From a post by Lisa Proulx on Friends of Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area (Public Facebook Page).
“As soon as we heard about the new cut block that was posted for comment in the Harvest Plan Map Viewer (HPMV) within the boundaries of the proposed Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area, we had a crew at the ready.
“Eight Citizen Scientists showed up and spent the day, bushwhacking, lichen hunting, measuring trees, tripping, sinking in muckholes, laughing and generally having a good time. Plus we found protected Species at Risk! Take a look at the map.
“So, even though we have shown Natural Resources and Renewables (NRR) that we are capable and interested in working with them within their own Collaborative Protection Strategy, they still want to allow logging in these sensitive, ecologically diverse areas. There are lots of other areas to do their logging in that are NOT proposed for protection.
“We just want this area to have a chance to be included in the 20% protected by 2030, before it gets riddled with even more roads and logging. Time will tell if our comments on the HPMV will make a difference!” ”
RELATED
– Lichen Camp
What is Lichen Camp?…
– Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area proposal
The proposal and related correspondence, articles
– Bursting the stubble bubble: citizen scientists measure ecological continuity near Goldsmith Lake, Nova Scotia using calicioid lichens and fungi
by Ashlea Viola, Nina Newington, Jonathan Riley, Steven Selva and Lisa Proulx, 2024. In Evansia, vol. 41, issue 1, pages 9-18.
Abstract: In an effort to protect a forest on provincial land near Goldsmith Lake in Annapolis County, Nova Scotia, from timber harvest operations, a group of citizen scientists began documenting the biodiversity of the area. In December 2022, the group invited Dr. Steven Selva, a lichenologist specializing in calicioid lichens and fungi, to visit and teach them how to locate and collect calicioid specimens. We found 27 calicioid species, one of which was new to the Maritimes, providing additional evidence that the forest is rich in biodiversity and that the areas recognized as old-growth were larger than the provincial government had previously realized.