Shoulder to Shoulder – NN 16Nov2025

Posted on November 16, 2025 by Admin

This is the text of Nina Newington’s comments to participants at the Shoulder to Shoulder, We are All Treaty People Rally yesterday:

“Wela’lioq to Glenda Junta and Michelle Paul for extending the invitation to create this rally; to Elder – Doctor – Albert Marshall for sharing his wisdom; to the land defenders at Hunters Mountain who inspired us all to come together in solidarity.

“I’ve been on Hunter’s Mountain. I’ve seen the clearcuts. I’ve seen the destruction. I’ve driven too many logging roads across this province. I know how little is left of our Wabanaki forests, how much has been taken from these unceded lands over decades of brutal extraction. I know how much it matters to protect what is left for us humans, yes, but also for all our relations, for salmon and dragonflies, turtles and moose, black ash and the tiniest lichens. Without healthy forests, there is no livable planet for future generations. Continue reading →

Posted in Indigenous-led Conservation, Reconciliation, Wabanaki Forest | Comments Off on Shoulder to Shoulder – NN 16Nov2025

A few pics from Shoulder to Shoulder: We are All Treaty People Rally 15Nov2025

Posted on November 16, 2025 by Admin


Received from Nina Newington while attending the rally with a group from the Annapolis Valley/SOOF:

“A few photos from today, 450-500 people, good speakers, drummers, spirits…“View more

Posted in Wabanaki Forest | Comments Off on A few pics from Shoulder to Shoulder: We are All Treaty People Rally 15Nov2025

Nova Scotia DNR announces a short cut in public review of forest harvest plans 6Nov2025

Posted on November 6, 2025 by Admin

UPDATE NOV 17, 2021: From the notice sent to subscribers from Forestry Maps, received today (bolding inserted): Continue reading →

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Rally Sat Nov 15, 2025 Halifax: Shoulder to Shoulder, We are All Treaty People

Posted on November 6, 2025 by Admin

If you live, work, play, or pray in Nova Scotia, we want you there. We want to hear your voices!
— Mi’kmaw land defenders Michelle Paul and Glenda Junta

Bring your community banners, signs, flags and regalia. Bring your drums, songs and prayers.

“Nature has rights; humans have responsibilities.” – Dr./Elder Albert Marshall

Read more

Posted in Indigenous-led Conservation, Reconciliation, Wabanaki Forest | Comments Off on Rally Sat Nov 15, 2025 Halifax: Shoulder to Shoulder, We are All Treaty People

NatureNS on where we stand today on Protected Areas in Nova Scotia 26Oct2025

Posted on October 26, 2025 by Admin

And a comment on ForestNS’s assertion that we are “increasing wildfire risk by protecting too much land”.

Nature Nova Scotia has posted a comprehensive update on where we stand today on Protected Areas in Nova Scotia, noting

The province stopped designating new protected areas in 2024, leaving many parcels in the 2013 Parks and Protected Areas Plan unprotected. As of summer 2025, Nova Scotia is sitting at just 13.5% protected lands, less than 4 years away from the 2030 deadline for protecting 20%.”

The post opens with a photo of Owls Head, describing the background to the secretive delisting [by the Liberal Gov of the day] of Owls Head Provincial Park in 2020 revealed by investigative reporting by CBC journalist Michael Gorman.  Under a section on “Misinformation and Conflicting Interests”, NatureNS reminds us  how that factored into election of the PCs in 2021. Continue reading →

Posted in Citizen-proposed Protected Areas, Conservation, NS DNR, ProtectedAreas | Comments Off on NatureNS on where we stand today on Protected Areas in Nova Scotia 26Oct2025

On Thanksgiving 2025: In celebration of our Wabanaki/Acadian Forest 12Oct2025

Posted on October 12, 2025 by Admin

Click on images for larger versions

I took these photos yesterday on the Etu’qamikejk Trail in thanksgiving for and in celebration of the beauty, bounty and solace afforded by our Wabanaki-Acadian Forest – david p

Click on images for larger versions Continue reading →

Posted in Biophilia, Wabanaki Forest | Comments Off on On Thanksgiving 2025: In celebration of our Wabanaki/Acadian Forest 12Oct2025

NN: “I’m a citizen scientist working to protect Nova Scotia’s forests. Tim Houston is threatening to put me in jail” 2Oct2025

Posted on October 2, 2025 by Admin

“Jammed into a bill titled the Protecting Nova Scotians Act are amendments to the Crown Lands Act that will do just the opposite.

“The current law states that “No person, without lawful authority, shall barricade or post signs on a forest access road.” The amended law adds “block, obstruct the use of, impede access to” after “barricade.” Continue reading →

Posted in Citizen Sceince, Citizen-proposed Protected Areas, Conservation, Forest Roads, Freedom of Information, NS Gov, Wabanaki Forest | Comments Off on NN: “I’m a citizen scientist working to protect Nova Scotia’s forests. Tim Houston is threatening to put me in jail” 2Oct2025

Keeping History Alive: the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School in Nova Scotia 30Sep2025

Posted on September 30, 2025 by Admin

From The Narwhal, this a.m.:

From The Narwhal Newsletter, Sep 30, 2025.
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One hundred and forty federally run residential schools operated across Canada for more than a century; so did dozens of other institutions run by other authorities, all designed to forcibly assimilate generations of Indigenous children. In 1997, the last school — Kivalliq Hall in Rankin Inlet, Nvt. — finally closed its doors. But the traces of these institutions linger on the land, in derelict buildings, on street names like “Indian School Road” and in the makeshift memorials erected on former grounds: children’s toys, tiny shoes and offerings of tobacco and sweetgrass. Continue reading →
Posted in Reconciliation | Comments Off on Keeping History Alive: the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School in Nova Scotia 30Sep2025

“Mi’kmaq Establish Cultural Revitalization Camp at Hunters Mountain to Protect Sacred Land and Medicines” 16Sep2025

Posted on September 17, 2025 by Admin

Received by NSFN, From: unamakimedicinecamp
Mon, Sep 15, 2025
Subject: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Mi’kmaq Establish Cultural Revitalization Camp at Hunters Mountain in Unama’ki

Photo by NN during visit to Hunters Mountain Mi’kmaw protest on Sep 9, 2025 to take supplies and donations from SOOF. View related social media post

Unama’ki – More than 100 Mi’kmaw rights holders have established a cultural revitalization camp at the foot of Hunters Mountain in Cape Breton, transforming what began as a logging blockade into a centre for traditional medicine gathering and cultural teachings.

“We’re not only asserting our rights,” says Allison Bernard, of Eskasoni First Nation. “We’re reclaiming our culture and traditions. This mountain is a part of us. Our ancestors are here. Our relatives the moose are here.” Read More

Posted in Indigenous-led Conservation, NS DNR, Reconciliation, Wabanaki Forest | Comments Off on “Mi’kmaq Establish Cultural Revitalization Camp at Hunters Mountain to Protect Sacred Land and Medicines” 16Sep2025

Keith Egger to Premier Houston on “Meeting your 20% by 2030 obligations” 2Sep2025

Posted on September 2, 2025 by Admin

Keith Egger collecting mushrooms in an old deciduous forest in Kejimkujik National Park. On the rotting log in the foreground is Eastern American Platterful Mushroom (Megacollybia rodmanii) a common spring inhabitant of decomposing wood.
Click on images for larger versions.

The post is adapted from the text of a letter written by Keith Egger addressed to Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston, Minister of Natural Resources Tory Rushton, and to Minister of Environment and Climate Change Tim Halman; it was sent on Aug 13, 2025. We had seen a copy of it and Keith graciously agreed to our posting it and providing  some supplementary photos and info. about himself.

In the letter, Keith addresses the apprehension that many of us feel about the NS Government’s commitment to achieving 20%  protection by 2030. For example,  he comments that he had  heard members of the NS government suggest that protecting areas that can’t be logged (e.g. steep hillsides and ravines, islands, wet forests) might be a path to reach protection and explains why that would not be an ecologically sensible strategy.

Keith is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Ecosystem Science & Management at the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George, BC. He retired after 29 years studying microbial diversity and ecology and moved to Nova Scotia in 2019. He has been active since retirement studying mushroom diversity in Nova Scotia’s old-growth forests.

– NSFN Continue reading →

Posted in Conservation, Landscape Level planning, NS Gov, ProtectedAreas | Comments Off on Keith Egger to Premier Houston on “Meeting your 20% by 2030 obligations” 2Sep2025