Corbett-Dalhousie Lakes Old Forest

In a nutshell*:
*Copied from post on NSFN Jun 15, 2019

Harvest Halted – Rankin cites species at risk concerns, puts hold on Crown forest cut south of Bridgetown
Lawrence Powell in www.kingscountynews.ca, June 14, 2019. Some extracts:

[Naturalist/photographer Scott] Leslie said late Friday afternoon it was heartening to hear the minister’s response to the concerns over logging of the forest area at Corbett Lake.

Annapolis Market, June 15, 2019

“The combined efforts of many individuals, including the women who spent many days camping at the site in tents, are what was needed to get the province of Nova Scotia to take seriously how critical it is we take care of migratory birds and the places they live and all of biodiversity,” Leslie said.“My sincere hope is that this will be a departure point into a new, more sustainable, and more ecologically sane way of treating and benefiting from the wildlands of this beautiful province,” he said. “Our determination to push forward with constructive change has been energized.”

Naturalist Bev Wigney from nearby Round Hill, who discovered the unique biodiversity of the Corbett Lake forest when she lead about 20 concerned residents on a walk through the woods on Boxing Day, said Rankin made the correct decision.

The story also made the Canadian Press:
Small bird seen swooping over N.S. forest helps naturalists bring halt to logging
By Staff, The Canadian Press, on Global News June 15, 2019 . Some extracts:

A group of small birds that naturalists spotted swooping over a Nova Scotia forest has helped convince the province to order a halt to further logging in the area.

The province’s minister of lands and forestry announced today that he’s ordering an investigation into a proposed harvest in about 80 scenic hectares of mixed forest between two lakes in Annapolis County.

Iain Rankin says he’s basing his decision largely on the recent spotting of chimney swifts, listed as an endangered species in Nova Scotia, along with other community feedback opposing logging in the forest between Dalhousie and Corbett Lakes.

Naturalist Scott Leslie, the author of seven books on natural history, filmed images of the darting flight of the chimney swifts and provided the information to the department.

Some of the discussion

Habitat destroyed: downed hollow trees by forest road at Corbett-Dalhousie Lakes forest, June 15, 2019

Jun. 18 at 10:31 p.m.
Bev Wigney
To David and all,

At Corbett-Dalhousie Lake where Swifts are being seen low over the
forest at intervals throughout the day — seen by as many as 50 people
a week ago Sunday — the “problem” is that the hardwood stand has many
very large Yellow Birch with cavities — sort of typical of those trees.

Bernard Forsythe came out to the forest to look for nests and tentatively identified a “possible” nest tree for the Swifts, but as far as I know, this has not been confirmed and there are other very suitable trees throughout the area.

Unfortunately, on the part of the same hardwood stand that was actually logged last autumn, quite a few “hollow” or “cavity trees” were cut down — and they are lying in the
mud out in the log yard — although lately, I notice that they are gradually being spirited away. They should have been left standing where they would have provided nesting habitat for birds, flying squirrels, porcupine, or other creatures. I expect eventually what
remains of the hollow trees will be hauled off to be chipped for
biomass for one of the mills.

In any case, this is the “problem” with not doing proper tree marking. You have operators guessing whichtrees to fell and then finding they have cavities or a hollow area in the trunk and they end up hauled out of the forest and tossed in the cull log pile. If qualified tree markers were employed, as I am told is the law on Crown land forest in Ontario, maybe there wouldn’t be so much “accidental destruction” of trees suitable for wildlife.

Unfortunately, that seems to be too complicated and high tech for the forest industry here in Nova Scotia, so we continue to do things the old “by guess and by golly” way.

bev wigney
round hill, ns

LINKS
*Copied from Nova Scotia Old Growth Ground Zero, page on NSFN created Jul 17, 2019
Uniform Shelterwood
Description on BC Government website, under a section titled Introduction to Silviculture Systems

Uniform Shelterwood at CorbettLake Old Hardwood Forest
Photos and video taken on June 15, 2019 contrast the state of the forest after the first stage of a uniform shelterwood cut has been completed (in this case, it seems there was one entry to remove biggest trees) with still intact forest nearby. For info about the site ad the issues, see http://nsforestnotes.ca/what-is-old-g…. Location: Nova Scotia; on Crown land

C-D Peninsula Maps
Page on NSFN

Some related posts on NSFN:

Newspaper articles

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Sound of Silence at Corbett-Dalhousie Lakes forest. June 15, 2019

An update, Dec 22, 2024, by Nina Newington on Annapolis Environment & Ecology (Public FB Group)
On Boxing Day six years ago, local resident Bev Wigney organized a gathering on the peninsula between Corbett and Dalhousie lakes. She shone a light on the value of the old, beautiful forest there to wildlife and to people.

When the Citizen Scientists of Southwest Nova Scotia proposed the Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area for protection in 2022, we included Corbett Lake and the peninsula. For most of the last two years our focus has been further to the west, but last week, just before the snow came, we decided it was time to take a closer look at the Corbett area. To our delight we identified eight new occurrences of Frosted Glass Whisker lichen (pending confirmation.) This comes on top of spotting a Rusty Blackbird, another species at risk, earlier this year at the south end of the peninsula, and an Olive-sided Fly Catcher documented on the north shore of the lake.

Corbett Lake is nowhere near as pristine as Goldsmith Lake. In addition to damming Bloody Creek to create Dalhousie Lake 50 odd years ago, the power company cut a channel to Corbett Lake, which changed the water level there, flooding the shorelines. Nonetheless, a chunk of the mixed wood forest on the Peninsula is old growth or very close, with many yellow birch over 70 cm in diameter at breast height as well as large red spruce and maples and many old beech. The forest floor shows the pit and mound pattern typical of old growth forest. There are fallen giants rotting into nurse logs and standing snags for wildlife as well as every other age of tree. The rare Grey Jay, a denizen of cool, deep forests, showed up on one of the afternoons. The peninsula, in other words, is another ecological gem, with Frosted Glass Whiskers once again serving as an old growth indicator species.

Exploring those woods was a wonderful way to spend a couple of days before the Winter Solstice. Among its other charms, the peninsula is quite easy to get to. As a Wilderness Area it will be (fingers crossed) a wonderful place for both local people and tourists to visit. In the meantime, on December 28th, assuming Neaves Road is passable, people will be gathering there for a Christmas Bird Count.