Region Archives: Canada East

Nova Scotia’s new premier says the province will have a more ecological approach to forestry by the end of the year. During the Liberal leadership race Iain Rankin pledged to implement the Lahey Report in its entirety by the end of 2021. He says he’s sticking with that promise.  “It continues to be a priority,” he says. “We need to make sure we are treating our forests appropriately so that we have an industry for generations to come.” The report was released in August 2018, and while government accepted its recommendations shortly after, they have yet to be put into practice.  The report calls on the province to adopt a “triad model” of ecological forestry, which would protect some areas from all forestry, dedicate others to high production, and have other land set aside for light harvests.

A judge has ruled that Extinction Rebellion cannot interfere with or block WestFor or their contractors from conducting forestry operations at Digby County woodland sites. But Justice Kevin Coady denied the management company’s request that the interlocutory injunction be extended to bar the protesters from any future interference at any licensed WestFor woodland sites in that entire region of the province. “WestFor has not provided sufficient evidence to establish the high degree of probability that Extinction Rebellion will obstruct or otherwise interfere with future operations,” Coady said in his Nova Scotia Supreme Court written decision released Wednesday.  “I have reviewed Extinction Rebellion’s social media posts and find they advocate for general resistance but not specific action.” Coady also did not award court costs against Extinction Rebellion, described in the court decision as “a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of habitat and threatened species,” …

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NOVA SCOTIA — Officials with the province’s Lands and Forestry Department promised again Wednesday that transformational change is coming to the way the woods are managed, but calls continue for that change to start now. Paul Lafleche, the deputy minister of lands and forestry, told the legislature’s public accounts committee that the looming shift to ecological forestry, in keeping with the recommendations of the Lahey report, will be dramatic. …Successive governments have faced growing criticism for the level of clear cutting in Nova Scotia’s forests. Bill Lahey’s report, delivered more than two years ago, called for the very type of shift Lafleche referenced Wednesday — one that places a far greater emphasis on protecting land and soft-touch forestry practices. The changes can’t come soon enough for Jacob Fillmore.

…Forestry in eastern Canada became a force in the 1700s. Land clearing for settlements and farms, shipbuilding, and lumber exporting began making significant changes. Enormous white pines were marked and reserved as masts for English sailing ships. In the 1800s, sawmills used vast amounts of original Acadian forest hardwoods and softwoods. Some 300 years and repeated harvests later, those same sites are being swept clean for pulp, lumber and/or biomass. …The industry-preferred, cheap harvest method is clearcutting. …leaving a large, open area that no longer has the forests’ protection from high temperatures and drying winds. …The spread of clearcutting over eastern landscapes holds many dire environmental consequences for soils, wildlife populations, waterways, climate, and humans. …Public land management should be subject to public interests, rather than producing quick profits for private industries. We elect the politicians. They could stop this plundering.

…Forestry in eastern Canada became a force in the 1700s. …The industry-preferred, cheap harvest method is clearcutting. …The spread of clearcutting over eastern landscapes holds many dire environmental consequences for soils, wildlife populations, waterways, climate, and humans. …There are alternate ways to harvest that allow nature to grow healthy new Acadian forests. …Human greed for forests is exceeding nature’s abilities. Our forests need to be rehabilitated before the land deteriorates to scrub or heath. Once a forested country, Scotland now has only 16% of its land base in trees, with much of that percentage in plantation. For the health of the land, forestry planning needs to become more in tune with nature’s ways, instead of overpowering it. …Public land management should be subject to public interests, rather than producing quick profits for private industries. We elect the politicians. They could stop this plundering.

Carol Walker

Never in a million years did I think I would end up working in Forestry. As I was growing up, I had never heard of anyone working as a Forester or that it was even a profession. I grew up in Toronto. …I found out about it quite by accident during the annual university fair at my high school. I remember thumbing through the U of T program booklet. What? I thought to myself. I read on with interest and was hooked. …As the women in wood know, the forestry sector is still very much male dominated, but it is slowly changing. …Outside of my work life I have advocated for and supported forestry education, conservation, and the profession of forestry. …Though I have not yet encountered another female forester in Canada of African descent, I look forward to meeting her one of these days.

Jacob Fillmore

Clearcutting forested Crown land is leaving the endangered mainland moose scrounging for food, says protester Jacob Fillmore. Fillmore, who spends his days protesting in front of Province House and One Government Place, launched a personal hunger strike Monday in support of food security for the moose. “Hopefully, only until they declare a (clearcutting) moratorium,” Fillmore said Monday morning of the length of his food deprivation. “Barring that, as long as I can.” Fillmore said he will survive on water, soup broth for nutrients and a homemade electrolyte mix while the moose searches for its approximate daily intake of 25 kilograms of saplings, twigs, leaves and aquatic vegetation. Fillmore, a 25-year-old Haligonian, sports a sign that reads Moose are Starving, So Am I. …Chuck Porter, the new minister of Lands and Forestry, said last week that he has met with Lahey but he cannot commit to when next steps will happen. [We respect the copyrights of the source publication – full access may require a subscription]

SUDBURY — A new locally produced documentary is hoping to shine a spotlight on the importance of a rare ecosystem in northeastern Ontario. Friends of Temagami, which advocates for Temagami’s environmental protections, is set to release ‘Save Wolf Lake,’ focussing on Wolf Lake, North America’s largest known red pine old growth forest.  “The Wolf Lake Area has become world renowned and as it stands right now at one time the old growth red pine forests spanned Ontario and North America and today at Wolf Lake remains the last 1.2% of old growth red pine and possibly the world,” said P.J. Justason, the president of Friends of Temagami.  According to the film’s producers, the area located in the northeast corner of Greater Sudbury, after largely remaining untouched in recent decades, is seeing increased threats from exploration, some of which come from the mining sector.

A group of residents in Chelsea, Que., has banded together to purchase 23 hectares of forest in their community. Last summer, the residents learned a developer was interested in the land and looked at ways to protect the forest. …Though efforts to raise awareness — and the money — were hindered by the pandemic as residents weren’t able to hold town halls, they spread the news the old fashioned way: word of mouth, often when coming across their neighbours in that same forest. …The community had to raise the money by the end of January. About 180 residents, each giving what they could, raised $850,000 a week ahead of schedule. …the land owner will be Action Chelsea for Respect of the Environment (ACRE)… ACRE will act as a land trust, while community members will create a stewardship committee to manage and care for the land.

Jonathan Clark

A New Brunswick tree planter is branching his volunteer-based planting efforts to more provinces this year, COVID-19 permitting.  Jonathan Clark’s tree planting company Replant has an environmental division that plants trees in New Brunswick’s forests and develops community parks with the help of volunteers and private donations. “This year there has been so much interest that we’re expanding to at least five provinces and possibly seven,” said Clark. Clark said the operations will expand to British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. …Clark said Replant’s environmental division, based in Sackville, planted 10,000 trees in New Brunswick in 2020. This year, it’s goal is to plant 250,000 across the country. 

Karl Branch

Two retired foresters from the Bathurst area have identified the largest known specimens in the province of two different kinds of trees, in an area they’ve nominated for provincial protection.  Rod O’Connell and Karl Branch found a yellow birch tree measuring 145 centimetres in diameter and a black ash tree measuring 69 cm in diameter while walking along one of the three Portage Lakes, about 60 kilometres south of Campbellton.   They first noticed the big trees about 10 years ago, O’Connell recalled. …But it wasn’t until O’Connell’s daughter gave him a copy of the second edition of David Palmer’s Great Trees of New Brunswick as a Christmas present that he decided they deserved further investigation.  “I looked in the book and I said, ‘Oh, my! Our trees up there might be bigger,'” said O’Connell.

“Disappointed.”  That’s the word that stands out in the submission by Nature Nova Scotia to the third version of forest management guidelines to implement ecological forestry or “a gentler touch” on harvesting Crown lands that are neither protected areas (absolutely no cutting) nor reserved for intensive cultivation by forestry companies. These somewhere in-between Crown lands are referred to as “ecological matrix” in the Lahey Report, which came out almost 2.5 years ago. Both industry and environment groups were consulted during the crafting of these guidelines to better manage harvesting and silviculture (thinning and planting) on the bulk of Crown lands. According to Bob Bancroft, the president of Nature Nova Scotia, which represents 13 natural history and birder groups with approximately 10,000 members, the latest guidelines represent an improvement but still don’t go far enough. 

NOVA SCOTIA — All three candidates who ran for the Liberal leadership committed to implementing recommendations in the Lahey report on forestry reform, but only the victor Iain Rankin vowed to make it happen in 2021. An Independent Review of Forest Practices in Nova Scotia was released in 2018, and the author William Lahey says the time is long overdue to bring the report’s recommendations to fruition. The report calls for a more ecological approach to forestry. …”That means being serious about putting the health of ecosystems and biodiversity first, and then figuring out how we can do forestry in a way that reflects that priority,” he says. Lahey estimates about 65 per cent of all harvesting on Crown land is done by clearcut – a practice that he says needs to be reduced to about 20 per cent. 

Amanda Roe, a research scientist working for Natural Resources Canada at Sault Ste. Marie’s Great Lakes Forestry Centre is a dedicated fighter of the invasive species known as the Asian long-horned beetle, which attacks maple trees in particular. Roe spoke with SooToday ahead of Invasive Species Awareness Week, which takes place Feb. 22 to Feb. 26. …“So for Canada, we are actually Asian long-horned beetle free, which is fantastic news,” Roe said. Now, the bad news. …“There are still multiple active infestations in the United States, and last year our partners at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency had announced they had a live interception in a shipment in Edmonton, Alberta.” …Roe has been working on developing rapid screening tools to trace new arrivals of the pests into Canada to help us improve our surveillance of high risk imports, as well as their countries of origin.

A Nova Scotia project working to develop the most resilient forests… The Genome Atlantic, a non-profit organization, recently received $315,500 over four years to work with the Atlantic Tree Improvement Council to plant faster-growing trees that are more resistant to disease. The new funding comes out of the Forestry Innovation Transition Trust, which announced two other projects earlier this month. …Richard Donald of Genome Atlantic said Genome Atlantic is looking to select and replicate various ideal tree genes, but not tweak them to create something new, which would be genetic modification. …The group is looking for all sorts of target traits, such as faster growth, more resiliency to pests, or the temperature extremes that are expected in a changing climate. …Donald said the project aligns with the Lahey report, which suggests setting areas of the province aside for high-production forestry and leaving room for biodiversity.

Efforts to reduce the population of an insect that is harmful to trees have proven to be successful on the province’s west coast. Spruce budworms are pests that can cause serious damage to forests, as they feed on fir and spruce trees. Dr. Joe Bowden, a research scientist with Natural Resources Canada in Corner Brook, says the insects undergo an explosion in their population once every 35-40 years. The last time that happened in Newfoundland was the early 1970s to the mid-80s. One million hectares of spruce/fir forest was destroyed, which was about 75 per cent of the entire forest affected by the insect. Quebec has been dealing with an outbreak for the last 15 years. Bowden says we have seen a rise in budworm numbers on the West Coast in the last number of years. As part of an Early Intervention Program, over 32,000 hectares of forest was treated … which Bowden says was successful in reducing budworm numbers.