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:
HX025202 – 24.13 hectares – within IRWA – comments due by July 22
HX025201 – 6.63 hectares – within IRWA – comments due by July 22
HX025191 – 46.77 hectares – within IRWA – comments due by Aug. 23
HX025188 – 16.59 hectares – comments due by July 22
HX025190 – 9.18 hectares – comments due by July 22
HX025186 – 3.5 hectares – comments due by July 22
HX025183 – 68.72 hectares – comments due by Aug. 23
HX025194 – 20.13 hectares – comments due by Aug. 23
You can view the proposed harvests by navigating to the Harvest Plans Map Viewer, and you can learn more about the proposed Ingram River Wilderness Area by following this link.
Where:
Ingram River Wilderness Area – former Bowater-Mersey lands, North of St. Margaret’s Bay and HWY 103.
What is High-Production Forestry?
High-Production Forestry (HPF) is an application of land and forest management techniques that focus on the maximization of extraction. HPF is one of the three legs of Bill Lahey’s proposed ‘Triad Forestry’, with ‘conservation’ and ‘ecological forestry’ representing the other two legs.
In short, applying HPF onto an identified landscape relegates the area to a perpetual cycle of clearcutting on short rotations.
The Problem?
Nova Scotia is legally required to protect approximately 330,000 hectares of its lands and waters within the next five years. IRWA, widely recognized as one of the most significant areas for public land conservation in Nova Scotia, is incredibly well-positioned to be protected as part of this initiative.
The Department of Natural Resources claims they do not cut even close to the total amount of wood our forests grow every year. This would mean there is a high-level of flexibility in what areas can be protected without harming industry in any way.
Why on earth would this area be getting targeted for High Production Forestry?
Why is this happening now?
Why pick a fight here when there are so many places for HPF values to be in less conflict with conservation and community?
The move to slate this ideal candidate for protection for perpetual clearcutting looks like a vindictive move to cut the area before it is protected.
Why everyone should be concerned
- Loss of a public natural resource close to the expanding city of Halifax
- “Industrialised” forestry process leaving ugly, barren landscapes
- Threatens the final extinction of the Mainland Moose
- Impoverishes soil, resulting in less fire-resistant forests
- Increases peak and total run-off during storms; leading to flash floods and destruction of bridges, roads and other infrastructure, and a long-term increase in streambank erosion and subsequent silting up of downstream pools, lakes, coves and estuaries.
- Failure of government to choose other areas and methods which are apparently available, over this area, which is part of a sensitive and irreplaceable ecosystem and close to homes and major roads
The proposed IRWA:
- Contains the oldest documented forest in the Maritimes, with one tree that is 535 years old
- Is observed to support at least 17 Species at Risk and 72 species of conservation concern known to be within Ingram River Wilderness Area.
- Supported by over 50 businesses and nonprofits, including the Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq and the Tourism Industry Association of Nova Scotia, with a combined membership of 50,000.
- The area has been identified as core habitat for Mainland Moose, meaning that the protection of this land is essential for the long-term survival of the species.
Adding insult to injury, the St. Margaret’s Bay Stewardship Association, the organization leading the charge on the IRWA proposal, was delivered a commitment from DNR in 2021 that the areas not protected under the Island Lake Wilderness Area designation would either be protected in the future or fall under the ecological forestry leg of the triad. This commitment has been cast aside and flagrantly ignored.
What you can do:
Submit comments through the Harvest Plans Map Viewer process by clicking on the “User Comments” button on the left side of the screen and then selecting the polygons.
Express your support for the designation of IRWA and concerns about this logging to Minister of Natural Resources and Renewables Tory Rushton at toryrushtonmla@bellaliant.com and mindnr@novascotia.ca.
Express your support for the designation of IRWA and concerns about these cuts to Minister of Environment and Climate Change Tim Halman at timhalmanmla@gmail.com and Minister.Environment@novascotia.ca.
Express your support for the designation of IRWA and concerns about this logging to Premier of Nova Scotia, Tim Houston, at pictoueastamanda@gmail.com and premier@novascotia.ca.
It is beyond frustrating to see this ‘cut-it-before-it’s-too-late’ mentality occur within the boundaries of the proposed Ingram River Wilderness Area. Nova Scotia has legally committed to protecting 20% of our lands and waters by 2030, and Ingram River Wilderness Area is one of the best candidates to further this protection. Having these harvests come up creates an unnecessary conflict between conservation and forestry values that does not need to occur, making the conversation of balancing societal values more difficult than it needs to be.
