Nova Scotia Forest Matters

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With a 2013 plan now outdated and no permanent protections in place, a single government could strip parkland for development, as the Progressive Conservatives recently considered for a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

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

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

Feb 19, 2026: – ‘Shock and awe’ at DNR: Wildlife division gone, managers sacked, and restructured department geared for natural resources exploitation and extraction
Joan Baxter in the Halifax Examiner.

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

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

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

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

Why we’re camping beside a logging road in the snow in Nova Scotia 1Jan2026

Posted on January 2, 2026 by Admin

By Nina Newington

Camp NOW – Day 32

Happy New Year!

It’s been a month since we set up Camp NOW. Need Our Wilderness. Seems like a good moment to sum up why we’re camping beside a logging road in the snow…

Posted in Citizen-proposed Protected Areas, Wabanaki Forest | Comments Off

On the WestFor 12-month plans & making the Nova Scotia Forest Triad work for all of us 12Dec2025

Posted on December 12, 2025 by Admin

We all need to work together. In the end, the well-being of our communities and the natural world depend on trust and good will, as do markets.

Post/Page on Nova Scotia Forest Matters
By David Patriquin

Top part of the announcement, stats for Annapolis Co.

CONTENTS

The WestFor 12-month Plans
On Dec 8, 2025, Nova Scotia Forestry Maps provided subscribers of Harvest Operation Maps an announcement/opportunity-for-comment on proposed harvests of 76 parcels/5642 ha of Crown Lands.
*These notices are not posted or archived on the NS Gov website. so you have be a subscriber to view them. More recent ones are available on NSFM.

Posted in Triad | Comments Off

“Camp NOW” set up to protest failure to protect wilderness areas in Nova Scotia 4Dec2025

Posted on December 4, 2025 by Admin

“Camp NOW occupies the exact same spot as this year’s Lichen Camp”. Photo from the Lichen Camp,

UPDATE: What do forest protections look like now? CBC Information Morning with Portia Clark, Fri Dec 6, 2025. “The flagging tape that signals future logging is up in the proposed Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area. Portia talks with a forest ecologist who says it’s more important than ever to save this rich ecosystem.” Interviews with Nina Newington (on site at Camp NOW) and forest ecologist Donna Crossland. View NSFM’s Rough Transcript.

———–

Media Release
From Save Our Old Forests, Dec 4, 2025
For Immediate Release
Images inserted by NSFM

Camp NOW protests failure to protect wilderness areas

Camp N.O.W. – Need Our Wilderness – was set up on November 30th on Crown land in the proposed Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area in Annapolis County by Save Our Old Forests’ president Nina Newington and others who have been working to get the area permanently protected since 2022. Camp NOW is protesting the government’s failure to protect the Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area or any other new Wilderness Areas on public lands. Progress towards protecting 20% of Nova Scotia’s lands and waters by 2030 has been miniscule, less than half a percent since the commitment was included in the Environmental Goals and Climate Change Reduction Act in 2021. Instead, DNR is approving logging in citizen-proposed Wilderness Areas including Goldsmith Lake, Beals Brook, Ingram River and Chain Lakes. Continue reading →

Posted in Citizen-proposed Protected Areas, Landscape Level planning, NS Gov, ProtectedAreas, Wabanaki Forest | Comments Off

Citizen-proposed Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area (Nova Scotia): 121 confirmed SAR, 31 stands of protected OGF 1Dec 2025

Posted on December 1, 2025 by Admin

Click on image for larger version.

Just received from Citizen Scientists of Southwest Nova Scotia: the latest version of their map showing confirmed SAR (Species-at-Risk, now 121 in total) and now protected OGF (Old Growth Forest) stands (31).

Links to more info. & context:

– An Updated Proposal to Protect the Goldsmith Lake area, contributing to the 20% target
Prepared by Citizen Scientists of Southwest Nova Scotia. May 22, 2024. 23 pages

– 20% Protection by 2030
Page on this website (nsforestmatters.ca) Continue reading →

Posted in Citizen Sceince, Citizen-proposed Protected Areas, Landscape Level planning | Comments Off