Clearcuts and planned clearcuts on Crown land in Halifax Co.
View Impacts of forestry in Nova Scotia on conservation of biodiversity: Concerns and Questions
The document was submitted to government on April 19th, 2017 via Labi Kousoulis, the MLA for Halifax Citadel-Sable Island and a Minister in the government. Two members of the of the HFN Conservation Committee, Richard Beazley and David Patriquin, had been discussing these issues with Mr. Kousoulis, their MLA, over the last six months.
Beazley and Patriquin were invited to meet at Province House today (Apr 25, 2017) to further discuss the document with Natural Resources Minister Lloyd Hines, Labi Kousoulis, Joachim Stroink (MLA for Halifax Chebucto), and Executive Assistants for Minister Hines and for Premier McNeil. Minister Hines indicated that the document had been forwarded to NS Department of Natural Resources staff, and that a timely response could be expected.
From the Concerns and Questions document:
In this document, we express our understanding or impressions of and raise specific questions related to the nature and extent of clearcutting/even-aged management in Nova Scotia, the policies, the science underlying those policies and some of the impacts on biodiversity. Some of the concerns may be misplaced or based on misunderstandings. If so, we see the interaction with NSDNR as an opportunity to correct those impressions. To the extent the concerns are valid, we hope that they can be viewed as constructive input to the government/NSDNR.
The concerns and questions focus on three areas:
- Landscape level impacts of forestry practices on biodiversity
- Mitigating and adapting to climate change
- Soil acidification and losses of calcium
Earlier in April, the HFN Board agreed to the Halifax Field Naturalists becoming a supporting organization of the recently formed N.S. Healthy Forest Coalition.