“Camp NOW” set up to protest failure to protect wilderness areas in Nova Scotia 4Dec2025

Media Release
From Save Our Old Forests, Dec 4, 2025
For Immediate Release
Images inserted by NSFM

Camp NOW protests failure to protect wilderness areas

“Camp NOW occupies the exact same spot as this year’s Lichen Camp”. Photo from the Lichen Camp,

Camp N.O.W. – Need Our Wilderness – was set up on November 30th on Crown land in the proposed Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area in Annapolis County by Save Our Old Forests’ president Nina Newington and others who have been working to get the area permanently protected since 2022. Camp NOW is protesting the government’s failure to protect the Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area or any other new Wilderness Areas on public lands. Progress towards protecting 20% of Nova Scotia’s lands and waters by 2030 has been miniscule, less than half a percent since the commitment was included in the Environmental Goals and Climate Change Reduction Act in 2021. Instead, DNR is approving logging in citizen-proposed Wilderness Areas including Goldsmith Lake, Beals Brook, Ingram River and Chain Lakes. Continue reading

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Citizen-proposed Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area (Nova Scotia): 121 confirmed SAR, 31 stands of protected OGF 1Dec 2025

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Just received from Citizen Scientists of Southwest Nova Scotia: the latest version of their map showing confirmed SAR (Species-at-Risk, now 121 in total) and now protected OGF (Old Growth Forest) stands (31).

Links to more info. & context:

An Updated Proposal to Protect the Goldsmith Lake area, contributing to the 20% target
Prepared by Citizen Scientists of Southwest Nova Scotia. May 22, 2024. 23 pages

20% Protection by 2030
Page on this website (nsforestmatters.ca) Continue reading

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Shoulder to Shoulder – NN 16Nov2025

This is the text of Nina Newington’s comments to participants at the Shoulder to Shoulder, We are All Treaty People Rally yesterday:

“Wela’lioq to Glenda Junta and Michelle Paul for extending the invitation to create this rally; to Elder – Doctor – Albert Marshall for sharing his wisdom; to the land defenders at Hunters Mountain who inspired us all to come together in solidarity.

“I’ve been on Hunter’s Mountain. I’ve seen the clearcuts. I’ve seen the destruction. I’ve driven too many logging roads across this province. I know how little is left of our Wabanaki forests, how much has been taken from these unceded lands over decades of brutal extraction. I know how much it matters to protect what is left for us humans, yes, but also for all our relations, for salmon and dragonflies, turtles and moose, black ash and the tiniest lichens. Without healthy forests, there is no livable planet for future generations. Continue reading

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A few pics from Shoulder to Shoulder: We are All Treaty People Rally 15Nov2025


Received from Nina Newington while attending the rally with a group from the Annapolis Valley/SOOF:

A few photos from today, 450-500 people, good speakers, drummers, spirits…View more

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Nova Scotia DNR announces a short cut in public review of forest harvest plans 6Nov2025

UPDATE NOV 17, 2021: From the notice sent to subscribers from Forestry Maps, received today (bolding inserted): Continue reading

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Rally Sat Nov 15, 2025 Halifax: Shoulder to Shoulder, We are All Treaty People

If you live, work, play, or pray in Nova Scotia, we want you there. We want to hear your voices!
— Mi’kmaw land defenders Michelle Paul and Glenda Junta

Bring your community banners, signs, flags and regalia. Bring your drums, songs and prayers.

“Nature has rights; humans have responsibilities.” – Dr./Elder Albert Marshall

Read more

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NatureNS on where we stand today on Protected Areas in Nova Scotia 26Oct2025

And a comment on ForestNS’s assertion that we are “increasing wildfire risk by protecting too much land”.

Nature Nova Scotia has posted a comprehensive update on where we stand today on Protected Areas in Nova Scotia, noting

The province stopped designating new protected areas in 2024, leaving many parcels in the 2013 Parks and Protected Areas Plan unprotected. As of summer 2025, Nova Scotia is sitting at just 13.5% protected lands, less than 4 years away from the 2030 deadline for protecting 20%.”

The post opens with a photo of Owls Head, describing the background to the secretive delisting [by the Liberal Gov of the day] of Owls Head Provincial Park in 2020 revealed by investigative reporting by CBC journalist Michael Gorman.  Under a section on “Misinformation and Conflicting Interests”, NatureNS reminds us  how that factored into election of the PCs in 2021. Continue reading

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On Thanksgiving 2025: In celebration of our Wabanaki/Acadian Forest 12Oct2025

Click on images for larger versions

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

Click on images for larger versions Continue reading

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NN: “I’m a citizen scientist working to protect Nova Scotia’s forests. Tim Houston is threatening to put me in jail” 2Oct2025

“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

Posted in Citizen Sceince, Citizen-proposed Protected Areas, Conservation, Forest Roads, Freedom of Information, NS Gov, Wabanaki Forest | Comments Off on NN: “I’m a citizen scientist working to protect Nova Scotia’s forests. Tim Houston is threatening to put me in jail” 2Oct2025

Keeping History Alive: the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School in Nova Scotia 30Sep2025

From The Narwhal, this a.m.:

From The Narwhal Newsletter, Sep 30, 2025.
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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

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