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NS Forest Matter/
…Ecological Forestry & Conservation/
… …20% Protection by 2030/
… … …Open Letter to Premier Houston 17Oct2024/(This Page)
… … … … Drone Images Beals Brook
… … … … NN talks to CBC about the Letter (This Page)
Rough transcript from CBC interview with Nina Newington about the SOOF Letter, Oct 28, 2024 Subtitles (in italics) inserted
CBC: Residents in Annapolis County recently discovered WestFor contractors have logged some of the proposed Beals Brook Wilderness area.
The Last Hope Camp was set up to protect the land between December 2021 and June of 2022. Citizen scientists were able to identify enough Species-At-Risk lichens to put 60% of the forest off limits to logging.
Several proposals were put forth to protect the remaining 40%. Save our Old Forests Association sent an open letter to the premier in response to the recent discovery that logging has taken place.
Nina Newington is the President of the association; she spoke with our colleague Molly MacNaughton
CBC: Tell me what happened to the proposed Beals Brook Wilderness Area in Annapolis County.
NN responds:
Our identifications of Species-At-Risk put about 60% of the cut block at Beals Brook off limits, so they cut the other 40%
Well we heard that there might have been logging and we went in to look in part of the 24 hectare area that have been approved for cutting ; we had originally really worked hard to protect that as part of the larger protected areas, and we identified a lot of Species-At-Risk lichens and that was all good.
It put about 60% of that cut block off limits and we really were hoping that at that point DNR would let the rest of it alone, because by then there were four different proposals to protect the area that included that forest.
But unfortunately, as we discovered, that isn’t what happened, they went in and cut in the other 10 hectares, the other 40% that was left.
Why did they harvest the remaining 40%? – would such harvesting even cover the cost of doing it?
And really, it was a little baffling why they had done that. I mean it was not really clear,looking at what was taken, that it would have been of sufficient value to even cover the cost of bringing in the equipment.
But they did. And they took the mature stand of spruce that is the kind of stand that moose need to survive through the winter and have shade in the summer .and it’s in very short supply in that area because there’s been so much clear cutting.
And they also took this strip of oldest forest that was along the east boundary, and that again was an area where we had seen by far the most wildlife tracks and presence, and had had a trail Cam and seen a bear there.
“They ended up taking what was the most conservation value of that area in a place that we are working to get protected”
So really they ended up taking what was the most conservation value of that area in a place that we are working to get protected. It’s an important stepping stone between the Cloud Lake Wilderness Area and other areas to the west and it’s a very important bridge between three different wetland areas.
It matters a lot to try and keep it intact and that’s not what’s happening.
CBC: Just for the listeners who don’t really know the area, can you give me some more background of the Beals Brook area and the history of trying to protect this forest?
NN responds:
Sure it’s actually right by this cut was a historic camp called the Last Hope camp that was set up in the 1920s at a point when game was becoming short in much of the province; and this was an area that was known for having a good population of moose so that people could go and get their winter’s meat hunting there.
Historically Bowater was going to cut the area but agreed with local resident farmer and the trapper Randy Neily that “it was worth more to wildlife than it was to the mill and left it alone.”
So it had that history to it and then about 20 years ago when it was owned by Bowater, they were going to cut this same area of forest and local resident farmer and the trapper Randy Neily asked them not to.
And they agreed, they accepted that basically it was worth more to wildlife than it was to the mill and left it alone.
So we were rather shocked when we found out that NRR was planning to cut in there and some of us ended up setting up a kind of protest camp right on the site of the old Last Hope Camp.
We ended up camped out there for 6 & 1/2 months through what turned out to be a rather brutal winter. And during that time, we actually learned a lot about lichens and discovered that part of that area was actually quite a haven for a particular Species At Risk lichen, the Black Foam.
CBC: The Department of Natural Resources and Renewables and the Department of Environment and Climate Change are mandated to protect 20% of Nova Scotia’s land and water by 20-30 and that’s something you mentioned in the open letter to the premier. And you also state that most of the 300,000 hectors needed to meet that 20% target will come from Crown Land. So what are you asking the province to do to meet this goal and protect old forests?
NN responds:
We are actually asking the government to collaborate in the way it says it’s going to do, between citizens and the Department of Natural Resources and Renewables, and the Department of Environment and Climate Change and get on with identifying the areas that are going to be protected.
Stop cutting in areas that have been proposed for protection. Stop logging the forest of the highest conservation value; mostly that means Old Forests.
But what we’re also saying is you need to stop cutting in areas that have been proposed for protection, whether that’s by citizens or by a department. And we need you to stop logging the forest of the highest conservation value on Crown land; and mostly that means Old Forests.
Old Growth is in very short supply; it’s less than 1%. It is in theory at least already protected under the Provinces Old Growth Forest Policy, but if we don’t protect the Old Forests, we are never going to have any more Old Growth ’cause there’s really only one way you get there: it’s by leaving Old Forests alone.
So that’s the big ask for us – leave the forest of high conservation value alone. Let the process work out for identifying what areas are going to be given permanent protection. And then we can, you know, then you can go about deciding how to do ecological forestry on the rest of Crown land.
And lots of places around the world, when they propose protecting a particular area, or & of an area, they put in immediate hold on logging in that area because otherwise there’s a risk that is going to be a rush to cut the last best places before they can be protected.
But we don’t have that kind of hold happening here. And as a result, we’re seeing you know really in many ways the Department of Natural Resources & Renewables continues to approve logging in Old Forests and they continue to approve logging in areas that have been proposed protection.
And that’s taking us backwards. iIt gets in the way of the Department of Environment having a chance to go through their due process to identify areas, put them out for public consultation; I mean they have a whole process to go through that takes a bit of time so you really need to not be degrading the forest while that process is happening.
CBC: In the open letter to the premier you mentioned other areas proposed for protection where Natural Resources and Rnewables plan to log. So can you tell me tell me more about this?
NN responds:
The Chain Lakes Wilderness area in Kings County: Old Hardwood Forest
I will give you an example because I went up there yesterday. The Chain Lakes Wilderness area in Kings County which the Blomidon Naturalists Society has worked on identifying and documenting, NRR has approved logging in about 100 hectares of sugar maple stands.
I went to take a look at them and you know those are 100 year old, also sugar maples, they are beautiful hardwood stands, they are perfectly in condition to be left alone and become exactly the kind of Old Growth forest we need – tolerant hardwood Old Growth forest, wonderful support for biodiversity, graded storing carbon.
The ecological harvest prescriptions as currently applied are not “Ecological Forestry”
But instead these supposedly ecological harvest prescriptions are underway right now in which they are removing 50% of the trees from each of those stands. And that’s ridiculous, you know, it never is ecological forestry to remove that much because basically you’ve you’ve destroyed the continuity of the forest. By removing so much of the forest cover, you’re letting in a huge amount of light and it changes everything and when you destroy that continuity you’re destroying the complexity that takes a long time to build up that supports the most biodiversity.
So when you have 100 year old forest, if you leave it alone it’s well on its way to becoming that and nothing is really going to mess with it. I mean even natural disasters like wind storms and fires don’t completely destroy that ecological continuity the way that bringing in heavy equipment and taking 50% of the forest does so.
it’s incredibly depressing to go up there and see that this is happening right now.
CBC: Nina Newington is the President of Save our Old Forests Association; you heard her speaking with the CBCS Molly MacNaughten