Media Clipping — Thursday, November 15, 2001, The Daily News, Halifax

Even cut forests can boom again

By 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.

Bill McKay, director of the First Nations Forestry Association of Nova Scotia and manager of the Pictou Landing woodlot, said when the band decided in 1992 to restore the land to its pre-contract state, it was typical of many over-exploited central Nova Scotia woodlots.

McKay said the band, despite the high unemployment on the reserve, resisted the temptation of clearcutting the woods for quick cash once it saw what could be done in the woodlot. “There has been growing support; it did not happen overnight,” he said.

The restored forest provides timber to harvest and a site for spiritual re-connection with the land for band members, McKay said.

Two hundred kilometres further north, near St. Ann’s, Victoria Co., former sawmill operator Jeremy Frith is restoring a mountaintop wood lot that has been repeatedly cut and high-graded. He ignored conventional advice that told him to raze the 89-hectare site and start over.

“I choose not to become a pulp grower,” he said.

Instead, by investing time and money in silviculture, Frith said he expects within eight to 10 years to double his returns from the land through improved sawlog production, which brings a higher return than pulp wood.

Copyright © 2001, The Daily News