Map of “Community-Proposed Protected Areas” in Nova Scotia released by EAC/HFC 10Jun2026

Posted on June 11, 2026 by Admin

UPDATES: View
– Conservation groups say Nova Scotia falling short of 2030 goal to protect land CTV News Report/Video (June 10)
– Coalition of 55 groups demands Houston government act on protecting natural areas in Nova Scotia
Suzanne Rent in Hfx Examiner, intro in Morning File (Jun 11)
– Conservation groups urge province to accelerate protection of Nova Scotia lands
Post on Forest Forever, n.d.
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New online map shows Community-Proposed Protected Areas in Nova Scotia. The map, created by GIS mapping expert Shanni Bale, was produced as a joint project of the Ecology Action Centre (EAC) and the Healthy Forest Coalition (HFC) – see About the Project

From a Press Release by the Ecology Action Centre today (June 10, 2026):

 Over 50 groups from across the province came together in Halifax today to send a united message: the Nova Scotia government needs to accelerate its efforts and collaborate with the public in order to meet its protected areas commitments to protect 20 per cent of the province by 2030… at the current rate, it would take the Province until 2041—11 years after its legislated deadline. Continue reading →

Posted in Citizen-proposed Protected Areas | Comments Off on Map of “Community-Proposed Protected Areas” in Nova Scotia released by EAC/HFC 10Jun2026

When does “protected area” in Nova Scotia actually mean protected? 2Jun2024

Posted on June 2, 2026 by Admin

Wrote Nina Newington a few days ago, on day 171 of Camp Now:

Old Growth Beech on the Corbett Peninsula

On Wednesday the provincial government announced that they are adding 836 ha to Nova Scotia’s Protected Areas, plus they are opening public consultation on protecting another 1,946 ha.

This is good news but it is not very good news. It is good news for the people who raised the money to buy an island on Lambs Lake, near the existing Lambs Lake Nature Reserve and the popular Mickey Hill Provincial Park in Annapolis County.

It took an extraordinarily long time for the province to accept the gift these good people were trying to give the people of Nova Scotia. Now at last the addition of the one hectare island to our Protected Areas is up for comment. Please write in and support this and the other 12 areas up for comment by July 28. Continue reading →

Posted in Citizen-proposed Protected Areas, Conservation, Landscape Level planning, NS DNR, ProtectedAreas, Species At Risk | Comments Off on When does “protected area” in Nova Scotia actually mean protected? 2Jun2024

There is a law against harming nesting birds but in Nova Scotia it falls on us, the public, to stand up for them 24May2026

Posted on May 24, 2026 by Admin

Wrote Nina Newington a few days ago, on day 171 of Camp Now:

Sound of Silence at Corbett-Dalhousie Lakes forest. June 15, 2019 (Photo by David P)

“It would be inevitable that nests are destroyed” if harvesting during nesting season went ahead, Marcus Zwicker admitted on CBC‘s Information Morning on June 12, 2019. The general manager of WestFor at the time, Zwicker was answering questions about the logging that was supposed to have started on the peninsula between Corbett and Dalhousie Lakes. A handful of us were in the way, camped out on the logging road into the peninsula, close to where Camp NOW is currently set up. Continue reading →

Posted in Conservation, Migratory Birds, Wabanaki Forest, Wildlife | Comments Off on There is a law against harming nesting birds but in Nova Scotia it falls on us, the public, to stand up for them 24May2026

If ever there was a time when we need eccentric bees, this is it 16May2026

Posted on May 16, 2026 by Admin

Wrote Nina Newington a few days ago, on Day 165 of Camp Now:

Post-fire fungi researchers visiting camp

Yesterday a team of fungi researchers stopped in for tea. They’re studying post-fire fungi, had just been out to last year’s Long Lake fire site. The cup fungi that specialize in burned areas were already up, a profusion of orange covering the charred forest floor. Had they been biding their time in the soil or did they grow from spores freshly parachuted in? Continue reading →

Posted in Biophilia, Conservation, ProtectedAreas, Wabanaki Forest | Comments Off on If ever there was a time when we need eccentric bees, this is it 16May2026

Geoffrey V. Hurley: Nova Scotia parks one election away from becoming parking lots 11May2026

Posted on May 12, 2026 by Admin

Land plan due for update

West Mabou Beach Provincial Park was designated a protected park in 2001. Yet golf course developer Cabot twice attempted to plan an 18-hole golf course on the site, only to be rejected by the provincial government in 2018 and 2023. Premier Tim Houston announced last year that another proposal from Cabot wouldn’t be going ahead. Photo by IAN NATHANSON

With a 2013 plan now outdated and no permanent protections in place, a single government could strip parkland for development, as the Progressive Conservatives recently considered for a Cape Breton golf course.

It’s time to lock the door on four-year fragility

In August 2013, Nova Scotia did something remarkable. After years of debate and eighteen open houses drawing over 1,300 participants, the province released Our Parks and Protected Areas: A Plan for Nova Scotia.

For those of us who sat in those community halls — sharing stories of favourite lakes, family camp spots and trails our parents walked — it felt like a victory. The plan was our collective voice turned into law. It protected wild places from the Highlands to the South Shore. Continue reading →

Posted in Conservation, Landscape Level planning, NS DNR, NS Gov, ProtectedAreas | Comments Off on Geoffrey V. Hurley: Nova Scotia parks one election away from becoming parking lots 11May2026

No more Hutchinson’s Maple Syrup from Nova Scotia Crown lands after this year 25Apr2026

Posted on April 27, 2026 by Admin

Wrote Donna Crossland earlier today…

Updates

Nova Scotia’s ONLY Crown land maple syrup producer has their Crown lease abruptly discontinued after this maple season by DNR.

These are public forests and unceded Mi’kmaq lands.

Our government is opting for forestry operations or maybe a mine – who knows, since there is no communication or public consultations anymore. Rather than syrup from our sugar maple-dominated forests, they have some other goal.

Yesterday I attended the Hutchinson’s maple tour. The pancake brunch was held at the East Dalhousie Community Hall (my native community), so I couldn’t resist. It was a joyous and fun event up until we learned of their loss of access to sugar maples on Crown land. Continue reading →

Posted in Conservation, NS DNR, Wabanaki Forest | Comments Off on No more Hutchinson’s Maple Syrup from Nova Scotia Crown lands after this year 25Apr2026

Nova Scotia government makes massive “Shock & Awe” changes at DNR 20Feb2026

Posted on February 21, 2026 by Admin

by Nina Newington, Camp Now entry for Day 82

I was going to write a cheery post about the new warmth in the February sun; the joy of shadows on snow; the steady stream of visitors to camp, travelling from near and far to drink tea and talk and walk or ski.

But then came this in the Halifax Examiner: ‘News of massive changes to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) staff landed in an email today, according to a source who asked for anonymity to protect his career.

The source describes the changes and sackings as “shock and awe,” and compares them to Elon Musk’s dramatic and vicious slashing of the United States’ public service by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) last year.

The entire wildlife division in DNR is gone, replaced by something called “integrated resources planning,” which will be inside a new “Land Strategy and Planning Branch.” (…)

Sources also tell the Examiner that managers who were focussed on actual forest health – managers of biodiversity, of ecosystems and habitats, and the head of the wildlife division – were sacked.” Continue reading →

Posted in Citizen-proposed Protected Areas, Conservation, Freedom of Information, Landscape Level planning, NS DNR, NS Gov, ProtectedAreas, Resource Development, Species At Risk, Wildlife | Comments Off on Nova Scotia government makes massive “Shock & Awe” changes at DNR 20Feb2026

22,429 iNaturalist Eyes on Nova Scotia 16Feb2026

Posted on February 16, 2026 by Admin

By Bev Wigney

Latest iNaturalists stats for NS , today (Feb 16) up by 2 from Feb. 12, to 22,429 Observers

Adapted from a post on Annapolis Environment & Ecology (Public FB Group) on Feb 12, 2026.

Every so often, I like to check iNaturalist to see how many people in Nova Scotia are adding their nature observations to the database. As of this evening (Feb 12) 22,427 members of iNaturalist have added 1,290,219 observations representing 11,890 species!

Earlier today, I mentioned that, back in 2015 when I first began submitting my own Nova Scotia observations to iNaturalist, I don’t think there were more than about a dozen people who were members and my observations were some of the only ones in the Annapolis Valley region. My how things have changed in eleven years!! Continue reading →

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Why not protect the Corbett Peninsula? 15 Feb,2026

Posted on February 15, 2026 by Admin

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. Continue reading →

Posted in Citizen-proposed Protected Areas, Landscape Level planning, NS DNR | Comments Off on Why not protect the Corbett Peninsula? 15 Feb,2026

Whence the “new number based on the triad model” for the Sustainable Forest Harvest Level in Nova Scotia? 2Feb2026

Posted on February 2, 2026 by Admin

2014 Clearcut on Crown land, viewed in 2015 (Google Earth).  The oft-cited figure of “5.7 million cubic meters/annum” for the Sustainable Harvest Level for Nova Scotia was formulated in 2016, well before the Lahey Recommendations (2018) and the NS Government’s commitment (2021) to 20% Protection by 2030 (currently just under 14% of the NS landscape is protected), before major nutrient limitations were quantified, before losses  of hemlock, beech and  ash trees associated with exotic pests and before the record wildfires of 2023 and 2025.

The number that is still being cited as the Sustainable Harvest Level for Nova Scotia, 5.7 million cubic meters/annum, dates from NS Government sources in 2016. It surely does not represent what’s available today, what could be sustained well into the future and what Nova Scotians wish to be available for harvesting, while allowing for other uses and values of our forested landscape such as carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation, tourism, and local recreation/health and spiritually-oriented activities.

At the same time, there are pressures  to (i) increase wood harvests to address our housing shortage and provide biomass for a plethora of emerging or proposed biotechnologies;  (ii)  rapidly increase HPF on Crown lands to reduce costs of harvesting due to recent implementation of the TRIAD and to compensate for new  US Tariffs;  and (iii)  enable management of old forest in Protected Areas to, supposedly, reduce risk of wildfires.

A compilation of the biomass supply requirements for forest biomass-consuming entities in NS currently operating or being developed or seriously proposed/being considered (total 6,685,000 green tonnes per annum) suggests we are making commitments to supply forest biomass far beyond any sustainable level.

For the sake of re-establishing the trust and inclusiveness related to management of  our Crown land forests that was gained by Nova Scotians at large though the Lahey process (2017-2018) and to provide credible numbers to the forest industry and investors, the government is urged to move quickly on its “Work [that] is underway to develop a new number based on the triad model”, and to follow the related recommendations of Bill Lahey.  Read More

Posted in Conservation, Forest Biomass, Landscape Level planning, NS DNR, ProtectedAreas, Reconciliation, Sustainable Wood Harvests | Comments Off on Whence the “new number based on the triad model” for the Sustainable Forest Harvest Level in Nova Scotia? 2Feb2026