Scott Leslie was our guest speaker on Thurs Dec 7, 2017, his topic: Untamed Atlantic Canada.
From the description for the talk:
Spanning twelve hundred kilometres from New Brunswick’s Passamaquoddy Bay to Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula, Atlantic Canada stands as a nexus between North America and the North Atlantic. Its diverse geography, variable climate, and ocean currents coalesce to create a rich medley of habitats both on land and in the sea. Scott Leslie, renowned Nova Scotia author and nature/wildlife photographer, will present a selection of the diverse wildlife photographs found in his latest book, and will speak about some of his experiences capturing this natural beauty in pictures. In addition, he will present some of his new work on habitats from the air not found in the book.
Scott’s photographs and reading from his latest book (Untamed Atlantic Canada) held us spellbound. After the final questions about his presentation he asked if we would be interested in seeing some of his aerial views of clearcuts in Annapolis Co. and Cape Breton. HFN members and generally most of our visitors have a keen interest in forests and forestry, so there was little hesitation. We again sat spellbound, this time by some much less comforting pictures than those we had just seen.
Scott has allowed us to post a selection on our website. The photos “speak volumes” as they say, in this case the volumes of wood that have been scraped wholesale off of our landscapes, leaving wildlife without homes, burning up carbon in the soil and who knows what else. There are alternatives – selective harvests – which leave the habitats largely intact, retain most of carbon and keep the rest of us happy, but there’s not much of that in Nova Scotia today.
Thanks to Scott Leslie for these bird’s eye views… If you are unhappy about what they reveal, spread the word, write your MLA, join the Healthy Forest Coalition and get updates written by HFN member R.B., make a submission to the Independent Review of Forest Practices in Nova Scotia. You can follow Nova Scotia Forest Notes, a blog maintained by HFN member D.P., to keep up with what’s going on and read his conservation-biased comments.
CAPE BRETON
Aerial views of the Cape Breton highlands wilderness boreal forest showing extensive recent clearcutting. Photos by Scott Leslie, June 2017. Click on photos for larger versions.
Above: The single trees are likely a “best practice” — the intent being to increase structural diversity post-clearcut, and perhaps to have a seed source on site (those that remain standing, at least). Good example of whole-tree clearcutting. (Comment by JS)
ANNAPOLIS CO
Between Annapolis Royal and Keji Park. Photos by Scott Leslie, June 2017.
Above: Collatoral damage – culverts either not present or too small to allow rapid drainage resulted in death of trees by waterlogging.
