“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.
Click on images for larger versions.
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
– 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
The cryptic ovenbird (June 1, 2023) and an ovenbird nest on the ground (May 26, 2024) – eggs are barely visible (in the highlighted area. How can logging operations avoid such nests and those of so many other birds that go to great lengths to hide them? Photos by David P, nest in bottom pic pointed out by Donna C
Click on images for larger versions
By Nina Newington
Good news, though probably temporary. The logging that began on April 10th in the cutblock around last year’s Lichen Camp (AP021015E) has been paused. The logging equipment seems to have been removed for now, even though the harvesting of the cutblock doesn’t appear to be complete.
The probable reason for the pause can be found in an assurance that MLA Bowlby (or whoever was writing these letters for him) extended to a constituent who, along with protesting the whole idea of logging in a proposed protected area, had raised the issue of the damage done by logging during nesting season. Bowlby’s letter to her stated:
All operations adhere to federal migratory bird regulations, including seasonal restrictions to avoid nesting periods.
A month after that letter was sent, in response to a direct question on Facebook as to whether harvesting would stop for nesting season, the contractor, Josh Morse, said yes. That was on May 24th or 25th . Continue reading
