Hello Woodlot Owners,
Company's coming. Summertime, and the company is coming …. Let's have a picnic in the woodlot! (No open fires though).
In this modern age when children and grand children are more likely to live in a city or even another province, summertime visits home provide one of the few opportunities to educate children and grandchildren about the woodlot, its ecology, your management practices and goals for your land. Time spent preparing the younger generations to assume the responsibilities ahead is never wasted. The added bonus is that it provides a unique opportunity to bond. When the family comes for a visit, take them to the woodlot on some pretext or other!
Acadian Forest Science Conference. The first Acadian Forest Science Conference, October 10-13, 2007, will be held in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The main goal of the conference is to showcase scientific research on the Acadian Forest, increasing awareness of its character and potential. The conference will also provide a regional forum for the exchange of ideas among scientists, forestry professionals, land stewards, environmentalists, policy makers, aboriginal peoples, and others interested in our forests. The last day will involve field trips.
Online registration is at https://acadianforestscience.dal.ca Seating is limited so please register early.
Forest Sustainability Regulations. NSWOOA has successfully lobbied NSDNR to improve opportunities for uneven-aged management under the Forest Sustainability Regulations. On June 12, 2007, DNR announced changes to the technical criteria, many of which were promoted by NSWOOA and Ecology Action Centre in a joint report released October, 2005. The changes will allow more options for uneven-aged forest management and selection treatments and will provide more focus on appropriate tree species when landowners select crop trees to manage. They will also allow fill planting in uneven-aged stands and reduce fill planting requirements to 300 planted trees per hectare. The regulatory changes are available at www.gov.ns.ca/just/regulations/rg2/2007/jn0807.pdf
In addition, NSDNR has set aside $570,000 of dedicated funding for Category 7 treatments over the next year and a half (including selection harvesting, pruning and crop tree release). It's up to NSWOOA members and friends to prove there is a demand for these treatments. Call Rebecca Aggas of the Association for Sustainable Forestry (902-895-1179) for information.
Website changes. Check out our website. See if you are not wild about the changes found there. NSWOOA member Flora Johnson's volunteer work on our site is making a big difference. Currently the site has gone to a blog style format. Whether it stays that way or reverts to the past style is as yet undecided, but this format allows Flora to make changes easily and effectively. Well done, Flora, and many thanks from all of us. Check out the materials available at nswooa.ca and give us some feedback.
Going "green". The Sunday Herald of July 8 contained an interesting article for woodlot owners. Under the title "What to ask about 'green' wood", we are advised to look for certification labels or tags that show our wood products are from well-managed forests. The article mentions that a number of programs certify wood as being harvested in a sustainable manner. "The most stringent of these programs … is run by the Forest Stewardship Council. The FSC guidelines are the ones most environmentalists trust."
Back around 2000-2002, the NSWOOA began to discuss how it could fulfill its mandate of "Stewardship, Solidarity, Prosperity" through truly sustainable forest use. Several members had woodlots FSC certified, and our Association joined FSC. We hold a seat on the Economic section of the Maritime steering committee. (See Wade Prest's history of the NSWOOA at this website and the “Demonstration” section of the website for more information.)
Honors earned, honors due. DNR has announced its woodlot Owners of the Year selections. As these woodlot owners are nominated by their peers, you can be certain that they have achieved commendable results in their management regimes. DNR also looks for woodlot owners who are community leaders, promoters of the cause, and all round good citizens. Anyone selected is a notable woodlot owner for sure.
The NSWOOA is proud that member Bob Bancroft and wife Alice of the Antigonish area achieved recognition as Eastern Division Owners of the Year. Bob's efforts to restore his woodlot, with emphasis on wildlife habitat, are well known to listeners of CBC radio, where he is featured regularly on their noon hour call-in show.
Significant also is the selection of Kevin and Susan Veinot of Northfield (Bridgewater area), who have been selected as the overall winners. This is the second time in three years that an FSC-certified woodlot has been selected. (Former NSWOOA president Tom Miller and wife Lori were chosen overall winners in 2005).
Speaking of notable achievements, Rupert Jannasch of Summerville, Hants County, has been featured in a recent article in Rural Delivery. Rupert has had a working land easement attached to his property, which protects farm land and forests from development in the future and ensures conservation and sustainability practices. Rupert is a very good presenter, and might be induced to speak to groups about why and how he achieved this protection.
Contact! Please pass along the address of our newly updated website to friends, neighbours, and any woodlot owners or operators who might be interested and have Internet access. If you receive this update via email, please make the time to print it out and share it with any who are not on line. Likewise, if anyone would like to receive the email update, please advise them to contact us by email (nswooa@gmail.com ). Also use this contact information to advise us of markets, local achievements and other concerns.
Have a great summer!
Looking for previous updates? Click on the following:
· June 2007
· May 2007
