Volunteer group urging province to conserve land where there’s protected species (Link to archived AUDIO)
Information Morning – NS with Portia Clark, June 12, 2025 “Confusion swirls around whether the province is considering conserving some forested Crown land in Annapolis County, where logging operations continue despite volunteer citizen scientists finding protected species in the area. Information Morning’s Phlis McGregor brings us the story.”
Click on image to go to the Audio
ROUGH TRANSCRIPT
Some highlighting of CBC questions & comments added
| 0:00 minutes |
CBC PC:
A volunteer group in Annapolis county is trying to convince the province to conserve some forested crown land near Bridgetown. It’s the proposed Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area and there’s been some confusion about whether the province is considering the proposal.
Meanwhile logging operations continue even close to areas where the group has found protected species. Information Morning’s Phlis McGregor recently met some folks and citizen scientists where they were camping along a logging Road. Good morning Phlis.
CBC PM: Good morning Portia
CBC PC:
Well remind is Phlis, where is this proposed Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area?
CBC PM: It’s 15 minutes by car from Bridgetown. The proposed boundary runs from the West side of Dalhousie lake to the west side of Goldsmith Lake and Corbett Lake is in the middle.
It’s 3900 hectares and it includes previously logged areas, newly logged places plus some older forest, old growth forests and the ecosystems to go along with that.
| 1 minute |
CBC PC: And who did you meet there?
CBC PM: Well I met with three members of the group Citizen Scientists of Southwest Nova Scotia. [ZIPPER NOISE] That’s the sound of the zipper going up on their tent. We had to do the interview inside because the black flies were fierce.
CBC PC: And other than getting bitten by black flies are or trying to avoid them in the mosquitoes what do they do there?
CBC PM: Well I’ll let group member Nina Newington answer that.
Nina Newington: we’re actually primarily documenting the conservation value of this area. We’re working to get the area protected and we’re trying to keep it in good shape while we work to get it protected.
But also we’ve been inviting people out, taking people for hikes, workshops. Lisa did an iNaturalists workshop and we did an owl prowl. You know we try and bring other people in and introduce them to the area too.
CBC PM: And members of the group are always on the lookout for species-at-risk
CBC PC: And have they found anything?
| 2 minutes |
CBC PM: Oh yes, rare birds and trees and they’ve spotted at least one pine marten and many endangered lichens. Altogether that’s 115 species-at-risk occurrences.
Lisa Proulx has become good at identifying the endangered frosted glass whiskers lichen.
Lisa Proulx: It’s a tiny, tiny little stubble lichen and it’s less than 2mm high so we had to learn how to find its important microhabitat which is the exposed heartwoods of hardwoods such as red Maple or Yellow Birch. And we’ve also found Blue Felt Lichen NS black ash and a number of species-at-risk birds. So it’s turning out to be a really incredibly biodiverse area because of the old forest.
CBC PM: And when the group confirms they’ve found a species at risk, they report that to Nova Scotia department of natural resources; after the find is verified, DNR contacts logging company so that they’ll include a no-logging zone or buffer zone around the species-at-risk.
| 3 minutes |
CBC PM: (Cont’d): The citizen scientists have also found patches of old growth forest that DNR didn’t know about and when a forest is given that status, it must be protected from logging.
CBC PC: And so why is there confusion over whether this area is being considered for protection?
CBC PM: Well earlier this spring Annapolis county MLA David Bowlby wrote letters to several of his constituents and at that time he said, quote,
Goldsmith Lake remains under active evaluation for permanent protection by the province.
I’ve tried to follow up on that and what that means and eventually I got an e-mail from Jordan Croucher, Director of Communications for the Progressive Conservative caucus.
The e-mail includes a statement from MLA Bowlby, admitting he had made a mistake and that he wanted to correct the record: Goldsmith Lake is not under consideration for designation as a Wilderness Area.
| 4 minutes |
CBC PC: And Phlis, will that change anything for the group now that the province is saying Goldsmith Lake is not being protected or considered for that?
CBC PM: No that they’re going to keep right on trying to get the area protected and when she’s not at the camp, Nina Newington is busy submitting Freedom of Information requests to the province to see how DNR Is protecting species-at-risk at Goldsmith Lake.
CBC PC: And what she found out from that [NinaNewingtons FOI requests] ?
CBC PM: well she found out there’s an area where logging is planned but to get there, Portia, the logging company WestFor will have to make a road through an area where Newington’s group has discovered several black ash trees. Black Ash is a threatened species in Nova Scotia and it’s important to the Mi’kmaq.
According to the province’s own rules, black ash, which is called Wisqoq
in Mi’kmaw, requires a no disturbance zone of 200 meters.
So Newington says DNR will be breaking its own rules.
| 5 minutes |
Nina Newington: Those buffers are supposed to provide real protection on the black ashes, a seriously endangered species and we have found, I think, 8 of them in these 3900 hectares.
That’s actually quite a lot, you know that they’re really not many of them around, and they should be looked after and protected and they should be respecting the buffers.
CBC PC: And what does DNR say about this? [200 m buffers required around black ash] what’s it saying and maybe doing?
Nina Newington: well DNR sent me a statement it reads, ” while we’ve had reports of black ash outside the approved harvest area, we have not yet been able to confirm its presence in this area; to be safe we’ve put a 200 meter buffer around the area where it might be.”
And it goes on to say where logging roads go through the buffer, WestFor will keep the road narrow and manage surface water runoff from the road to maintain the integrity of the watershed.
| 6 minutes |
CBC PM: So Portia they will be putting a road through the buffer.
In the meantime, Newington is concerned about another situation where she believes the province isn’t following its own rules.
CBC PC: And what’s that?
CBC PM: Well I have to back up a bit for some context.
Last spring Newington was walking through a patch of old growth forest at dusk when suddenly she was dive bombed by these two birds; she pulled out her phone to record video and this is the sound from the video…
[SOUND]
CBC PC: OK it sounds like sounds like someone’s alarm.
CBC PM: Yeah, that well that’s the idea; a pair of goshawks tried to scare Newington away from their nest. She quickly left and reported the goshawks and the nest to DNR.
According to DNR’s own guidance, goshawks can’t tolerate any disturbance or they may abandon their nests. And so there must be no harvesting or road construction within 200 meters of an active goshawk nest at all times of the year.
| 7 minutes |
CBC PM cont’d: Newington assumed that DNR would force the logging company to give the nest that buffer.
CBC PC: And did that happen?
CBC PM: No, at the end of April the logging company Westfor, with permission from DNR, cut down trees approximately 100 meters from the nest.
So when I was there, Newington and I went looking for the nest and the goshawks.
Nina Newington: Record GPS tracks. start tracking.
CBC PM: To get there we walked over swaths of recently logged forest, then just before we got to the nest, we were in an old growth forest.
…Trying to think of what our escape route will be if we do get dive bombed.
…After a bit of traipsing around, we spotted the nest in a tall old hardwood.
Nina Newington: good job
CBC PM: I would say if they were there we would know
Nina Newington: Oh, we would definitely know.
CBC PC: Right, they would spot you and then make that noise again.. maybe can you say for sure it was logging that drove the birds away Phlis?
CBC PM: No maybe the birds died sometime between last year and now, maybe they’re at another nest this year, but it’s also possible it’s because of the logging.
| 8 minutes |
Nina Newington: I think that they damn well didn’t put in the 200 meter buffer and they cut too close. and Goshawks are famous for being disturbed off the nest.
I mean I don’t know that, I can’t swear that because I wasn’t here while they were cutting seeing goshawks fleeing, but they were certainly here last year.
CBC PC: So what does DNR say about not giving the goshawk nest a 200 meter buffer from logging?
CBC PM: Well this statement to me from DNR says a DNR biologist went to see the nest this April before the logging occurred. The biologist reported that, quote, “no birds were using the nest at the time and likely they would not be using the nest this season”
Plus the DNR biologists could not confirm that it was a goshawk nest.
And Portia I should add that I sent that bird sound we heard earlier to a few birders in Nova Scotia and they all agreed without a doubt the sound belongs to a pair of goshawks.
| 9 minutes |
CBC PC: I guess only the goshawks will know exactly what happened.
How long do the citizen scientists plan to stay there Phlis, you know camped beside this logging Road?
CBC PM: I don’t think they’re going anywhere. They’ve committed to saving this ecosystem for future generations. Here’s 24 year old Rene Doucet Cottreau.
Rene Doucet Cottreau: once this bit of forest is gone it’s not coming back and we’ve seen too much of that for the last, you know several centuries, you know less than 1% of the provinces old growth forest at this point, and it’s absolutely vital to protect them now so that we will still have them in 20 years or 30 years.
CBC PM: That’s Rene Doucet Cottreau with the Citizen Scientists of Southwest Nova Scotia.
CBC PC: Phlis, thanks for bringing us the story.
CBC PM: You’re welcome Portia.
| 9:50 |