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The Nova Scotia GPI Forest Accounts

Media Coverage

Stora Enso debacle: a failure of forest policy?
September 9, 2006, The Chronicle-Herald
“Behind the Stora Enso saga – in which we agonize about subsidizing the pulp and paper industry even more than before – is a deeper and even more irritated question: What about our forest policy which has, for 40 years now, been yoked to pulp mills and the use of the Nova Scotia forest for the lowest possible value products, degrading it drastically in the process? ”

March 02, 2006, The Halifax Herald ~ Jurgen Teuwen

Nova Scotians must demand public lands be protected

“ The GPI Atlantic report concludes: "Sustainable forest management is not the whole answer. Even with the most careful harvesting techniques, there will be some level of impact on forest ecosystems. While there is a great difference between clearcutting and selection harvesting systems, they both involve the construction of roads and the removal of biomass. ¶ "And even the highest standards applied on a particular woodlot cannot guarantee needed protection of critical forest values at the landscape level. ¶ "Therefore, no matter how excellent forest operations may be, they are not a substitute for an adequate network of representative protected areas in Nova Scotia." ”

Editorial: Sustainable Forestry
Jan. 23, 2003, The Halifax Herald

GPI Atlantic response to questions from Andrew Howard, KPMG
September 6, 2002 ~ Linda Pannozzo, BSC, BEd, BJ
200K PDF

Review of Eldon Gunn’s Comments on The Nova Scotia GPI Forest Accounts
September 6, 2002 ~ Linda Pannozzo, BSC, BEd, BJ
1.1MB PDF

The Forest Accounts
May 2002, Shunpiking Magazine
2.7MB PDF

Tuesday, March 12, 2002, The Halifax Herald ~ Paul Schneidereit

Too much clearcutting, many agree

“ THERE'S TOO much clearcutting going on in Nova Scotia's forests. ¶ That's what I heard from almost every person – including a government official, woodlot owner, contractor and several environmentalists – that I interviewed recently. ¶ There's a lot of debate over whether we're overcutting but, perhaps surprisingly, the people I talked to basically agreed that the level of clearcutting – representing between 94 and 99 per cent of all harvesting, depending on whose figures you accept – needs to be reduced. ”

Mar. 9, 2002, The Halifax Herald ~ Ralph Surette

99 per cent clearcutting: Axes flash anew in forest fight

“ If the powers that be accepted that even a significant fraction of forest activity should be selection cutting, it might break the ice and be considered the beginning of progress. It might also ease the pressure for protected areas, since a select-cut forest is an intact forest even while being cut. But money, big technology and old Nova Scotia politics – an unfortunate mix – dictate otherwise. Meanwhile, watch for the next round. The tensions necessarily rise as the slaughter progresses. ”

Mar. 5, 2002, Atlantic Forestry Review

The progress of man?

“ A recent report says Nova Scotia has done little to stop the squandering of its forest resources. GPI Atlantic, a non- profit research group, released its Forest Accounts in November, 2001. The document proposes a new way of measuring success in forest management, based on a broad range of economic, social, and ecological criteria. It concludes that we are failing mightily. ¶ The study blames high-grading, land-clearing, and clearcut harvesting for the diminished quality of Nova Scotia forests overall. It cites data indicating dramatic reductions in mature and old-growth forests, and losses in age-class and species diversity. It says our forests are becoming less economically valuable and more vulnerable to disease and insect infestation. ”

Mar. 5, 2002, The Halifax Herald ~ Paul Schneidereit

The great divide

“ TO SAY that environmentalists and industrial foresters are not on speaking terms took on a literal – and extremely unfortunate – new reality last week. ¶ Last Tuesday, three groups pushing to reduce clearcutting in Nova Scotia's forests quit the only organization where environmentalists, industry, government and private woodlot owners directly discuss, together, the issues that concern them all. ”

Sierra Club calls for independent review of Bowater logging
February 8, 2002, Clipper News ~ Mark Roberts
“ Two centuries of removing the best trees and clear cutting have severely degraded Nova Scotia's natural forest wealth, said Mr. Ron Colman, head of GPI Atlantic, in the February 4th meeting called by local protesters Brad Armstrong and Rudy Haase in Chester. ¶ Ninety nine percent of the forest cutting in the province is clear cutting, he emphasized. ”

Feb. 6, 2002, Progress Enterprise. Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

Bowater declines invitation to news conference

“ Brad Armstrong of the Kaiser Meadow Brook Conservation Group called for the meeting of environmentalists, municipal and provincial government representatives, Bowater Mersey representatives and the media to discuss the issue of clear-cutting in the Kaiser Meadow Brook area. ¶ An overflow crowd packed council chambers. However, according to Martin Rudy Haase of the Friends of Nature Conservation Society, Bowater declined the invitation to attend. ”

Tuesday, February 5, 2002, The Globe and Mail ~ Kevin Cox

Firm halts contentious N.S. logging for winter

“ International forestry giant Bowater Mersey Paper Co. took some of the steam out of a news conference called by environmental groups yesterday by announcing over the weekend that it had temporarily ended its logging operations in a remote area north of Chester. ¶ The company, which operates a large pulp mill in Liverpool, N.S., has been criticized by some local residents and environmentalists who accuse loggers of cutting century-old trees and disrupting habitat for everything from moose to Atlantic salmon. ”

Protesters want forest protected, regardless of rules
Tuesday, February 5, 2002, The Halifax Daily News ~ Brian Flinn
“ Bowater Mersey wants the province to review the way it’s been cutting trees in a disputed area near Chester, but environmentalists say it would be meaningless. ¶ The pulp and paper company has stopped clear cutting trees in the Kaiser Meadow-Timber Lake area until June. In the meantime, it wants government bureaucrats to determine if it’s meeting logging regulations. ”

Forests are devastated by two centuries of clearcutting: GPI report
February, 2002, The Masthead News, St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia
“ Two centuries of removing the best trees and clear cutting have severely degraded Nova Scotia's natural forest wealth, said Mr. Ron Colman, head of GPI Atlantic, in the February 4th meeting called by local protesters Brad Armstrong and Rudy Haase in Chester. ¶ Ninety nine percent of the forest cutting in the province is clear cutting, he emphasized. ”

Two local case studies used in forestry report
January 7-20, 2002, The Victoria Standard ~ Jim Morrow
“ The recently released two volume report, The Nova Scotia Genuine Progress Index Forest Accounts, highlights two Victoria County forestry related enterprises. ”

Man fighting to protect forest from clear cutting
January 7, 2002, The Halifax Herald

Dec. 18, 2001, The Halifax Herald

Forestry and the soil sustainability debate

“ Surprisingly, the two scientists turned out to be pretty much in agreement on most issues, including calling some environmentalists' claims unfounded and many of industry's harvesting practices harmful to the soil. ¶ But the bottom line, they said, was that many studies show that clearcutting – if done properly under the right conditions – was a sustainable way to harvest timber. ¶ The above proviso – if done properly under the right conditions – is extremely important in Nova Scotia, they said. ”

Dec. 16, 2001, The Daily News ~ Faisal Moola, Forest Ecologist

Forest report not devoid of science – Letter to the Editor

“ There is strong scientific evidence that the loss of old forests caused by clearcutting is having a devastating impact on the plants and animals that depend on such habitats for survival. The federal government's own data shows that long-lived species, such as eastern hemlock and red spruce, have experienced a severe reduction in population size and distribution as a result of past forest management. ¶ Before the cod fishery crash, scientists pleaded with policy makers to reduce the pace of fishing in order to prevent a marine ecosystem disaster. I fear that our voices are being ignored once again. ”

Dec. 15, 2001, The Daily News ~ Linda Pannozzo, GPIAtlantic

Forest report had science – Letter to the Editor

“ The Gunns of the world would have us believe there is a scientific basis for clearcutting, since it is what happens 99 per cent of the time in this province, thereby providing a rationale for the public, who would find it unacceptable otherwise. The GPI report failed here. ¶ We were unable to come up with a scientific reason why clearcutting should take place to the extent that it does. But we were able to discover that science has little, if anything, to do with clearcutting on this scale. ”

Dec. 13, 2001, The Daily News ~ Eldon Gunn

I was speaking for myself – Letter to the Editor

“ Let me illustrate my no-science comment. Some of GPI's arguments involve extending the Windhorse farm example (55 hectares) to 1.3 million hectares of forest (which is half of the province's operable forest). Since Windhorse farm uses two horses, this extrapolation would result in 47,272 horses working in the woods of Nova Scotia. This conclusion is silly, but it is the type of extrapolation behind GPI's conclusions. ”

Wednesday December 12, 2001, The Daily News ~ Stephen Bornais

Critic: ‘no science’ in forestry report

“ GPI Atlantic released a draft version of its Forest Reports in November, concluding that years of poor management have devalued the province’s forest and threaten to bring on a northern cod-like collapse. ¶ [...] ¶ Gunn, a forest researcher for 23 years, is also chairman of the Nova Forest Alliance, an organization that brings together industry, woodland owners, environmental activists and tourism interests. He is preparing a detailed critique of GPI Atlantic’s report. ¶ GPI’s report envisions a primordial, pre-contact forest, stuffed with lofty hardwoods and towering softwoods, that likely never existed, Gunn said. ”

Manage sustainably – Voice of the People
Wednesday December 12, 2001, The Daily News ~ Joyce Lachance, Jeddore
“ Recent articles have prompted me again to address the necessity of preserving our forests, or at best to manage them sustainably. ¶ [...] ¶ Please, let's put the good of the planet before individual and corporate profit and do what we must to preserve our environment. ”

November 19, 2001, NDP Nova Scotia ~ John MacDonell, Hants East

Act on the GPI Atlantic Report on the Forests

“ NDP Natural Resources critic John MacDonell is calling on Natural Resources Minister Ernie Fage to immediately implement the recommendations for forest recovery outlined in the recently released GPI Atlantic Report.¶ "This government tends to ignore good advice and support the status quo at all costs," says MacDonell, "But clear-cutting won't just bring on an ecological disaster, it will bring on an economic disaster." ”

Saturday, November 17, 2001, The Halifax Herald ~ Ralph Surette

Time to face up to the tragedy of our forests

“ Trees over 80 years old now cover only one per cent of the province, says the report by GPI Atlantic. It's a mounting disaster about which we are officially in denial, and of which we have yet to grasp the full consequences. ¶ Warnings about the degradation of the Nova Scotia forest have been heard for a long time, but in recent years, they've taken on a more anxious tone. The last one, by the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy in 1997, warned many sawmills would start closing in the Maritimes soon and paper mills would start cutting back around 2010 because of shortages of wood. ”

Thursday, November 15, 2001, The Daily News, Halifax ~ Stephen Bornais

N.S. trees worth more standing than as pulp or lumber – study

GPI Atlantic turns its new economics to the forest industry
“ Wade Prest, past president of the Nova Scotia Woodlot Owners and Operators Association, said many of the province’s 25,000 landowners are looking for guidance, something he thinks the GPI report can provide. ¶ “A lot of them are questioning what they see around them, but in the absence of anything else, they buy into that industrial forestry model,” Prest said. ”

Even cut forests can boom again
Thursday, November 15, 2001, The Daily News, Halifax ~ Stephen Bornais
“ Bringing even the most degraded forest land back to full productivity is just a matter of choosing to do it, say two men who have. ¶ The 250-hectare woodland managed by the Pictou Landing Mi’kmaq band and one run by a former sawmill operator were highlighted in a new report – GPI Forest Accounts – as possible models for how Nova Scotia can restore its battered forest. ”

Forestry practices wasteful, study says
Thursday, November 15, 2001, The Halifax Herald

A call to save our forests
Wednesday, November 14, 2001, CBC Nova Scotia ~ Kathryn Morse
“ Even though the province is spending some money on reforestation, GPI says that's not enough. The group wants to see limits placed on clear-cutting, and immediate protection for disappearing old growth forests. ¶ "If we wait, if we lose the next 20 years, it could be too late," says Colman. ”

Spring 1999, Between The Issues ~ Sara Wilson

The Geniune Progress of Nova Scotia's Forests

“ In economic terminology, capital generally refers to a stock of materials or information available and flows include the extractions (e.g. harvests) and/or services from that stock. If the amount taken from a stock does not exceed the stock's growth rate, then, in theory, the flow rate perpetuates through time (Prugh 1995). However, forest ecosystems are complex life-sustaining systems that contain many different stocks, not only timber or wood stocks. Therefore, a complex set of criteria and indicators must be used to measure whether our activities leave the original natural capital intact. ”

The Nova Scotia GPI Forest Accounts Volume 1: Indicators of Ecological, Economic & Social Values of Forests in Nova Scotia
November 2001	Natural Capital ~ Forests
Authors: Sara Wilson, MSc.F. and Ronald Colman, Ph.D with Minga O'Brien, M.Sc. and Linda Pannozzo, B.Sc., B.Ed., B.J.
Ecological, economic and social valuation of forest resources related to resource management, harvest practices, and multiple resource usage.
Abstract	Executive Summary 16 pages 192K PDF
ISBN 0-9689923-1-5 (v. 1)	Full Report 212 pages 1.6MB PDF
The Nova Scotia GPI Forest Accounts Volume 2: A Way Forward: Case Studies in Sustainable Forestry
Authors: Linda Pannozzo, B.Sc., B.Ed., B.J. and Minga O'Brien, M.Sc.
Consideration of future directions, and sustainable forestry principles and practices.
Abstract
ISBN 0-9689923-2-3 (v. 2)	Full Report 255 pages 3.4MB PDF
Press Release: GPI analysis shows Nova Scotia forests in sharp decline
Press Release: TIANS endorses GPI Forest report
Press Release: Forest talks collapse as groups walk out
	Media Coverage

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