Instead of staying the course established by previous governments and working on protecting the forest
in the Ingram River area, the current provincial government is proposing to clearcut a huge swath of the landscape this year.
When there is so much Crown land available to cut elsewhere, proposing to cut lands slated for protection seems quite at odds with trying to leave something for the next generation.
Just over 195 hectares, or 483 acres, of high production forestry (HPF) has been proposed for the St. Margaret’s Bay watershed. This equates to over 366 football fields. 77.53 ha, or 191.5 acres within the
proposed Ingram River Wilderness Area.
If we stop and think, we have to recognize that it is the wildlife that needs this forest more than we do,
and in some cases, the parts they need are vital to a species’ survival. For example, moose don’t like to
stay in the open. Most of the time we see them they are scampering from one thick forested area to another.
When there is, as in the Ingram River area, a long chain, or corridor, of uninterrupted forest, they stay in that, for the most part, and use it to travel between places where there is enough forest all around them that they can be well fed and safe.
Nowadays in Nova Scotia, these areas have shrunk to where they can support only so many moose.
There’s not a lot of time to express your displeasure. For me, I can say for certain that if they go ahead with this, I’ll work to try to make sure no Tory ever gets elected here again.
Some of these areas are supposed to be available for smaller harvest by more sustainable means, not
clearcutting and changing the land so much.
This is a case of government listening to industry and ignoring what the people clearly want. We
purchased this land from a forestry company and the justification for that was to be able to protect critical places for the benefit of us all. The government’s current actions are the opposite of that.
I would like this to end in the adoption of the Lahey Report. Most of us are somewhere between
the two solitudes of industry and environmental advocacy, and the report offers a solution we can all
live with.
Jeff Pinhey
Head of St. Margaret’s Bay