The Nova Scotia Forestry Innovation Transition Trust is investing $1.8 million to assist private landowners and forest contractors in finding new markets for underutilized wood fibre and to support sustainable forestry management. According to a news release, the Association for Sustainable Forestry will use $800,000 over the next year to help private landowners and forest contractors find new and more efficient ways of harvesting, transporting and selling low-grade fibre. It will also help reduce the risk of wildfires through the removal of material that would normally be left on the forest floor. …“With this funding, we will be able to help them actively manage their woodlots,” said Todd Burgess, of Forest Nova Scotia. …Forest Nova Scotia will use $1 million over two years to help woodlot owners develop and maintain access roads into their woodlots. The funding will allow owners to harvest more wood and lower the risk of wildfires.

The Nova Scotia government will bid on the assets of Northern Pulp, which include extensive timberlands. Potential bidders had a deadline of Nov. 20 to declare their intentions. Government officials confirmed the plan. The Northern Pulp mill at Abercrombie Point in Pictou County ceased operations in January 2020 after the company failed to get environmental approval for a new effluent treatment facility. …In August, a BC Supreme Court Justice approved an initial bid of $104 million for the company assets, which include about 162,000 hectares of timberland, and a nursery and seed orchard in Debert. That initial bid from an Ontario-based company called Macer Forest Holdings Inc., would have stood up in the absence of any other parties declaring an interest by Thursday’s deadline. With the provincial government making it at least two parties in the process, Macer’s bid will be the starting point for an auction to be held Nov. 27.