DRAFTING
NS Gov Info/Land Use
Subpages
– Overall Land Use & Ownership
– Triad Land Distribution (This Page)
From: High Production Forestry in Nova Scotia Phase 1 Final Report (July 2021)
Comment: The Land Base total (1,824,000 ha) is a little lower than the Provincially-owned land, not including inland waters, cited in the State of the Forest Report of 2016 (1,856,018 ha) (view Table).
Based on the figures above,
Conservation Land includes
630,000 ha/35% of the Land Base Total
514,000 ha/ 33% of the Forested Land Base
Ecological Matrix includes
948,000 ha/52% of the Land Base Total
783,000 ha/51% of the Forested Land Base for the Province
Working Land Base within Ecological Matrix includes
578,000 ha/73.9% of Forested Land Base within the Ecological Matrix
578,000 ha/37.5% of Forested Land Base for the Province
Potential High Production Forestry at 13% of total land base includes
246,000 ha/13% of Land Base Total
246,000 ha/16% of Forested Land Base for the Province
Potential High Production Forestry at 10% of total land base* includes
182,000 ha**/10% of Land Base Total
182,000 ha**/11.8% of Forested Land Base for the Province
Working Land Base within Ecological Matrix, adjusted for HPF at 10% includes
642,000 ha/75.7% of Forested Land Base within the Ecological Matrix
642,000 ha/41.6% of Forested Land Base for the Province

From p. 6 in Collaborative ProtectedAreas Strategy An Action Plan for Achieving 20 Per cent NS Gov., Dec 2023
A Big Question: How will Nova Scotia’s commitment to 20% 20 per cent of Nova Scotia’s land and water by 2030 affect the areas and distribution of Crown land working forest?
As of Dec 2023, “13.45 per cent of Nova Scotia is protected or conserved…: We will identify, protect, and manage provincially administered lands and inland waters by • identifying lands to support achieving 15 per cent by 2026 and 20 per cent by 2030. Each phase will include identification of a list of proposed sites, consultation, and designation of sites. Following consultation, sites within each phase will be under interim management…”
The total Land+Inland Water Area of NS is 5,525,o14 ha. 6.55% (20%-13.45%) of that area is 361,888 ha. If 80% were to come from Crown lands (& 20% by purchase of &/or Conservation Easements on, Private lands) that would be 289,510 ha. If that were to come entirely from the Ecological Matrix, and in proportion to the current ratio of Forested land in EM/Total Land in EM (0.826), the Working Forest in the EM (adjusted for HPF at 10%) would be reduced to 539,292 ha.
*From High Production Forestry in Nova Scotia Phase 2 Guidance for Implementation (Jan 2023, bolding inserted):
Size of high production forest zone
The phase 1 report considered how much Crown lands ought to be committed to the high production forest zone. Following the criteria above, there are about 246,000 hectares of Crown lands in Nova Scotia that are potentially suitable for high production forestry. This would be about 13% of the triad.However, because biodiversity is of such high importance, as much land as possible is being dedicated to the conservation and matrix zones. Therefore, the high production forest zone will be capped at a maximum of 10% of the triad. By setting this cap, both biodiversity and economic goals can be achieved.
With 10% of the triad dedicated to high production forestry (currently 185,000 hectares), a sufficient supply of primary forest products will be available to the forest products sector in Nova Scotia in the short term (about 359,000 green metric tonnes of softwood per year).
Further, within 35 years, yields could be significantly increased from that land base to create long-term opportunities for investment and growth in the sector. Once fully implemented, the high production forest zone is expected to generate more than 1 million green metric tonnes per year of high-quality spruce timber.
The overwhelming balance of land in the triad is committed to prioritizing biodiversity in the other two zones. The conservation zone currently accounts for about 630,000 hectares or 35% of the triad) and is expected to grow as the province adds to its protected areas or identifies more old-growth forests for protection. The ecological matrix or mixed use zone currently represents about 1 million hectares or 55% of the triad) and may decrease if some lands are identified for long-term protection and are moved to the conservation zone.
The high production zone may grow in hectares if more land is acquired but it will never be larger than 10% of the triad. This means 90% of Crown and protected areas land will always be committed to the two zones that prioritize biodiversity.
**The Phase 2 Report gives this number as 185,000 ha, however 10% of the Total Land Base where that is 1,824,000 ha is 182,000 ha. One could also argue that the 10% figure should apply only to the forested land – in such a case, the HPF area would be 154,000 ha.
The rationale for a 10% threshold is not cited in the HPF Phase 2 Report, but can be found in Perspectives: Thirty years of triad forestry, a critical clarification of theory and recommendations for implementation and testing by Austin Himes et al. 2022 in Forest Ecology and Management