“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

Nova Scotia DNR puts a hold on new forest harvest decisions pending end of the Woods Ban 20Aug2025

Posted on August 20, 2025 by Admin

UPDATE , received from Forestry Maps, Sep 2, 2025:
As of August 29th, at 4pm travel restrictions were lifted for the following counties as noted in this news release. Woods Restrictions Lifted in Some Counties, Remain in Others | Government of Nova Scotia News Releases: Cape Breton, Richmond, Victoria, Inverness, Guysborough, Antigonish, Halifax. Therefore, the pause on updates to the Harvest Plans Map Viewer has been lifted for the above counties. All plans will receive an “open for comment” status of 40 days, which excludes the time period of the travel restrictions. The burn ban remains in place for the entire province until October 15 or until conditions improve further.

ORIGINAL POST

Received from NS Forestry Maps today (Aug 20, 2025): Continue reading →

Posted in Citizen Sceince, NS DNR | Comments Off on Nova Scotia DNR puts a hold on new forest harvest decisions pending end of the Woods Ban 20Aug2025

Citizen Scientists of SW Nova Scotia ask DNR Minister to put a hold on new forest harvest decisions pending end of the Woods Ban 11Aug 2025

Posted on August 11, 2025 by Admin

Write the Citizen Scientists:

Aug 8, 2025
To: Honourable Tory Rushton, Minister of Natural Resources, Nova Scotia
Topic: Stop the clock on all harvest approvals

Dear Minister Rushton,
Please pause all harvest approvals on crown land until the woods are open to the public again.

Why? Because formal opportunity for the public to comment on proposed harvest plans is required as part of DNR’s Integrated Resource Management process for approving harvest plans. All comments made on a specific harvest plan are included in the approval documents for that plan. In order to gather these comments, harvest plans are posted on the Harvest Plan Map Viewer. The public is given 40 days to comment.

As of August 5th, the public cannot access Crown land forests. This makes it impossible to visit the plan areas to gather the site specific data that is requested. As a result, the clock for each 40 day comment period must be stopped as of August 5th. It should be restarted when the woods are open to the public. Continue reading →

Posted in Citizen Sceince, Citizen-proposed Protected Areas, Conservation, Species At Risk, Sustainable Wood Harvests, SW Nova Scotia | Comments Off on Citizen Scientists of SW Nova Scotia ask DNR Minister to put a hold on new forest harvest decisions pending end of the Woods Ban 11Aug 2025

Areas within Proposed Ingram River Wilderness Area in Nova Scotia now targeted for perpetual clearcutting 15Jul2025

Posted on July 15, 2025 by Admin

Updates
– July 30, 2025: Letter from Nina Newington/SOOF to DNR Minister Rushton “concerning the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) plans to clearcut in the proposed Ingram River Wilderness Area as well as in the Beals Brook, Tobeatic-Tidney Extension andChain Lakes Wilderness Areas.
– July 22, 2025: ‘All is not well here in the forests of Nova Scotia’: An open letter to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change by Bev Wigney in the Halifax Examiner.
– July 20, 2025: NatureNS: Community Nominated Protected Areas Need Your Help & How you can help
-July 17, 2025: The EAC’s Statement on the Prioritization of Clearcutting over Conservation in the Proposed Ingram River Wilderness Area
————————
Original Post

A Forest Alert issued by the Healthy Forest Coalition Jul 14, 2025:
Just over 195.65 ha, or 483.26 acres, of High Production Forestry has been proposed for the St. Margaret’s Bay watershed. This equates to over 366 football fields. 77.53 ha, or 191.5 acres, of those harvests have been proposed within the proposed Ingram River Wilderness Area (IRWA) under three separate polygons: Continue reading →

Posted in Citizen-proposed Protected Areas | Comments Off on Areas within Proposed Ingram River Wilderness Area in Nova Scotia now targeted for perpetual clearcutting 15Jul2025

A Letter Worth Reading Part 3: Nova Scotia Gov. correction – Goldsmith Lake is NOT under consideration as a Wilderness Area

Posted on June 20, 2025 by Admin

By Nina Newington

Goldsmith Lake & Environs in late summer. Drone image by Malachi Warr

CONTENTS
– CBC investigates
– The obvious question, and others
– Justifying
– Compliant
– Current
– What Now?
– Relevant Freedom of Information Docs

CBC investigates
On June 12th, CBC’s Phlis McGregor reported:

Earlier this spring Annapolis county MLA David Bowlby wrote letters to several of his constituents and at that time he said, quote,

Goldsmith Lake remains under active evaluation for permanent protection by the province.

I’ve tried to follow up on that and what that means and eventually I got an e-mail from Jordan Croucher, Director of Communications for the Progressive Conservative caucus. The e-mail includes a statement from MLA Bowlby, admitting he had made a mistake and that he wanted to correct the record:

Goldsmith Lake is not under consideration for designation as a Wilderness Area.

Read More

Posted in Citizen Sceince, Citizen-proposed Protected Areas, Conservation, Freedom of Information, Landscape Level planning, NS DNR, ProtectedAreas | Comments Off on A Letter Worth Reading Part 3: Nova Scotia Gov. correction – Goldsmith Lake is NOT under consideration as a Wilderness Area

The “Good News” for Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area now denied by Nova Scotia Gov. 16Jun2025

Posted on June 16, 2025 by Admin

Wrote Nina Newington on May 11, 2025 in A Letter worth reading: Part 1: News (good and bad)…

The Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area is now under formal evaluation for permanent protection by Environment and Climate Change, with the Department of Natural Resources collaborating. The Citizen Scientists of Southwest Nova Scotia proposed the area for protection in 2022.

Considering that, until recently, the Minister of Natural Resources claimed not to know anything about that proposal, the news that the area is now being treated as a candidate for permanent protection is very good news indeed.

The news, far from coming as a public announcement, is contained – you might even say buried – in the second paragraph of a letter Annapolis MLA David Bowlby sent out on April 23rd…

Some recent followup by CBC on the topic revealed, however, that MLA Bowlby apparently made a mistake and Continue reading →

Posted in Citizen Sceince, Citizen-proposed Protected Areas, Conservation, Freedom of Information, NS DNR, NS Gov, ProtectedAreas, Wabanaki Forest | Comments Off on The “Good News” for Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area now denied by Nova Scotia Gov. 16Jun2025

For the Birds, a little good news 6Jun2025

Posted on June 6, 2025 by Admin

The cryptic ovenbird (June 1, 2023) and an ovenbird nest on the ground (May 26, 2024) – eggs are barely visible (in the highlighted area. How can logging operations avoid such nests and those of so many other birds that go to great lengths to hide them? Photos by David P, nest in bottom pic pointed out by Donna C
Click on images for larger versions

By Nina Newington

Good news, though probably temporary. The logging that began on April 10th in the cutblock around last year’s Lichen Camp (AP021015E) has been paused. The logging equipment seems to have been removed for now, even though the harvesting of the cutblock doesn’t appear to be complete.

The probable reason for the pause can be found in an assurance that MLA Bowlby (or whoever was writing these letters for him) extended to a constituent who, along with protesting the whole idea of logging in a proposed protected area, had raised the issue of the damage done by logging during nesting season. Bowlby’s letter to her stated:

All operations adhere to federal migratory bird regulations, including seasonal restrictions to avoid nesting periods.

A month after that letter was sent, in response to a direct question on Facebook as to whether harvesting would stop for nesting season, the contractor, Josh Morse, said yes. That was on May 24th or 25th . Continue reading →

Posted in Conservation, Wabanaki Forest | Comments Off on For the Birds, a little good news 6Jun2025

A Letter Worth Reading, Part 2: Of goshawks and safeguards in Nova Scotia 15May2025

Posted on May 15, 2025 by Admin

By Nina Newington

MLA Bowlby’s letter to constituents protesting the logging happening now in the Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area is proving to be quite a resource for those of us trying to extract some understanding of how this government plans to meet its legal commitment to protect nature.

…On April 17th, I reported to DNR a Northern Goshawk nest I had discovered the previous evening in old forest close to the boundary of the cutblock that WestFor’s contractor began cutting on April 12th — AP021215E.

Read More

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on A Letter Worth Reading, Part 2: Of goshawks and safeguards in Nova Scotia 15May2025

A Letter worth reading: Part 1: News (good and bad) for the citizen-proposed Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area in Nova Scotia and beyond 11 May2025

Posted on May 11, 2025 by Admin

By Nina Newington

Goldsmith Lake & Environs in late summer. Drone image by Malachi Warr

The Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area is now under formal evaluation for permanent protection by Environment and Climate Change, with the Department of Natural Resources collaborating. The Citizen Scientists of Southwest Nova Scotia proposed the area for protection in 2022.

Considering that, until recently, the Minister of Natural Resources claimed not to know anything about that proposal, the news that the area is now being treated as a candidate for permanent protection is very good news indeed. Read More

Posted in Citizen-proposed Protected Areas, Conservation, NS DNR | Comments Off on A Letter worth reading: Part 1: News (good and bad) for the citizen-proposed Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area in Nova Scotia and beyond 11 May2025