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 […]
Nova Scotia has laid charges for 32 environmental infractions against Atlantic Gold
Citizens raise concerns about environmental impacts of gold mining in Nova Scotia's moose country.
Much attention is focused on Crown land in Digby County that is threatened by logging operations. And last week, nine people from Extinction Rebellion were arrested while trying to prevent contractors in the employ of the WestFor consortium from accessing the public forest and moose habitat slated for cutting. But in another part of the […]
The housing crisis on the South Shore
Morning File, Wednesday, November 4, 2020
It’s November and that means it’s subscription drive time here at the Halifax Examiner. Your subscriptions are what support the Examiner and its writers. So, I’m writing today’s Morning File because of your support. I started reading the Examiner in its early days when it was a one-man show with Tim writing Morning Files and […]
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,...
Backroad Deal
Part 2: Nova Scotia’s policies to conserve the province’s endangered forests might be doing more harm than good
(This is the second of a 2-part series. See Part 1 here.) It was an unseasonably warm day in February when I met up with Mike Lancaster to walk part of the new Ingram Access Road — a clearcut 100 metres wide in places — which he and other conservationists say cut out part of […]
“Nature won”
Supreme Court ruling orders province to meet the obligations of the Endangered Species Act.
“Nature won.” That’s how retired wildlife biologist Bob Bancroft reacted to a judge’s decision on Friday which essentially orders the Department of Lands and Forestry to obey provincial law when it comes to protecting endangered, threatened, and vulnerable species. There are 60 plants and animals identified under Nova Scotia’s Endangered Species Act. But the judicial...
Auditor General finds Lands & Forestry and Health Departments slow to enact changes
All governments are doing a wonderful job at everything, according to all governments. For a more objective assessment of performance, citizens depend on the work of the Auditor General. The “exit” report of an Auditor General — one who’s spent six years researching promises kept and promises broken by government — is of special interest....
Port Wallace Gamble: the real estate boom meets Nova Scotia’s toxic mine legacy
Part 1: The making of a toxic mess and the uncalculated costs of previous gold rushes.
This is Part 1 of a three-part story about the toxic legacy from historic gold mines in Nova Scotia, which its citizens will be paying many millions of dollars to try to clean up, and how the contamination at just one of these sites — Montague Mines in HRM — is still affecting lives today, […]
Province issues bids for baby biomass plants
The province has issued a tender to build and operate a half-dozen small-scale biomass plants that will heat government buildings around the province by November of this year. The plants will run on wood chips supplied by private woodlot owners and are being advertised by the Department of Lands and Forestry as both a response...
Bad math at Lands & Forestry
An "arithmetic error" increased the cut for the WestFor timber companies by a whopping 28% — until the Halifax Examiner discovered the mistake.
In what can only be described as a peculiar series of events, the Department of Lands and Forestry is cancelling the third year of an interim lease signed with WestFor Management Inc. WestFor represents 13 forestry companies which are allocated wood from Crown land in southwestern Nova Scotia previously managed by Bowater Mersey. Back in […]