The trees of the Acadian forest have something to say. Ever since the Europeans arrived here, they’ve been patient, but they’ve put up with our foolishness long enough. It’s time for us to listen up. This past week, forester and law student Jamie Simpson took it upon himself to help them get the word out.
I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.
~ Dr Seuss, The Lorax
Last Friday Jamie put up a billboard between the two bridges in Halifax along much travelled Barrington Street to increase awareness of our government’s clearcutting policy. As you can see, in this larger version of the billboard photo, a picture truly is worth a thousand words.
Despite its promises, Nova Scotia’s NDP government has done nothing to stop whole harvesting of our Acadian forests. It’s not just wrong. In Jamie’s words: ‘It’s shameful.’ By allowing a loose definition of a clearcut in the fine print, despite its new policy, the NDP government continues to allow harvesters to transform more of our mixed growth forests (with the potential for partial harvesting) into mud pits.
Northern Pulp, the company that ravaged the tract of land shown above, was sold to Paper Excellence Canada, which in turn is owned by a conglomerate of Asian and European owners. Like the Lorax in Dr Seuss’ book of the same name, perhaps we need to get angry while also retaining a seed of hope. We need to tell our government representatives that they have to be more creative in finding a solution that works both for the forests and the forest workers. Now, before our landscape is ravaged any further.
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.
~ Dr Seuss, The Lorax
For more information concerning the decline of Nova Scotia’s forests since the arrival of Europeans, see my earlier post on The Fall of the Tall Trees.
To help Jamie get the word out, visit his website for a list of government contacts at Clearcut Nova Scotia: What to do. MLA Becky Kent is the representative for Cole Harbour/Eastern Passage. Her contact information is listed here.
Text copyright Amy-Lynn Bell 2012.
All photos shown courtesy of Jamie Simpson.
This is horrific… I didn’t know that this happens in a civilised country like yours, where people are (or should be, dammit!) intelligent enough to understand that destroying an entire healthy and self-sustaining habitat and eco-system has devastating consequences for generations to come. I feel quite sick…
Reggie, it looks like the land has been raped doesn’t it? Despite our high ideals, we Canadians are also quite apathetic in our approach to implementing these in a practical sense. Ironically, many Canadians would think this sort of blatant disregard of a forest ecosystem would go unchecked in a country such as yours (South Africa) but never in their own backyard!
Gosh, Amy… I share your pain at seeing the forest ripped up and raped – yes, that’s an appropriate word – like this… Imagine all the critters who used to live here… Why on earth are the loggers doing this? Why is this land being cleared? Is it for housing? Or farming? Or – God forbid – strip-mining? How long does it take for the environment to recover? Or do they not want it to recover? What the hell are they thinking?! (Apologies, Amy, but this kind of stupidity makes my blood boil….)
Reggie, this particular tract of land was cleared by a pulp company so I’m assuming the trees were used to make paper. Nothing was left behind as there’s also a market for anything, ie. tree limbs, that can be used to make pellets for pellet stoves. We can’t stop using paper or heating our homes but pulp and paper companies can change their harvesting methods.
Elsewhere, tracts of land are being cleared to put up residential areas. Such large tracts are cleared so quickly that it’s inevitable that displaced wildlife will infringe on the very neighborhoods they were evicted from.
As for strip mining… well that’s a whole other story in itself, with battles still being fought in beautiful Cape Breton in northern Nova Scotia.
Regardless of how long it takes these ravaged lands to recover to the satisfaction of the harvesters, the biodiversity present in old growth forests won’t be restored any century soon.
I’m shocked! And so sad.
Old sun bird, the photos are pretty shocking aren’t they? Sad indeed.
I still can’t look at a clear cut without heart ache. I am sorry this has happened in your space.
Dawn, unless they’re on a mountainside, many of the spaces that are clear cut are often hidden from view. If these sad vistas were more in our face, perhaps we’d be more compelled to actually DO something about them.
You can really see the clear cut areas from the air.
Thanks for including the contact info. I’ll be writing to our Premier and I’m sure once he hears from me, he’ll put an immediate stop to the clear-cutting.
So glad to read you have the Premier’s ear Sybil. You tell him.
That is truly shocking. It isn’t “harvesting” – no farmer, orchardist or vintner would treat the land in such a shameful manner. That is what Michigan looked like 120 years ago, except that there were giant stumps left behind, and piles of “slash.” Then fire swept through the slash and whatever forest remained.
We recovered (although it’s something like an alcoholic in recovery, needing to make the decision anew each day). We’ll keep working at it. I know you will too, Amy-Lynn. There is no quit in you.
Gerry, you’re right about it not being ‘harvesting.’ ‘Slashing’ might be more appropriate. Like the Americans, the Europeans have likely also learned to treat the land more kindly after realizing how slowly it recovers. However, learning new methods of making the most of our natural resources is a work in progress that needs close monitoring by all who have a stake in it.
Oh man, Amy-Lynn. I am so with you! I guess I had hoped that Alberta was the only provincial government left that was so short-sighted. I’m very disappointed to learn that the Maritimes, with a longer history to learn from and truly less vast tracts of forest to err within, would be wiser.
Here’s the process: clear-cut, scrape, burn, plant monoculture, maintain monoculture with herbicide and repeat. A plantation is not a forest and there is no replenishment for the soil.
Not only are they destroying the forest ecosystems, they aren’t even looking towards the future of their own industry because there will be nothing to grow their crop on after a generation or two. This makes me so sad.
Cindy, in many ways Nova Scotia has a very unteachable spirit, rooted in provincialism. They ‘know it all’ and absolutely don’t want to be told otherwise, especially by Ontario and western Canada. You’re right that the stakes are too high here to recover from errors. It’s not just sad. It’s tragic.
Thanks for passing along Jamie Simpsons messages to the wider audience of your blog followers. I have been supporting Jamie in his endeavours to bring awareness to the rape and pillage of our lands for our very own use. We are all responsible in some way for this type of behaviour.
So, it is good for us all to really feel the sickening emotions of disgust , anger and sadness when we see these images. Only then might we change our individual patterns of consumerism that drives such wanton greed!
Awareness is the first step in change.
pxnewton, Jamie’s message is a compelling one. He needs all the help he can get increase awareness. Thanks so much for stopping by and adding your words.
It’s so painful to see what is left after the earth is raped in this way. So thoughtless, so cruel. It feels like the trees were murdered…
Hmmm…I thought it was only corrupt Asian governments that paid lip-service to conservation. As a kid I was thought that a country have 1/3 of its area covered by forests. Now it is willfully ignored..until rainfalls fail and famine hits, which of course won’t matter to the handful few who stand to gain by deforestation. Today, private enterprise is nothing but profiteering >.<
But then, we too have given in to consumerism…until we refuse to have more than what is really necessary, we cannot stop this.