[NatureNS] Crown land forests - suggestions for ground-truthing sites

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From: Bev Wigney <bkwigney@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2019 10:41:56 -0300
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&gt;&gt;&gt; So, to cut to the chase -- what I am
Thanks to everyone who has responded -- especially with regards to
documentation and dissemination of any findings by the ground-truthing
groups.  I agree very much that the observations need to be recorded
in such a way that they can somehow be useful in supporting
conservation of ecologically significant forests.  That said,
iNaturalist,  is a terrific vehicle for compiling observations.  It
has a pretty easy user interface anyone who wants to enter their
observations.  It is easily adapted to use by a community of
naturalists who wish to collaborate on their findings.  Confirmation
of IDs works quite well.  Further, there are so many ways in which the
data collection can be customized -- for instance, it is easily
possible to create "places" such as particular forest stands of any
size -- and have all observations within those outlined areas feed
into that "place".   I believe it's a good tool for naturalists who
have come to the realization that there is a growing and desperate
need to fill in the gaps of what is known about the forests around us.
The hour to do so is growing late.

bev

On 2/26/19, Donna Crossland <dcrossland@eastlink.ca> wrote:
> Thanks for the advice, Fred.  You're right, the follow-up documentation
> is essential (though perhaps less fun) and then after that there is the
> hurtle of having various decision-makers read and apply new
> facts/knowledge.  Everyone is so reliant on GIS layers these days to
> supply all the points rendered in decisions. I suppose we will have to
> suggest that they be added to certain GIS layers or it will be
> over-looked, conveniently or otherwise. In this era of rapid decline of
> many species coupled with poor management, the initiative of casting a
> net to the widest possible group(s) of naturalists to help catalogue
> species obs- location and abundance, etc, is of increasing importance.
>
> I will forward your advice and Bev's new initiative to our group, Nature
> NS, as well.
>
> Donna Crossland
>
> On 2019-02-25 11:55 p.m., Frederick W. Schueler wrote:
>> On 25-Feb.-19 10:10 p.m., Donna Crossland wrote:
>>> This is a wonderful initiative.  I will finally hone some skills with
>>> iNaturalist, so it seems.  Bev and others will be good teachers.
>>> What better use of a naturalist's time than combing our public
>>> forests for nature's treasures?
>>
>> * but you're going to have to formalize your results in documents,
>> sent in multiple copies to the attention of the ministries in charge,
>> because, at least in Ontario, the environment ministries and
>> environmental assessment rackets are well-blinkered experts in
>> ignoring the ordinary sources of knowledge about biodiversity: museum
>> collections, the peer reviewed and local natural history published
>> literature, and online provincial & national databases. They only heed
>> their own internal grey literature unless their noses are rubbed in
>> some more conventional info.  I bet they're almost as good at ignoring
>> eBird and iNat as they have been at ignoring the Ontario herp atlases.
>>
>> When we were reviewing http://www.dumpthisdump2.ca/ I published a
>> first record of a clover species for Ontario east of Windsor from the
>> proposed dump site in Trail & Landscape - the only local natural
>> history journal - and they missed both that and a paper about a SAR
>> we'd found, but they'd missed, at the site, that was peer-reviewed in
>> the Canadian Field-Naturalist.
>>
>> So call it a serial publication, "Ground-Truthing Nova Scotia Forests"
>> or something, and put out an issue for each of your trips, send pdf's
>> to ministry officials, and deposit a hard copy with Andrew Hebda at
>> the NS Museum, and maybe at the NB Museum so you'll have an out of
>> province repository.
>>
>> fred.
>> ================================================
>>
>>> Song bird surveys and nest surveys will also be useful.  The harvest
>>> at Corbett Lake will surely NOT take place during nesting season, yet
>>> another assault on a forest with old growth and plenty of nest cavity
>>> trees.
>>>
>>> It is a sad reflection on the lack of good governance over the
>>> 'peoples' forests' (public Crown lands), with continued clearcutting,
>>> particularly on very sensitive, poor soils in the southwest.  And so
>>> it comes about that local folks feel the need to provide more
>>> oversight;  a neighbourhood watch, of sorts, over nature's bounty.
>>>
>>> Thanks to Bev.
>>>
>>> Donna Crossland
>>>
>>> On 2019-02-25 10:24 a.m., Bev Wigney wrote:
>>>> Everyone,
>>>>
>>>> I know there has been very little discussion about harvests of Crown
>>>> land forests here on NatureNS, but I'm putting out a somewhat related
>>>> request.   Here in Annapolis Royal area, we've been organizing a
>>>> ground-truthing group to make occasional forays to check out Crown
>>>> land forests that have a fair likelihood of being good candidates for
>>>> biodiversity - forests that would qualify as ecologically significant
>>>> under the Lahey triad model.  This group has come about after a couple
>>>> of previous forays to inspect forests that were slated for clearcuts
>>>> or uniform shelterwood cuts (2-stage clearcutting).  In the case of
>>>> the hardwood parcel at Corbett-Dalhousie Lake, we were astounded to
>>>> find multi-age "old forest" climax hardwood trees -- Yellow Birch that
>>>> were 8 feet in circumference, as well as many large Sugar Maple and
>>>> Red Spruce.  The fate of that forest is still somewhat uncertain - it
>>>> will be harvested in some way this spring, but we don't really know to
>>>> what extent.  In any case, our forays have taught us that there is a
>>>> need to know more about the Crown land forests in our region. It is
>>>> not enough to wait for them to turn up on the Harvest Plan Map Viewer
>>>> (HPMV) list of "parcels" awaiting approval for harvest.  With a scant
>>>> 40-day comment period, that doesn't give our group much time to get
>>>> out to ground-truth a forest, especially if it suddenly appears on the
>>>> list in mid-winter -- as was the case with the Corbett-Dalhousie Lake
>>>> forest - although 18 of us did go out to walk it on Boxing Day.
>>>> Unfortuantely, we still have no