Maps

Drafting. Initial version copied from www.versicolor.ca/nstriad

Forest Harvest Allocation Maps
These maps show locations of forest harvests on crown lands planned or conducted since September 30, 2014. When a new allocation is made, an Allocation Map is posted and is open for comment for 20 days. You can subscribe to receive notification of new allocations.* A Map Viewer launched in the spring of 2016 shows allocations for the whole province, and replaces the pdf-based harvest operation maps that the DNR launched in 2014. Unfortunately, there is no equivalent for private lands, which reflects the lack of any significant regulation or monitoring of cutting on private lands in Nova Scotia. *Examples
Once posted, the comment period is open for 40 days.
Note: Existing Parks and Protected Areas can be viewed as a layer on this map but not areas proposed that have not yet been protected. See Interactive map of Parks and Protected Areas (also listed below) to view those areas.

High Production Forest Zone Potential Sites
Newest Interactive Map, launched Feb 2023.

Calculating areas on HPF Maps

I have made use of an online tool available at https://onlinetools.com/image/analyze-image to estimate areas of differently colured polygons.
An example: For this approx 100 sq kilometer area in the area of Goldsmith Lake in Annapolis Co, where Citizen Scientists have identified several stands of Old Growth forest and proposals have been made to formally significant areas (see NN on Old Forests) I estimated the area occupied by candidate HPF sites as 25.6%of the total area, 33% of Crown Land. The dark green area (Old Growth Forest Policy) required 10 color pallettes to be included and came in at 0.6% of total area, or 0.78% of the Crown land.

Pre-Treatment Assessment Reference Viewer
Currently (Apr 3, 2018) this provides Wind Exposure 2017; and FEC Soil Type Layers.
To view the Arc GIS version (for which you need user/pwd), go to this link

Nova Scotia Landscape Map Viewer
Convenient for viewing Crown lands, Protected Areas, Ecological land Classification and a lot more. This is a key tool for keeping track of forest management history, extent etc. It takes a while or quite a while to figure it out (at least it did for me; ongoing!). See Codes. Some of the codes I was able to find only in a Photo Interpretation Specifications.
View Help Page for the Provincial Landscape Viewer. Also ELC – Ecological Land Classification for some of the codes; another page with codes including tree species: Forest Inventory – Current Forest Data (Web Version- 2016)

Forest Cover Type PDF Map Download
From the Help Page: The Forestry PDF Download web site provides users the ability to easily find and download a single or multiple PDF Forestry Cover Type maps. Simply select the Forestry PDF Download tool and click on the 10K Topo Grid to download the PDF map(s) as a Zip file.

Ecological Landscape Analysis Report Finder
From the Help Document: The Ecological Landscape Analysis Report Finder web site provides users the ability to easily find and download information on an EcoDistrict. Simply click on the screen and follow the links in the pop-up dialog box to view and download PDF reports on the EcoDistrict.

Nova Scotia DataLocator – Elevation Explorer
Topography and Lidar images

Nova Scotia Parks and Protected Areas Interactive Map
You can view:
-secondary water sheds
-sites in the proposed parks and protected areas plan (Feb 2013)
-sites in the final parks and protected areas plan (Aug 2013)
-sites in the final parks and protected areas plan still to be designated or subject to considerations
-areas considered protected
-provincial crown land

Water Resource Reports and Maps
NSE Maps

1:10,000 Nova Scotia Watersheds
Online map, outlines and ID info given. “1:10,000 watersheds for Nova Scotia. Contains primary, secondary, tertiary and sub-tertiary watersheds”

NS Lake Survey program Interactive Map
Gives secondary watersheds, limnological data for lakes.

>DNR>Geoscience & Mines Branch: Interactive Maps
Geoscience map has surficial geology, bedrock layers etc; groundwater atlas map, acid rock drainage map; others

Other maps (not NS Gov)

Ta’n Weji-sqalia’tiek Mi’kmaw Place Names
“In 2010, Ta’n Weji-sqalia’tiek Mi’kmaw Place Names Digital Atlas and Website Project (formerly Pjila’si Mi’kma’ki: Mi’kmaw Place Names Digital Atlas and Website Project) was launched to document approximately 13,000 years of Mi’kmaw presence within Mi’kma’ki, the place of the Mi’kmaq, and to raise public awareness of this ancient history…To date, the research team has recorded approximately 1,500 place names collected through interviews with Mi’kmaw Elders and other knowledge holders…”

The Canadian Forest Service/UBC/Canadian Space Agency Satellite Forest Monitoring Map
Interactive; map shows changes in forest cover associated with fire, infrastructure, harvest and in an “Untyped” category for all of Canada over the interval 1985 to 2011. See example on this website.

Global Forest Watch Interactive Map
Select the interactive map to view “tree cover loss” and/or “tree cover gain” over selected intervals from 2001 to 2014. You can select any area in the world and zoom in. A lot of the tree cover gain seen, likely most, in Nova Scotia is in recovering clearcuts; it is not due to afforestation.

Google Timelapse
“Timelapse is a global, zoomable video that lets you see how the Earth has changed over the past 32 years. It is made from 33 cloud-free annual mosaics, one for each year from 1984 to 2016, which are made interactively explorable by Carnegie Mellon University CREATE Lab’s Time Machine library, a technology for creating and viewing zoomable and pannable timelapses over space and time. Thx to NW for pointing this one out. Not as sharp (not as high res) as what you get from the Global Forest Watch Interactive Map, but this one covers more years. Very easy to use.

Planet Explorer
Powerful interactive map tool showing satellite images over short intervals; useful for tracking road-building, harvests etc.

Map of the merchantable volume of the “mature forest” in Canada
“This publication contains a raster maps at 250 m resolution of the merchantable volume (m3/ha) of the mature Canadian forest available for harvesting in the next 20 years (2011 to 2031).” I can’t figure out how to see a map with that resolution.. there are few details about how to use he online map. Anyway,  it should provide predictions of  precisely where harvesting could occur over the next 20 years. NS shown at crude level at right. (Accessed Nov 22, 2018)

Important Bird Areas (IBAs)
Interactive Map on IBA Canada