| SITE NAVIGATION This page is posted on nsforestmatters.ca at
It has in turn, a subpage: Addendum: On the EA |
Update Aug 5, 2024: To comment/discuss this post, please go to this item on Woods & Waters Nova Scotia Facebook Page. (‘Must log in to Facebook to comment.)
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We have forty days and forty nights to comment on the 5-year PHP (Port Hawkesbury Paper) harvest plans under Nova Scotia’s new OBFM (Outcomes Based Forest Management). There is no mention in the various documents of the Forest Environmental Assessment and the related Forest Stewardship Guide. The EA would provide comprehensive descriptions of the harvesting plans and much more time, process and scope for public input than afforded by the current process without an EA. Commented Lahey in 2018: ” If done properly, with openness and transparency and based on strong science, it [The Forest EA] will reduce the pressure for intense scrutiny by DNR or the public of individualized harvesting decisions.” The plan to include an EA provided a large part of the trust’created by Prof. Lahey and that prompted folks skeptical about the Triad to support the Lahey recommendations overall. As commented recently by Nina Newington, “Lahey’s triad model is a tradeoff…The bargain is not being kept.”
Subscribers to the Harvest Plan Map Viewer notifications learned form e-mail #1 on Aug 1, 2024/4:23 p.m of the implementation of a pilot project on “Outcomes-based forestry” by Port Hawkesbury Paper in partnership with the Department of Natural Resources and Renewables.
It is taking place in the Cape Breton Highlands (ecodistrict 210) starting in 2024. It will run for 5 years.
…The posting of the 5-year Development Plan includes 4 areas of change:
1. The posting includes plans proposed for harvest over the next 5-year period. Harvesting of these plans will take place over a 5-year period, not in a single year.
2. The licensee (Port Hawkesbury Paper) will be responding to any questions or requests for more information about the proposed harvests instead of the department. This ensures licensees are accountable for their development plans.
3. Harvest prescriptions are not available because the 5-year plan needs to be flexible to meet required outcomes. Practices described in the Silvicultural Guide to the Ecological Matrix, or other documents, will continue to serve as a guide to achieve the desired outcomes.
4. Pre-Treatment Assessments (PTAs) are not available through Harvest Plans Map Viewer for the pilot project. The licensee will still be required to evaluate forest conditions and document the basis for treatment decisions.
View entire message.
For reference, ,ap of counties of NS. From NS Gov.
E-mail #2 on Aug 1, 2024/4:29 p.m. included the usual List with “details on all NEW submissions”. In this case, all are for lands in Inverness and Victoria Counties managed and harvested by Port Hawkesbury Paper under a FULA (Forest Utilization License Agreement).
Here are some extracts:
Note that “Prescription Type” for the first site is given as “Final Felling” which is a HPF (High Production Forestry) prescription, not one of the prescriptions for the Ecological Matrix.
View whole document: NEW-Crown-Land-Harvest-Plans-31July24.pdf
We are told in the accompanying e-mail (#2)
The outcomes-based forestry pilot project in Cape Breton Highlands falls within the ecological matrix zone.
Pre-Treatment Assessment (PTA) data can be requested using the PTA button for proposed harvest plans that have prescription symbology within the ecological matrix.
Pre-treatment assessment data is not available for outcomes-based forestry or high production forestry proposed plans.
Comments provided using the comment tool for proposed harvest plans within outcomes-based forestry pilot will be responded to by the licensee, Port Hawkesbury Paper. If your comment provides information about the proposed harvest plan that is specific to the site, you may be contacted for further detail. For additional help on how to make a comment please see the “HELP” link at the top of the Harvest Plans Map Viewer.
If you have general comments and/or questions about outcomes-based forestry or ecological forestry please direct them to ecologicalforestry@novascotia.ca or visit https://novascotia.ca/ecological-forestry/ for further information.
Related Screen-captures from the HPMV (Harvest Plan Map Viewer)
(Accessed Aug 4, 2024)
The larger area.
Closer in, Inverness Co. Clicking on the dark brown enclosed areas, and/or the light brown (from the legend this is “Outcomes Based Pilot Area”) brings up the same info. So it’s not clear what the dark brown enclosures indicate.
Clicking on the Black Enclosures brings up info. corresponding to that in the “List with details on all NEW submissions” sent out to subscribers (but not available elsewhere on the NS Gov site). Some of the Black Enclosures lie partially or wholly outside of the Outcomes Based Pilot Area (at least as that is shown on the map) but within Crown land, yet no prescription is identified for them.
Also view: Outcomes Based Forestry (6 page PDF)
No date given; from meta data: it was created July 31, 2024.
On the Ecological Forestry website it is listed as “Outcomes-based Forestry Background (PDF)”.
| Some extracts (bolding inserted)
Outcomes-based forestry is a type of forest management that is focused on results, with less emphasis on how that result is achieved Using this model, forestry companies are given a set of outcomes that they must achieve. This is in contrast with a prescriptive approach where companies are given a set of rules about how to harvest in order to achieve the same results. Following recommendations in the Independent Review of Forest Practices, Nova Scotia is moving toward outcomes-based forestry on Crown land As outcomes-based forestry is adopted, existing guides for forestry practices will continue to be used, but success and compliance will be measured by the outcomes rather than by the practices used to achieve them. Approvals will still be required, and audits will still be done to make sure required outcomes are met. The first step is a pilot project in the Cape Breton Highlands. Eventually, Port Hawkesbury Paper (a Crown land licensee) is partnering with the Department of Natural Resources and Renewables on a pilot project using the outcomes-based forestry approach. It is taking place in the Cape Breton Highlands (ecodistrict 210) starting in 2024. It will run for 5 years. The company submitted its development plan to the department in July 2024. The blocks they propose to harvest over five years were posted on the Harvest Plans Map Viewer on August 1, 2024. Nova Scotians have 40 days to provide comments to share their local knowledge about the area. Licensees will still have annual sustainable limits for harvests – they cannot harvest the full 5-year plan in one year. They will report annually to the department to make sure they are within these limits. |
So that’s it folks. 40 days and 40 nights (from Aug 1), to comment on your local knowledge about the the individual areas identified in the NEW-Crown-Land-Harvest-Plans-31July24.pdf and on the Harvest Plan Map Viewer.
Not much time to do those pesky rare lichen surveys.
Comments about landscape-level planning, watershed issues etc. are not accepted, apparently, via the HPMV, but your can try this venue: “If you have general comments and/or questions about outcomes-based forestry or ecological forestry please direct them to ecologicalforestry@novascotia.ca”.
There is no mention in these various documents of the Forest Environmental Assessment and the related Forest Stewardship Guide. The EA would provide comprehensive descriptions of the harvesting plans and much more time, process and scope for public input than afforded by the current process without an EA. To cite Lahey, 2018: “ If done properly, with openness and transparency and based on strong science, it [The Forest EA] will reduce the pressure for intense scrutiny by DNR or the public of individualized harvesting decisions.” It was a large part of the trust that prompted folks skeptical about the Triad to support the Lahey Recommendations as a whole.
As commented recently by Nina Newington, “Lahey’s triad model is a tradeoff…[but] The bargain is not being kept.”
View more about the role of the EA in Addendum: On the EA