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

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From: Bev Wigney <bkwigney@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 3 Mar 2019 14:02:50 -0300
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Hi John and all,

Thank you for your reply to my email a few days ago.  My apologies for
not replying sooner, but I've been sidetracked by various events.  In
any case, I appreciated reading of your experiences with the fishery.
In many respects, it is comparable -- especially the overarching
notion that there will always be plenty of forest to harvest.  I know
that, to many, especially those who never drive down the back roads to
see the extent of harvesting taking place, all may still seem rather
idyllic and as though the supply of trees is infinite.  Unfortunately,
I don't think that adequately reflects reality, especially in a time
of rapid climate change.  We have no way of knowing how much or how
quickly things will change here in Nova Scotia, but I can't see that
it will be so different here that we can ignore what seems likely and
expect to somehow skate by what's happening in forests elsewhere on
this planet.  In fact, we should be paying plenty of attention. Also,
we need to be considering how change will impact wildlife -- and how
more intensive harvest activity could threaten already stressed
forests and wildlife, pushing some populations over the edge.  Even
without consideration of climate change, in my opinion, we need to be
more cautious and less aggressive in our actions.  For example, in my
county (Annapolis), there has been so much cutting over the past two
years that I really have to wonder where owls might nest -- especially
as, just a couple of days ago, friends reported that the harvest
machines are already rolling in to resume cutting along Morse Road -
an area already heavily devastated.  Can there be no peace during
nesting season?  Apparently not.

Further, you're quite right regarding monitoring, assessment and
accountability.  You asked a series of questions -- I'll quote that
paragraph here as a reminder to myself and to all of us.

> My knowledge of the forest industry is limited to what I have seen while in
> the field doing bird surveys over many years, and no doubt, there is much
> going on that I'm not very informed about. But based on my experience in
> another renewable resource industry, the forest industry in Nova Scotia
> appears to be an immature industry that does not appear to take its role in
> conservation seriously. Do forest operators keep log-books about where and
> the types of trees they are cutting down and their volume? Do they pay for
> monitors to observe where bird nests may be located while they are cutting?
> Is there a third-party firm to assess the on-the-ground impact of operations
> according to a set of good practice guidelines? Does this third-party firm
> measure the amount and type of wood taken in a way that can then be fed into
> an assessment and mapping process? Do they pay for forest inventories and
> the collection of waypoints on the location of species-at-risk? Are the
> workers required to have a professional certification which would have an
> ecological knowledge minimum requirement? If the answer to most of these
> questions is no, then it is time to bring the forest industry into the
> Twenty-First Century so they can begin to resemble other industries that
> have been given the privilege to harvest our resources.

I will go out on a limb to say that the answer to most of your
questions is probably "no".  In recent months, I have advanced some of
these ideas on a couple of forestry discussion pages on Facebook --
such as the idea of having trained monitors do site visits or be
on-site during harvesting.  My thinking was that we are graduating
many young people from community college "ecology" programs, and that
there are also many undergrad biology and landscape ecology students
-- who could be doing onsite assessments and monitoring work from
spring through autumn.  It would give them some income and field
experience, and help to improve accountability.  It seemed like a good
idea, but several in the forest industry were very quick to shoot me
down -- saying they don't like the idea of having monitors ---  that
young people from those programs don't know anything -- and that,
furthermore, they know what they are doing and don't need anyone
watching over their shoulders.  Then, when I commented that there
should be more care taken in selection of trees to be left standing --
that certain ages of trees of certain species should be left in place,
they were also quick to criticize that you can't expect a machine
operator to be able to see and recognize trees from their cab and that
such a thing just isn't practical.  I asked if the trees couldn't be
tagged by someone else, and apparently that was also not possible and
they can't see marker tags, especially as they are often working at
night with lights, etc...   It went on and on like this to the point
that I completely gave up on making what I thought were sensible,
practical suggestions for improving the survival of forest ecology in
the face of intensive harvesting.  I know some things are supposed to
improve under the Lahey recommendations.  I am attempting to remain
hopeful that there might be at least some small sliver of change.  I
guess we'll see at some point in the as-yet-undetermined future after
the latest stated 12 months of further delay to allow the forestry
industry to "adapt" has elapsed - whenever that comes. One can only
hope.

Regarding this comment:
> With all that said, I totally endorse the initiative that you are suggesting
> and plan to participate myself. I believe these community-driven
> conservation initiatives are important in driving change, and this one in
> particular is a worthy project, independently of the current tragic state of
> our forests.

I do think organizing ground-truthing groups and getting out to the
forests is a good thing in so many ways.  For one, it is a way to help
communities get to know their forests better.  It could be a
community-building experience.  Also, I look at the educational
possibilities, especially for young people.  This summer, while doing
my occasional volunteer gig leading a nature walk at the French Basin
Trail for Clean Annapolis River Project, I met up with staff and
volunteers from CARP who were working with children to net and
identify aquatic invertebrates.  The youths were so into it -- it was
such a good activity and so nice to see children having so much fun
while learning -- especially in this day and age when most kids have
few opportunities to muck about in marshes.  Reminded me of
occasional outings with high school biology students while I was doing
stream surveys back in Ontario.  The youths that spent a day out in
the field with me were so enthusiastic and said it really changed how
they thought about nature.  It was so rewarding to see young people
who said they had never even held a frog, spend the day helping me
catch and meas