FOIPOPs Matter to Forests

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by Nina Newington​

​In mid-January I posted More on Nova Scotia DNR’s Zombie Forest Harvest Plans  on Nova Scotia Forest Matters. The piece ends: 

In the more than ten years since the public last had an opportunity to comment on harvest plans for the peninsula, the Lahey Report came out; the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework was signed by 196 countries, establishing the goal of protecting 30% of the Earth by 2030; the current government put the commitment to protect 20% of our province by 2030 into law. Things have changed, in other words. DNR even claims to be prioritizing biodiversity on 90% of Crown land.

They should not then be trying to enable the forestry industry to grab what it can while it still can from areas that have been proposed for protection. Trying to do it on the quiet, using plans that are so long past their sell by date they smell of the grave, let’s just say this is not a fitting way for a government department to behave.

​And of course citizens should not have to file Freedom of Information requests to discover information that is supposed to be available to the public on provincial maps.

The secrecy smells as bad as the zombie harvest plans.

​Now Houston’s government is trying to limit the public’s ability to use Freedom of Information requests (FOIPOPs) to find out what the government is up to. If passed, Bill 1 would allow government department to refuse requests they find ‘trivial, frivolous and vexatious’, ‘too broad’ or likely ‘to impede operations.’

Would that be operations like logging old to old-growth forest within the proposed Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area? The peninsula between Corbett and Dalhousie Lakes, for example. It is clear that DNR, after a brief and welcome turn towards greater transparency in 2022-2023, has retreated into its black box. They have not replied to a December 19, 2024 email requesting information about these harvest plans. 

​No logging has taken place so far. In the absence of any response, a new FOIPOP should reveal whether plans have changed in light of public attention and the identification of 8 Species at risk lichens in the zombie cutblocks. 

If DNR had been able to refuse this FOIPOP request, the citizen scientists would not have known that they should go in and check for species at risk. After all, there are no harvest plans for the area on the Harvest Plan Map Viewer, the map that supposedly allows the public to see all such plans on Crown land. The plans only showed up as part of a FOIPOP. Without that FOIPOP it is quite possible, likely even, that logging of the peninsula would be going on right now. 

There is a lot of old forest on the peninsula with large old yellow birch, many hollow and offering important nesting and denning habitat. The ground has the pit and mound pattern characteristic of old-growth forest. Lichens have been found there that tend only to show up in old to very old forest. Whether or not the stands meet DNR’s criteria for old-growth forest, they are clearly well on their way. Their value to biodiversity is obvious and it depends on them being left alone. This is not the place to practice “ecological forestry.”

According to Nova Scotia’s Old-Growth Forest Policy, any documented harvesting activity in these old forests, even partial harvesting of some sort, at any time since 1990 would prevent these forests from becoming old-growth forests. Why? Because the disturbance is too great. 

​We don’t know exactly what the zombie harvest prescriptions are but, if they follow on the lines of the 20 hectare portion of AP068637 that was logged back in 2018, there is no question they will ruin the old-growth characteristics of the area. On top of removing  approximately 50% of the trees, there has been substantial blowdown since. The moist, shady, interior forest conditions that take so long to develop can be wrecked in days.
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So if you care about responsible, transparent government and protecting old forests, please contact your MLA. It is good that Houston has dropped the clauses intended to muzzle the Auditor General but Bill 1 contains many other threats to democratic oversight, including weakening Freedom of Information access. Please ask them to withdraw the whole Bill. Let them table a separate bill increasing MLAs pay.

N.S. information commissioner says government bill threatens right to access records | CBC News
N.S. wants to deny 'vexatious' information requests. Critics say they are concerned | CBC News