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I took these photos yesterday on the Etu’qamikejk Trail in thanksgiving for and in celebration of the beauty, bounty and solace afforded by our Wabanaki-Acadian Forest – david p
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“Jammed into a bill titled the Protecting Nova Scotians Act are amendments to the Crown Lands Act that will do just the opposite.
“The current law states that “No person, without lawful authority, shall barricade or post signs on a forest access road.” The amended law adds “block, obstruct the use of, impede access to” after “barricade.” Continue reading
From The Narwhal, this a.m.:
 From The Narwhal Newsletter, Sep 30, 2025. One hundred and forty federally run residential schools operated across Canada for more than a century; so did dozens of other institutions run by other authorities, all designed to forcibly assimilate generations of Indigenous children. In 1997, the last school — Kivalliq Hall in Rankin Inlet, Nvt. — finally closed its doors. But the traces of these institutions linger on the land, in derelict buildings, on street names like “Indian School Road” and in the makeshift memorials erected on former grounds: children’s toys, tiny shoes and offerings of tobacco and sweetgrass. Continue reading |
Received by NSFN, From: unamakimedicinecamp
Mon, Sep 15, 2025
Subject: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Mi’kmaq Establish Cultural Revitalization Camp at Hunters Mountain in Unama’ki
Photo by NN during visit to Hunters Mountain Mi’kmaw protest on Sep 9, 2025 to take supplies and donations from SOOF. View related social media post
Unama’ki – More than 100 Mi’kmaw rights holders have established a cultural revitalization camp at the foot of Hunters Mountain in Cape Breton, transforming what began as a logging blockade into a centre for traditional medicine gathering and cultural teachings.
“We’re not only asserting our rights,” says Allison Bernard, of Eskasoni First Nation. “We’re reclaiming our culture and traditions. This mountain is a part of us. Our ancestors are here. Our relatives the moose are here.” Read More
Keith Egger collecting mushrooms in an old deciduous forest in Kejimkujik National Park. On the rotting log in the foreground is Eastern American Platterful Mushroom (Megacollybia rodmanii) a common spring inhabitant of decomposing wood.
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The post is adapted from the text of a letter written by Keith Egger addressed to Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston, Minister of Natural Resources Tory Rushton, and to Minister of Environment and Climate Change Tim Halman; it was sent on Aug 13, 2025. We had seen a copy of it and Keith graciously agreed to our posting it and providing some supplementary photos and info. about himself.
In the letter, Keith addresses the apprehension that many of us feel about the NS Government’s commitment to achieving 20% protection by 2030. For example, he comments that he had heard members of the NS government suggest that protecting areas that can’t be logged (e.g. steep hillsides and ravines, islands, wet forests) might be a path to reach protection and explains why that would not be an ecologically sensible strategy.
Keith is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Ecosystem Science & Management at the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George, BC. He retired after 29 years studying microbial diversity and ecology and moved to Nova Scotia in 2019. He has been active since retirement studying mushroom diversity in Nova Scotia’s old-growth forests.
– NSFN Continue reading
UPDATE , received from Forestry Maps, Sep 2, 2025:
As of August 29th, at 4pm travel restrictions were lifted for the following counties as noted in this news release. Woods Restrictions Lifted in Some Counties, Remain in Others | Government of Nova Scotia News Releases: Cape Breton, Richmond, Victoria, Inverness, Guysborough, Antigonish, Halifax. Therefore, the pause on updates to the Harvest Plans Map Viewer has been lifted for the above counties. All plans will receive an “open for comment” status of 40 days, which excludes the time period of the travel restrictions. The burn ban remains in place for the entire province until October 15 or until conditions improve further.
ORIGINAL POST
Received from NS Forestry Maps today (Aug 20, 2025): Continue reading
Write the Citizen Scientists:
Aug 8, 2025
To: Honourable Tory Rushton, Minister of Natural Resources, Nova Scotia
Topic: Stop the clock on all harvest approvals
Dear Minister Rushton,
Please pause all harvest approvals on crown land until the woods are open to the public again.
Why? Because formal opportunity for the public to comment on proposed harvest plans is required as part of DNR’s Integrated Resource Management process for approving harvest plans. All comments made on a specific harvest plan are included in the approval documents for that plan. In order to gather these comments, harvest plans are posted on the Harvest Plan Map Viewer. The public is given 40 days to comment.
As of August 5th, the public cannot access Crown land forests. This makes it impossible to visit the plan areas to gather the site specific data that is requested. As a result, the clock for each 40 day comment period must be stopped as of August 5th. It should be restarted when the woods are open to the public. Continue reading
Updates
– Oct 9, 2025: Community members want land protected amid concerns over clearcutting
Michael Gorman · CBC News “Mike Lancaster is growing frustrated. For 10 years, the executive director of the St. Margarets Bay Stewardship Association has been part of a group of people working to get provincial protection for the proposed Ingram River wilderness area, about 11,000 hectares of Crown land that once belonged to Bowater. But as people continue to wait to see if the government will act, Lancaster says part of the proposed area is seeing applications for high-production forestry activity, such as clearcutting.Lancaster said the proposed wilderness area would include “one of the most, if not the most, ecologically valuable parts of Nova Scotia.” Within the 11,000 hectares is the oldest-known forest in the Maritimes, core habitat essential to the survival of the Mainland Moose, 16 species at risk that have been identified, and an additional 72 considered species of conservation concern. “How can you not want to protect an area that has the literal oldest forest in the Maritimes,” said Lancaster. “It’s a failure of government and public policy to not make this happen at this point.” Neither Natural Resources Minister Tory Rushton nor Environment Minister Tim Halman would agree to an interview for this story….In a statement, a spokesperson for the Natural Resources Department said about 4,000 hectares of land in the Ingram River area has been protected as part of the Island Lake Wilderness Area, where no forestry activity is permitted. The statement goes on to say that harvesting that is happening in the Ingram River area is happening in places that are “not pristine wilderness.”But Lancaster said the province is missing out on the economic development potential of activities such as ecotourism and guiding that would come through the creation of a new wilderness area. He said the group’s proposal, which is supported by more than 50 citizen and business groups, would allow for ecological forestry activity — but not clearcutting — on about 70 per cent of the area that would make up the Ingram River wilderness area…”
– Sep 5, 2025: Province doubles area designated for proposed high-production forestry in Ingram River Wilderness Area
Madiha Hughees in the Hfx Examiner, Intro by Philip Muscovitvh in Morning File “The area targeted for high-production forestry (HPF) within the proposed Ingram River Wilderness Area (IRWA) has more than doubled, putting at risk the oldest documented forest in the Maritimes, a core mainland moose habitat, and several at-risk species. This means 346 hectares (854.72 acres) of the St. Margaret’s Bay watershed would be clearcut, with about 164 hectares within the proposed Ingram River Wilderness Area. Mughees speaks with forester Mike Lancaster, executive director of the St. Margaret’s Bay Stewardship Association…Lancaster and his organization have worked hard to protect that area. Part of the area slated for clearcutting is a parcel that he and the Stewardship Association have spent considerable time and money restoring.”
– Aug 15, 2025: Concerned citizens attend full house meeting in Tantallon about proposed clearcutting of Ingram River Wilderness Area
Madiha Mughees in the Hfx Examiner. Intro in Morning File “About 100 people packed a Tantallon Public Library meeting space on Wednesday evening for a public awareness event about the importance of the proposed Ingram River Wilderness Area, which has been designated for high-production forestry. Organizers argued that the area provides significant economic and ecological value and should be conserved. “Over 195.65 hectares, or 483.26 acres, of High Production Forestry has been proposed for the St. Margaret’s Bay watershed,” noted a Facebook post announcing the event.”
– July 30, 2025: Letter from Nina Newington/SOOF to DNR Minister Rushton “concerning the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) plans to clearcut in the proposed Ingram River Wilderness Area as well as in the Beals Brook, Tobeatic-Tidney Extension andChain Lakes Wilderness Areas.
– July 22, 2025: ‘All is not well here in the forests of Nova Scotia’: An open letter to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change by Bev Wigney in the Halifax Examiner.
– July 20, 2025: NatureNS: Community Nominated Protected Areas Need Your Help & How you can help
-July 17, 2025: The EAC’s Statement on the Prioritization of Clearcutting over Conservation in the Proposed Ingram River Wilderness Area
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Original Post
A Forest Alert issued by the Healthy Forest Coalition Jul 14, 2025:
Just over 195.65 ha, or 483.26 acres, of High Production Forestry has been proposed for the St. Margaret’s Bay watershed. This equates to over 366 football fields. 77.53 ha, or 191.5 acres, of those harvests have been proposed within the proposed Ingram River Wilderness Area (IRWA) under three separate polygons: Continue reading
By Nina Newington
Goldsmith Lake & Environs in late summer. Drone image by Malachi Warr
CONTENTS
– CBC investigates
– The obvious question, and others
– Justifying
– Compliant
– Current
– What Now?
– Relevant Freedom of Information Docs
CBC investigates
On June 12th, CBC’s Phlis McGregor reported:
Wrote Nina Newington on May 11, 2025 in A Letter worth reading: Part 1: News (good and bad)…
The Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area is now under formal evaluation for permanent protection by Environment and Climate Change, with the Department of Natural Resources collaborating. The Citizen Scientists of Southwest Nova Scotia proposed the area for protection in 2022.
Considering that, until recently, the Minister of Natural Resources claimed not to know anything about that proposal, the news that the area is now being treated as a candidate for permanent protection is very good news indeed.
The news, far from coming as a public announcement, is contained – you might even say buried – in the second paragraph of a letter Annapolis MLA David Bowlby sent out on April 23rd…
Some recent followup by CBC on the topic revealed, however, that MLA Bowlby apparently made a mistake and Continue reading
