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Nova Scotia Public Lands Coalition formed to save public wildlands

September 6, 2000 - Press Release

A coalition of over twenty conservation, recreation, and tourism organizations is appealing to the Nova Scotia government to turf the Department of Natural Resources' proposed strategic land use plan for Nova Scotia's Crown lands.

The Department's proposed Integrated Resource Management (IRM) plan, which applies to 28% of Nova Scotia's land base, recommends protection for less than 1% of currently unprotected Crown lands. The Department has slotted all other lands, including several proposed Wilderness Areas, into land use categories that allow industrial uses like clearcutting and mining. Natural Resources' staff designed the plan with no public participation in decision-making.

"This plan was supposed to bring different government policies together in a unified and balanced approach. Instead one government department has decided that the lion's share of Crown lands is for industry, while the rest of us are sitting on the sidelines," according to Bob Bancroft. Mr. Bancroft is the President of the Nova Scotia Federation of Anglers and Hunters, one of the coalition's member groups.

The Nova Scotia Public Lands Coalition says any new plan for Crown lands needs to put conservation first. The coalition wants proposed Wilderness Areas and remaining Crown wildlands and natural areas spared from industrial development. They are calling on the Province to offer legal protection to such sites.

"The woods up here are just getting hammered," says Mark Brennan of the Pictou County Naturalists, referring to clearcutting in northern Nova Scotia. "Public lands are the only places where the Province can provide some counterbalance. We think they're worth saving. We could all take pride in a public land base that harbours Nova Scotia's wild forests, rivers, and animals over many generations."

Brennan says many people would take the recreation and tourism benefits of Wilderness Areas over the clearcuts left behind by logging. "We're really counting on the politicians to see the big picture, which is what the IRM plan fails to grasp." Brennan says that Nova Scotia is less than halfway to fulfilling its commitment to complete a provincial protected areas system by 2000.