigation; environmental performance claims; and why there’s still so much uncertainty in this area. Ted, Erin, Chris and Eric discuss why the changes could result in a significant uptick in litigation on competition issues, particularly where NGOs are eager to bring complaints.”Tip of the Hat to Rob B. for forwarding this item ” I think this will be of significant interest to anyone interested in legal approaches to conservation protection and misleading environmental claims. Major changes are: 1) giving regular citizens the right to launch legal complaints about misleading and false advertising. 2) Raising the bar for corporations and their responsibilities to follow ethical guidelines/rules. 3) Increased financial penalties for rule breakers. 4) Easier access for class action lawsuits — eg, class actions are not restricted to the Competition Bureau’s discretion — private citizens and groups can now also push class action suits with the Bureau’s approval.”

– Meeting of federal-provincial-territorial Ministers responsible for conservation, wildlife, and biodiversity – Federal-provincial-territorial Ministers commit to implementing the Global Biodiversity Framework in Canada
Environment and Climate Change Canada News Release “The ministers and representatives met last May 2023, when they committed to collective efforts toward halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 and putting nature on a path to recovery by 2050. They also discussed collective efforts toward achieving Canada’s goal of protecting 30 percent of land and water by 2030, in response to the adoption of the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework at the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. Today, the ministers and representatives shared their respective initiatives to address biodiversity conservation and discussed the importance of accelerating the pace of action. Participants discussed how Canada’s 2030 Nature Strategy’s successful and ambitious implementation requires coordinated action and depends on whole-of-society, whole-of-government approaches…”

Jun 25, 2024:

For more than a year, the North Atlantic has been running a fever
By Haley Thiem, on www.climate.gov. “…the North Atlantic Ocean since March 2023. Temperatures have been so extreme that much of the North Atlantic has been experiencing a marine heatwave. This particular event has already brought devastating heat stress to nearly all of the Atlantic’s tropical reef areas and contributed to a very active 2023 Atlantic hurricane season. The top map shows where sea surface temperatures across the North Atlantic on June 16, 2024, were warmer (red) or cooler (blue) than the 1971-2000 average (white). Much of the Atlantic is colored red. Temperatures are about 2 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit (about 1 to 3 degrees Celsius) warmer than normal across much of the central North Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf of Mexico, while areas along the U.S. East Coast (along the Gulf Stream) and across northern portions of the North Atlantic show anomalies (departures from average) close to 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) above normal. The bottom map shows the actual sea surface temperatures across the North Atlantic on June 15, 2024. Areas in white and orange show where sea surface temperatures are above 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26 degrees Celsius)—the temperature needed to fuel hurricane development. The darker the orange the closer temperatures are to 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius). Areas in blue show where the sea surface temperatures are below 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Much of the tropical Atlantic, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico were experiencing temperatures greater than 80 degrees Fahrenheit by mid-June.

Jun 21, 2024:
– Seeding change, one tree at a time
By Moira Donovan in National Observer “In 2021, the Federal government announced a commitment to plant 2 billion trees over the next decade as part of its goal to mitigate climate change and address biodiversity loss…an audit released that year said the program was unlikely to meet its long-term target without significant changes and a 2024 CBC report described its challenges — namely, finding enough land and seeds to fulfill the goal. In Nova Scotia, a program aims to address these challenges by harnessing the province’s unusual structure of forest ownership…says Rachael MacNeil, program director for the Thriving Forests program.Working on both private and public land, the Thriving Forests program — run by the Clean Foundation — aims to plant 21 million trees across the province, working with individual landowners, organizations, Indigenous communities and provincial agencies.”

– Healthy Rivers, Healthy Planet Naturally (Video)
Presentation by Eddie Halfyard & Shannon Sterling to the Halifax Field Naturalists June 18, 2024. Recorded on Zoom & archived by HFN.
“The Nova Scotia Salmon Association’s Ecologist Edmund Halfyard, PhD, along with Dalhousie environmental scientist Shannon Sterling, PhD, co-founded Carbon Run, a company whose mission is to ‘restore the health of rivers and their natural ability to draw carbon from land — to sea’. The presentation details the situation we are currently in, the steps needed to rectify this, and Carbon Run’s approach to doing so. Through their research, they have found that when water quality is restored, rivers regain their natural ability to markedly increase biodiversity while drawing down carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.” View more about Carbon Run/Liming of Forest Soils

Jun 20, 2024:
How long will it take to put out P.E.I.’s peat fire?
CBC News (Video) “The fire at a peat harvesting operation in Foxley River, P.E.I., has been burning for several days. Mike Montigny and Nick Thompson from the province’s forest, fish and wildlife division explain why this type of fire is so hard to extinguish, and how the department is managing its resources.”

Jun 14, 2024:
– Why Europe and America’s dying forests could be good news
YouTube Video on DW Planet A channel/ “Germany is losing its forests, FAST. In the central Harz region, over 90 percent of spruce trees are dead or dying because of climate change and insect damage. But this isn’t necessarily bad news. Instead of the former monoculture forest, a more resilient, wild forest is springing up, with a more abundant ecosystem.” Read more:
– Background information on Harz National Park
– Managing bark beetle outbreaks, Policy Brief by Forest Europe
– Study on Bark Beetle Outbreaks in Europe: State of Knowledge and Ways Forward for Management

– Government of Canada invests in discovery and applied research to keep the country at the forefront of scientific advancements
NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada). Page provides links to grants from the feds to support research across Canada
– 4 Growing Threats to Europe’s Forests: Logging, Bioenergy, Wildfires and Pests
By Sarah Carter World Resources Institute

June 13, 2024:
– National strategy to protect nature in Canada unveiled alongside bill to ensure accountability
Environment and Climate Change Canada on Cision Newswire “The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, announced the release of Canada’s 2030 Nature Strategy and introduced an Act respecting transparency and accountability in relation to certain commitments Canada has made under the Convention on Biological Diversity (the Nature Accountability Bill). …The 2030 Nature Strategy lays out how Canada will implement the ambitious nature protection goals under the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework that were agreed upon at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity in Montréal, in December 2022. …The Nature Accountability Bill establishes a requirement for the Government to develop a national nature strategy, like Canada’s 2030 Nature Strategy, and report on its implementation, ensuring accountability and transparency which will help drive us collectively to reverse nature loss.”

Also view

June 11, 2024:
– Westfor Management Inc. makes presentation on Old Growth to Lunenburg Municipal Council – View MODL Meeting Agenda with Westfor Slides (PDF Pages 16-20)
Also view nsforestmatters.ca/NS Triad/MODL with links to audio etc.

– Walking among the Ancients: Honouring a rare old-growth forest
CBC Radio/Ideas (54 min audio) and post with photos on cbc.ca “The World Wildlife Fund lists the Wabanaki-Acadian old-growth forest as endangered — with only one percent remaining. It is very rare to come across an old-growth forest stand, and Peter Rompkey took Mary to a secret location which was in pristine condition with trees more than 300 years old, and a rolling thick forest floor of mosses and fungi.”

June 10, 2024:
– On the Northern Pulp Agreement 19Jun2024
Guest Post by Helga Guderley on nsforestmatters.ca “The last thing that we need is a secretive multinational corporation milking provincial subsidies while taking the last of our standing forests.”
– Historic North American delegation visits Finland to explore forest industry innovations
The Helsinki Times “Business Finland is hosting an unprecedented visit by a large delegation from the North American forest and wood products industry, marking a significant milestone in international collaboration. Over 60 delegates from nine U.S. states and Nova Scotia, Canada, are touring Finland to gain insights into the country’s advanced forestry practices and innovative wood-based technologies.”

June 8, 2024:
– The Clear Cut – Canada’s Forestry PR: A Game of Deception
Joa Baxter interviewed by BuzzSprout. ”
We sit down with Joan Baxter from the Halifax Examiner about her recent article on the growing problem of greenwashing in an age of digital information sharing. We discuss the Forest Products Association’s (FPAC) ‘Forestry for the Future’ advertising campaign that’s been proliferating across social media…Read Joan’s article in the Halifax Examiner.”

June 6, 2024:
– Tropical forests adjust strategies to thrive even when soils are nutrient poor, large field experiment shows
by Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies on phys.org
“Tropical forests store a third of the world’s carbon in their wood and soils. However, their future as a carbon sink has been uncertain. Scientists have long wondered whether nutrient-poor tropical soils would limit the ability of mature and recovering forests to thrive. A study published in New Phytologist offers a hopeful response, suggesting that forests have flexible strategies that help them overcome the challenge of scarce nutrients…Forests of different ages responded differently to the nutrient additions, showing that “trees are actively responding to their nutrient environment,” said Wong… “We need to consider nutrient limitation when we’re reforesting,” said Batterman. “One way is to make sure we’re using a diversity of trees with different phosphorus acquisition strategies. “” Comment: In NS, we do recognize large differences in soil fertility and attempt to plant/encourage species accordingly, however as conifers have lower nutrient demands than hardwoods (especially for calcium) it can contribute to “borealization” of our forests.  It seems that NS DNR/L&F/NRR soil scientist Kevin Keys, who conducted very high calibre research on NS soils and has retired, has not been replaced.

June 3, 2024:
– In Mi’kma’ki, fighting to save the hemlock ‘grandmothers’ from a deadly pest
Photo Essay By Crystal Greene in The Narwhal. “Ninety per cent of the hemlock trees in Nova Scotia could disappear. A Mi’kmaq-led effort is ensuring at least one forest will survive.”
–An ominous forecast
By Brian Sullivan in Bloomberg Green Daily (Subscribe to newsletter for full story). “We are officially two days into Atlantic hurricane season… Today’s newsletter looks at how the season is shaping up. “The Atlantic has officially entered hurricane season. Again. While Saturday marked the official start, the US National Hurricane Center has been issuing advisories since May 15 because storms have managed to form early in recent years… Near-record warm water from the Gulf of Mexico to the African coast will fuel any storms that form. The possible emergence of La Niña in the eastern tropical Pacific later this year will remove one key barrier that can block Atlantic storms – wind shear. This is a perfect setup to tap the Atlantic’s ferocity, which is why the forecasts are so alarming. The wild card will be how much dust and dry air blows off the Sahara Desert, which can choke storms of needed moisture…”

Jun 2, 2024:
– Organization buying N.S. forests to prevent clear-cutting
Jesse Huot CTVNewsAtlantic.ca. “With World Environment Day(opens in a new tab) just around the corner, a local Nova Scotian organization is working to purchase and conserve forests which are in danger of being clear-cut. The CEO of Growing Forests, Dale Prest, says saving forests from being clear-cut is important to maintain our environment.”