Two blockades on crown lands to protect mainland moose in the New France area, Digby County, may end abruptly in the days to come. Extinction Rebellion (XR) occupiers received word today from their lawyer that WestFor Management Inc. has applied for an interim injunction intended to force the forest protectors to pack up and leave. That application is set to be heard in the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia 9:30 a.m, this morning.
Several people at the blockades have indicated they are willing to get arrested, if necessary, to focus attention on our government’s failure to protect endangered species and enact promised forestry reforms.
The initial encampment began on October 21st when XR learned that forestry crews were in transit to crown land in the Silver River, Rocky Lake area where Richard Amero had shown CBC’s Phlis MacGregor tracks of the endangered Mainland Moose and described past sightings the previous week.
On November 22nd, a second blockade close to the Caribou River was established to impede loggers’ access to crown land allocations where further cutting has been occurring. Industrial forestry crews are scheduled to cut 1650 acres of mainland moose habitat in the area in the next year.
XR’s specific demand has been to place an immediate moratorium on all proposed and current logging on Crown lands from Fourth Lake south to the Napier River. This moratorium would remain in place until ecologically based landscape level planning for the area has been conducted by independent ecologists and biologists, as recommended by the 2018 Lahey Report. Where this area is known habitat for mainland moose, it should be assessed for Protected Area potential, safeguarding connectivity between the Silver River Wilderness area and the Tobeatic.
Bob Bancroft released a Moose Map on Monday that highlighted all South West Nova Scotia, confirming multiple moose sightings and or signs of their presence in that area.
“We are standing up to protect wildlife and their habitat. When the moose are in trouble, so are we. To address the climate and extinction crises, we need to protect and restore our natural forests. Industrial tree plantations are ecological deserts,” said Nina Newington, one of the encampment organizers.
“Our provincial government had approved the destruction of the very habitat the endangered mainland moose need to recover. Despite a severe scolding from the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in May, the Department of Lands and Forestry continue to shirk its legal obligations under its own Endangered Species Act. If government refuse to do the right thing, then citizens must stand up together. Enough is enough,” she said.
Link to Information Morning’s story: – https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-27-information-morning-ns/clip/15804113-digby-resident-says-province-logging-endangered-mainland-moose
Thank you for this important report!
Nova Scotia Advocate comes through on all the important issues. Bravo to Robert Devet. Looks like citizens will have to sue the government again to stop this. According to one advocate, the premier doesn’t even look at the letters written to him, just hands them to the ministers who are hiding behind the corporation. We are living in a lawless society because of men and women who refuse to uphold the law in their quest for perks from corporations.