A history of arbourcide One night last week, someone broke into the Halifax Public Gardens and “cut rings of bark off of at least a dozen trees — some 100 years old or more,” reported Zane Woodford: “The Public Gardens are closed today due to an ongoing police investigation,” the institution tweeted. “It appears an […]
Dalhousie University’s decision to source “sustainable biomass” from J.D. Irving and Wagner a “piss-off”
News that Emera’s Brooklyn biomass plant is out of commission is making waves in Nova Scotia, while Dal’s biomass facility in Truro garners little publicity.
In May 2021, Dalhousie University issued a tender for “sustainable biomass” to feed the bioenergy plant on its agricultural campus in Truro. At the end of July 2021, the university quietly awarded the contract — worth $1,318,187.50 — to J.D. Irving and Wagner Forest NS. This marked a departure for Dalhousie’s biomass plant, which for […]
Anaconda joins the gold rush on Nova Scotia’s Eastern Shore
Part 2. Anaconda aims to avoid a federal impact assessment for its proposed open pit gold mine, but some say the whole regulatory process in Canada is “rigged”
Gold exploration and mining companies are lining up to get at Nova Scotia’s gold, as the province undergoes a fourth gold rush. In 2017, Atlantic Gold opened the province’s first-ever open pit gold mine in Moose River, with plans to open three more along the Eastern Shore, in what it described to potential investors as […]
Paper Excellence holds a media show and piles on the PR
Northern Pulp’s owner is working on a $350 million “complete transformation” for the mill in Pictou County, but doesn’t say whether any of that money will be public, or why Nova Scotians should trust them.
On the morning of July 15, Iris Communications’ Sean Lewis sent out a press release on behalf of Paper Excellence. It was chockablock with carefully calibrated and curated PR, informing us that Northern Pulp’s 54-year-old pulp mill in Pictou County was set to become “a “best-in-class operation” and “one of the world’s cleanest, most environmentally […]
Public engagement, future of the forestry, and the Harvest Plans Map Viewer
Activists says the online tool where Nova Scotians can submit feedback on what happens to the forests on public lands is inaccessible and lacks historical data.
In December 2020, Mike Lancaster was invited to attend an online meeting of the Western Region Stakeholder Interaction Committee, which he describes as a venue for those holding forestry licences on Crown land and “other key stakeholders to engage with the Department of Lands and Forestry on forestry and planning issues for the western region […]
Save our forests? Not now. We’re too busy destroying them
A lawyer for logging contractors says there's a time and place to discuss concerns about forest harvesting practices. But the courtroom isn't either. Which begs a few questions. What is the time? Where is the place?
A protester in Santa costume at the Nova Scotia forestry blockade. (Facebook) “There is a time and place to debate [the validity of protestors’ concerns about forest harvesting practices], and this courtroom is not it.” Ian Dunbar Lawyer for WestFor Forest Management January 26, 2021 *** If you met Sandra Phinney, the last words that...
The criminal destruction of evidence in the Assoun case by cops should scare the hell out of all of us
Morning File, Friday, September 18, 2020
News 1. Premier calls for criminal investigation of cops “Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil wants police acts in the Glen Assoun wrongful conviction case referred to the Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT) for a possible criminal investigation,” I reported yesterday: At a post-cabinet meeting scrum with reporters [Thursday], I had the following exchange with McNeil: […]
Keep the travel restrictions
Morning File, Tuesday, September 15, 2020
News 1. Forest health Linda Pannozzo writes: Instead of improving the state of the province’s forests, the Nova Scotia government conducts a survey about improving The State of the Forest reporting. The Halifax Examiner takes the survey. Pannozzo methodically walks us through why it’s wrong to repeatedly ask the public to take part in surveys […]
Clear as mud: How the government’s reports on Nova Scotia forests obfuscate and confuse the data
Instead of improving the state of the province’s forests, the Nova Scotia government conducts a survey about improving The State of the Forest reporting. The Halifax Examiner takes the survey.
In recent days you might have received an email from the Department of Lands and Forestry (DLF) inviting you to answer a survey about its State of the Forest report (SOF), first published in 2008, and updated in 2016. Using data collected by the DLF, the document purportedly describes the changing condition of the forest,...
The Borealization of Acadia
Due to climate change, warm weather-friendly trees should be dominating our forests; instead, cold-weather species are taking over. We now understand why — thanks to a phone call from the Irving company to lean on a professor's dean.
A new study shows that since European settlement, the rich mix of deciduous and conifer trees in the temperate forest — known by settlers as “Acadian” forest — of the Maritimes, New England, and southeastern Quebec has undergone “borealization,” meaning there has been “widespread replacement of temperate tree species by boreal species,” which are common […]