By Nina Newington, from a post on Friends of Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area (public FB group) in her Camp-Now Series, this one for Day 72 (Feb 10, 2026)
Why not protect the Corbett Peninsula? It’s beautiful, it’s accessible, it’s full of old growth and old forest on its way to being old growth. It is home to the endangered Marten, to Rusty Blackbird and Eastern Wood Peewee, to Canada Jay and species at risk Lichens.
It’s some of the best of what we have left.
After camping here for five months this spring and summer, and two more this winter, I know it is much visited by local people – snowmobilers and cross country skiers in the winter; in the rest of the year, runners and hikers and hunters and people out walking their dogs or going for a ride in their side-by-sides.
It is rare – you could even say miraculous — to find so much old forest still standing on an easily accessible peninsula on crown land, 15 minutes outside Bridgetown. It could so easily have been cut. Just look at the last twelve year
The mill that had the contract to cut it back in 2014 didn’t get around to it.
In 2016, WestFor was created and given the license to manage crown land in Western Nova Scotia. If WestFor had had their way, most of the eastern half of the peninsula would’ve been clear cut in 2019.
But, to its credit, DNR, then Lands and Forestry, with Iain Rankin as Minister, refused to approve their clearcut plan. I know this from Freedom of Information requests (FOIPOPs) because the General Manager of WestFor at the time threw a hissy fit. It seemed to him none of his plans to clearcut were being approved by DNR. Less extreme plans were approved though. These plans weren’t made public.
In 2018 WestFor cut about 20 ha, half of one of these newly approved plans. But then they made a mistake and posted the new plan on the Harvest Plan Map Viewer for public comment – as you would with a new plan. Whoops.
The plan was pulled from public view before the comment period was up. But not before local people spotted it and began to organize to protect the rest of the area.
When WestFor put up signs in June 2019 saying logging was about to begin, 50 people gathered to protest. Some of us set up camp later that day, pretty much where Camp NOW is located.
It was nesting season. Naturalists combed the woods for nesting migratory birds. Media came to see what was happening. The General Manager of WestFor put his foot in his mouth on live radio, announcing that WestFor could change its schedule for snowmobilers but not for birds, even though that meant harvesting equipment would kill birds on their nests.
Five days after we set up camp, the harvest plan was put on hold.
After a while, people heaved a sigh of relief. There were no logging plans for the peninsula on the Harvest Plans Map Viewer. Perhaps sanity had prevailed. Word was that harvesting in the area was on hold.
It was, for five years. But then, in September 2024, at WestFor’s insistence, the hold was lifted.
We found this out by accident. A FOIPOP that asked for information about species at risk in the whole Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area showed a harvest plan had been amended as a result of a species at risk lichen find. The harvest plan was for the Corbett peninsula, a harvest plan we thought had gone away.
The FOIPOP showed two harvest plans for the peninsula, one for the east side with a sliver to the north, one for the west. They covered 54 ha. The plans showed no old growth forest stands and only the one species at risk lichen. WestFor made it a priority for DNR to approve them. DNR obliged. In January 2025 they were about to send the signed documents to WestFor when someone in DNR wrote on the approval, ‘Missing information.’
The next time the harvest plans resurfaced they showed a stand of old growth. Then two more stands. Back in 2019, DNR made a big song and dance about how there was NO old growth on the peninsula, in spite of what all those naturalists were claiming. But now there were three stands.
In the meantime, citizen scientists were out searching for species at risk lichens and finding them. By March 2025 the cutblock area had been reduced from 54 ha to 32 ha. It looked like Swiss cheese.
FOIPOPs show that DNR expected WestFor to come in and cut Corbett at the end of May 2025. We set up Lichen Camp on this spot in April, before we saw that FOIPOP. I don’t know what stopped WestFor from following through on their plan. Perhaps it occurred to them that it would be nesting season again, just as it was in 2019 when they planned to cut here.
Over the summer we identified more species at risk on the peninsula, both birds and lichens. Then the woods were closed because of the fire risk and we took down camp. In November we got word that the cutblock on the eastern half of the peninsula had just been flagged. The harvest plan had presumably been amended and approved again. We found another species at risk lichen and reported it. This cutblock must be down to 14 ha by now, half the size it was.
The next FOIPOP should tell. It’s been delayed by 30 days. Should be here soon.
Believe it or not, I could add another chapter to this tale, one concerning the endangered Marten, but let’s leave that for another day.
The big point is that it is only because of an extraordinary combination of dumb luck, industry error, and passion and diligence on the part of ordinary people that most of the old and old growth forest on the Corbett peninsula is still standing. DNR has sometimes helped but mostly harmed. It’s no wonder we have so little old growth left.
It’s particularly miraculous because the old forest on the Corbett peninsula is easy to get to. Most surviving old growth is in hard-to-reach places. Hard for industry to reach and therefore hard for the public to reach. But you don’t need a vehicle that can handle logging roads to visit the Corbett peninsula. It’s 15 minutes out of Bridgetown.
The Corbett peninsula is a unique and valuable part of the proposed Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area. Please keep asking for this whole area to be protected. And ask for a freeze on harvesting in the meantime.
Ask MLA David Bowlby. Mladavidbowlby@gmail.com
Ask the Premier. Premier@novascotia.ca
Bcc soof@saveouroldforests.ca so we can keep track
More about Corbett Lake & “The Camps”, Protected Areas
- View Camp Now posts on Friends of Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area (public FB group) or the posts compiled on this website
- Read about the Corbett-Dalhousie Lakes Old Forest and efforts to protect it earlier on
- Read about The Camps, all
- Read about 20% Protection by 2030