What’s so bad about clearcuts?

More than 90% of the Crown forest leased by the Nova Scotia government for harvest is licensed for clearcut. 

That’s right, 90%. 

But, the province’s Natural Resources Strategy, The Path We Share, a dubious title, clearly states that the percentage of clearcutting is to be reduced to no more than 50% by 2016.  That’s this year. Now.

So how does this work?  90%.  50%.  Don’t ask the Healthy Forest Coalition for an explanation.  Ask the Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Lloyd Hines. 

You can contact him here: 

Department of Natural Resources
3rd Floor, Founders Square
1701 Hollis Street
P.O. Box 698
Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 2T9
 
Phone: (902) 424-4037
mindnr@novascotia.ca

...or at his Constituency Office
 
Chedabucto Center
9996 Highway 16
Unit P-1
PO Box 259
Guysborough, Nova Scotia B0H 1N0
 
Phone: (902) 533-2280
 
lphines@ns.sympatico.ca

Forests under Siege: What Will Happen to Nature? by Bob Bancroft

But, what’s so bad about clearcuts anyway?  Before you contact the Minister, you might want to download this short article, Scorched Earth, by the HFC's Bob Bancroft reprinted from Saltscapes (Vol. 12, #4, July-Aug, 2011)