Association for Sustainable Forestry
Truro, N.S.
One of the most anticipated forestry documents in the past five years is currently being polished by the Department of Lands and Forestry, and we hope it will soon be released. That publication is the revised Forest Management Guide, which will provide new standards for ecosystem-based stewardship of Nova Scotia’s forests. It will be particularly practical in the hands of forest professionals who are working with private landowners. Eventually, there may be some far-reaching transformations to the criteria and standards for silviculture.
The storm Dorian rattled through the province in September, wreaking havoc on commercial thinning and selection harvest areas. Evidence is still arriving, but it appears that some sites that had been rated as low-to-moderate wind hazard during pre-treatment assessments suffered significant blowdown. On some areas – depending on the owner’s objectives – salvage cuts will soon be necessary to extract wood while it is still usable. It seems we can plan as best we can for windthrow risk, but events such as Dorian will always trump our playbook. Despite this, some landowners are proceeding with new thinning operations, and we are encouraging this tactic on appropriate sites. We’re hoping that the new Forest Management Guide will provide further guidance on how best to avoid wind damage where trees will be retained.
Landowners are encouraged to continue contacting us with silviculture funding requests. Although the majority of our current funding has been allocated, an early winter may liberate room in our budget for additional work. Stay safe in the woods!

David Sutherland, RPF
Coordinator, Association for Sustainable Forestry
Phone 902-895-1179
www.asforestry.com

Breton Forest Innovation Cooperative
Middle River, N.S.
As the air begins to turn brisk, and we near the turning of another season, the Breton Forest Innovation Cooperative is keeping momentum here in Middle River, Unama’ki. With our CB Pod project gaining publicity, and new orders coming in, we are making plans to encourage new builders to join our team. We are looking forward to sharing of skill sets, and a flourishing of creativity. This fall marks the first forest safety courses offered through our cooperative, as we continue to grow our “Forest Floor to Your Door” social enterprise. The Sydney Credit Union has featured us as Small Business of the Year for 2019. We have also been featured in publications from across the province, and we could not be more thrilled.
Building a momentous undertaking such as this, in a time of such uncertainty in the forest resource sector, has proven to take more fortitude than one could predict. Trying to encourage folks to support local seems to be the biggest gap that we need to knit back together, but we are determined. Looking back, as one tends to do in approaching a season’s end, we remain thankful for all of those who have supported us along our journey – our membership and volunteers, New Dawn Enterprises, the Sydney Credit Union, and the Nova Scotia Co-operative Council.
The upcoming year, 2020, will prove to be one of educational outreach, as we work hard to organize our forest education courses and workshops that will begin in the spring. From forest safety to woodworking to herbal walks, we hope to offer something for everyone interested in what the forest provides. We will kick off our season this spring with another Forest Celebration event. Please watch our website for more information, and please like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram.
We are always looking to increase membership. Our members are essential in our path forward. We are a true grassroots movement that is gaining momentum, working with our bare hands, determined feet, and very little resources. We could not be more thankful to those who have been helping to build the bridges along the entire forest value chain. Please don’t hesitate to reach out for more information or to get involved. May the forest be with you!

Stacie Carroll
Business Development Coordinator, BFIC
Phone 902-957-2947
Email stacie@bretonforest.org
www.bretonforest.org

Community Forests International
Sackville, N.B.
How can Acadian forests be managed to store more carbon and mitigate climate change? And how can the people most closely connected to our forests share in the upside of providing these critical services? These are some of the guiding questions for our work here at Community Forests International.
Forests are the single greatest tool we can use to sequester carbon on a large scale and mitigate the effects of climate change. A degraded forest, however, lacks the ability to securely sequester significant amounts of carbon. Unhealthy forests, and forests that lack diversity, often act as a source of carbon emissions; they are more vulnerable to insect attacks, drought stress, and other disturbances that cause them to degrade even more rapidly, releasing their stored carbon back into the atmosphere.
A degraded forest’s lack of complexity and diversity reduces its ability to adapt to a changing climate. As the climate in the Acadian Forest Region changes, so too do the growing conditions for our native tree species. Many cold-adapted boreal species will no longer find this region hospitable. As the climate here continues to get warmer and wetter, growing conditions will continue to disfavor those boreal species and favour more temperate species typically found in the Appalachian region.
For the past year, Community Forests International has worked with silviculturalist and ecologist Gareth Davies to develop a silvicultural guide to support forestry professionals to manage for climate change. The guide is based on research from across the region on the climate change resilience of native tree species. It can be used in the field by forestry practitioners to help grow forests that are better able to survive climate change, sequester more carbon, and support greater habitat diversity.
These silvicultural prescriptions – tested by forestry professionals during an Oct. 25 field workshop organized by the New Brunswick Federation of Woodlot Owners (NBFWO) – will be released to the public later this fall. The prescriptions are designed to lead users toward individual stand treatments, as well as a long-term forest management strategy.
We have also recently had the opportunity to work alongside the NBFWO to create a series of complementary instructive videos. These short, accessible videos feature forestry professionals from across the region, and illustrate how we can manage our forests so that they are resilient to climate change, including changes in growing conditions and an increased frequency of extreme weather events. The videos will be released in the new year.
At Community Forests International, we have long seen the potential of a well-managed, diverse, and healthy Acadian Forest in contributing to significant climate-change mitigation and rural community development. For the past four years, we have worked to develop the process by which small private woodlot owners could access the carbon offsets market, and we have demonstrated Improved Forest Management (IFM) for voluntary carbon offsetting at our pilot project site in South Branch, N.B.
We continue to await the required legislation that would allow carbon offset projects in Atlantic Canada to access cap-and-trade programs, as well as the protocols that would guide these projects. There is a cap-and-trade component to the carbon tax that came into effect this year, which is being developed to include carbon offsets – but this opportunity is heavily influenced by the national political landscape.
In addition to national cap-and-trade opportunities, we see promise in the leadership of international governing bodies like the International Civil Aviation Organization, which will launch the pilot phase of its Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Civil Aviation (CORSIA) in 2021.
Community Forests International continues to build partnerships with businesses that are voluntarily purchasing carbon offsets as we await legislation for compliance markets. Through this mechanism, we were recently able to preserve a historic 353-acre forest in Cambridge-Narrows. As we continue to refine and de-risk this model, we are committed to keeping the forestry community informed of any significant opportunities that become available.
Please do not hesitate to reach out with your questions or concerns.

Monica Allaby
Communications Coordinator
Community Forests International
Phone 506-536-3738
Email info@forestsinternational.org
www.forestsinternational.org

Federation of Nova Scotia Woodland Owners
Truro, N.S.
The Federation is pleased to introduce its new executive director, Patrick Wiggin. Raised in HRM, Pat first took an interest in natural resource management while completing his B.Sc. in environmental science at Mount Allison University in 2011. He funded his education by tree planting in the wilds of northern British Columbia, where he developed such a passion for the outdoors that he eventually decided to go back to school, completing a forestry technology diploma program at the Maritime College of Forest Technology (MCFT) in Fredericton, N.B.
After 12 years of working with trees, forests, and people, Pat decided to return home to start a new adventure in a similar field. The Federation had what he was looking for – an opportunity to work with people, to meet their needs for forest management services, with a focus on responsible and sustainable practices. Pat hopes to serve as a bridge between interest and implementation of forest management for all current and prospective forest owners across the province. He has quickly reintroduced himself into the world of private land management, after so much time spent on the other side of the country. Pat feels passionate about representing the private sector as best he can. Outreach, education, innovation, and trust between people – and the connection they have with their (our) land – are the founding principles that brought him home.
The Federation is delighted to announce that two previous Woodland Owner of the Year Award (WOYA) winners have recently hosted field days: Mike Penny (Antigonish, Oct. 26), and Pat O’Toole, (Carroll’s Corner, Nov. 3). In-depth subjects regarding non-timber forest products (maple syrup, Christmas trees, and blueberries), different harvesting practices, and incorporating interest from the younger generations, were addressed. We hope many of you were able to come out and enjoy a couple beautiful days in the woods with the Federation!
The Federation is still offering woodlot certification to prospective and current members. Remember, learning more about what we offer is only a phone call or an email away.
Pat has been busy planning a couple new projects that will start to take shape in the next coming months. We look forward to sharing more news in the future as we keep moving forward! That’s all for now, Maritimers.

Pat Wiggin, executive director
FNSWO
Phone 902-809-8858
Email patrick@fnswo.ca
www.fnswo.ca

New Brunswick Federation of Woodlot Owners
Fredericton, N.B.
Recently, it was stated by those representing the industry in New Brunswick’s forest sector that the New Brunswick Federation of Woodlot Owners is constantly “undermining the forest sector, based on a narrow and outdated view of forest products marketing.” Ironically, it seems that some of the larger companies are convinced that returning to the 1950s and 1960s system for the marketing of private wood is not an outdated view. That system was one in which mills purchased either directly from woodlot owners or from preferred contractors, meaning that different woodlot owners and contractors received different prices for their products, and a small number of people controlled access to the marketplace. These buyers could set the price, and determined who could sell wood.
This led to much dissatisfaction in the supply chain, as not everyone was treated fairly. As a result, woodlot owners got together and held plebiscites for the formation of marketing boards. Woodlot owners saw the advantages of joining together to give them the ability to negotiate better prices, ensuring that everyone received the same price and had access to the market. Marketing boards provided a legal authority and a structure that allowed the group to carry out negotiations with the various forest industries on behalf of woodlot owners, and sign contracts for the sale of primary forest products.
Marketing boards allow smaller operations and owners to work collectively to access the market, speak with one voice, and get a consistent price for their product. Marketing boards prevent large companies from being able to pick and choose winners and losers. Marketing boards treat all woodlot owners the same, regardless of size or location, and provide administrative services to woodlot owners and contractors. Marketing boards also provide transparency in wood pricing, and unbiased third-party advice on forest management.
Without marketing boards, industry would have even greater control of the total wood supply – Crown, freehold, and private. It seems that marketing boards have been successful in achieving at least some of their objectives. Since the inception of marketing boards and the writing of the Crown Lands and Forests Act in 1982, industry has lobbied for and received changes to the Crown Lands and Forests Act, allowing them to undermine the purpose of the marketing boards. The change to the Act in 1992 allowed them to identify, in their operating plan, wood from private woodlots or producer associations, rather than from producer associations only. This change allowed industry to sign contracts directly with woodlot owners, or with contractors, rather than signing purchase contracts with the marketing boards. Industry immediately started to sign up direct contracts, and they have been systematically increasing their use of this clause ever since.
As you are likely aware, three of the four parties currently sitting in the New Brunswick legislature indicated in their election platforms that they support private woodlot owners and are willing to reopen the Crown Lands and Forests Act. The reversal of this clause would be a significant move. The fact that the forest industry was the lobby that resulted in the change, back in 1992, should be a clear indication that it is not in the best interests of the private woodlot sector.
Our objectives are quite different. Private woodlot owners want the most value they can get from the sale of their wood, and industry wants to purchase wood at the lowest possible price. The lowest possible price is not in the best interests of the small rural communities that benefit when private woodlot owners and private woodlot contractors are thriving. Royalty rates on Crown wood are set based on private stumpage rates, so anything that supports an increase in stumpage prices for private wood also supports the province as a whole, through increased royalties. Increased private stumpage rates would result in increased rural spending, and support for small local businesses. It seems that a reversal in this clause would be good for all of New Brunswick.
While industry will likely claim that they cannot withstand any increase because they are competing in a global marketplace, it is important to note that neighbouring jurisdictions are paying higher rates, while competing in the same global marketplace. In the future, increased stumpage prices on both private and Crown may, in fact, save industry, by making them once again exempt from duties and tariffs currently imposed by the U.S.
Without marketing boards to support small producers, the large corporate entities thrive. It is important that we support marketing boards, as they allow the small working woodlot to continue. If you want something other than an industrial model of forestry, then we ask for your support of the marketing board system. Please tell your MLA – strong marketing boards ensure a strong forestry sector for our province and strengthen our local communities.

Susannah Banks
Executive Director, NBFWO
Phone 506-459-2990
Email nbfwo@aibn.com
nbwoodlotowners.ca

Nova Lumberjacks Society
Truro, N.S.
August was a busy month for the Nova Lumberjacks Society (NLS) and membership. First, we helped send a team of Canadian axe throwers all the way to Sweden to compete at the World Double Bit Axe Throwing Championships. The team consisted of top competitors from across the country. Representing Nova Scotia were myself, team captain Cynthia Kennedy, Mike Zwicker, Matt Pushie, Joey Bridgeo, Darren Hudson, David Coady, Ashley Kelly, and Suzy Atwood. Tess Billings represented New Brunswick, and Karl Bischoff represented British Columbia. Our team competed well, but ultimately the European competitors proved to be the best in the world, with Sweden taking gold in the Men’s, Women’s, and Team divisions, and Germany taking gold in the Junior Division. The highlight for our team was watching our women’s team grind their way to a fourth-place finish in the women’s event, beating out five other top national teams and narrowly missing the podium.
After returning from Sweden, the NLS had another big task ahead: hosting the 2019 Canadian Axe Throwing Championships! This was the event’s second year, and it went off terrifically. Privateer Park in Liverpool, N.S., was the perfect setting for the more than 70 competitors from five nations who competed. Tina Nordberg, of Sweden, won gold in the Women’s Division, and Aiden Weeks, of Barrington, N.S., was the winner in the Junior Division. However, it was our own NLS president, Burlin Nickerson of Pubnico, N.S., who stole the show with a stellar performance in the Men’s Championship finals, taking down the big dogs from Sweden and Germany and winning the overall title! It was an incredible way to cap off the event, and we couldn’t be happier for Burlin.
So, what else is new? Well, some big news was announced from Sweden, which you may have seen online: the Nova Lumberjacks Society will host the next World Championships in double-bitted axe throwing in 2021! The date and location are yet to be determined, but we are extremely excited and humbled to have been given the honour to host this prestigious event. We have formed an organizing committee and are working diligently to plan and execute the best world championships in axe throwing to date. More news to follow on this soon, so be sure to follow us on Facebook and check our website for regular updates on this exciting event.
A big thanks goes out to DvL Publishing (Atlantic Forestry Review and your Local magazines) for their continued support of our organization and initiatives! Be sure to check out past editions of both magazines for awesome articles about the NLS and our initiatives! Stay sharp, folks.
Ryan McIntyre
Vice-President, Nova Lumberjacks Society
Email novalumberjacks@gmail.com
www.novalumberjacks.com

Nova Scotia Woodlot Owners and Operators Association
Truro, N.S.
The Family Forest Centre continues to grow by leaps and bounds. In just two months, 76 landowners have signed up for more information about the centre; 104 people have begun to follow the new Facebook page; and woodland owners were invited to two field days in early November to explore the concepts and practice of ecological forestry.
Meanwhile, support for the centre has grown to include seven organizations which directly serve more than 1,100 woodland owners and have a total of 8,680 members. This is the largest group of forest owners and users that have ever been brought together in Nova Scotia.
The Nova Scotia Woodlot Owners and Operators Association is a 50-year-old non-profit society that has advocated for better forestry practices for more than 20 years. With financial support from the Nova Scotia Department of Lands and Forestry, NSWOOA serves as the first point of contact for family forest owners throughout the province who have questions about woodland management. We have developed a wide variety of outreach tools (newsletter, websites, Facebook pages, field days and workshop, and more) that connect with an estimated 8,000-10,000 forest landowners each year.
Five other organizations that directly serve Nova Scotia landowners have expressed support for the Family Forest Centre: Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute, based in Kempt; North Nova Forest Owners Co-op, in Wentworth; Athol Forestry Cooperative, in Amherst; Conform Ltd., in Middle Musquodoboit; and the Western Woodlot Services Co-op, based in Church Point.
The Nova Scotia Federation of Anglers and Hunters, based in Halifax, has also joined the project. This province-wide organization counts as members about 6,600 Nova Scotians who are active forest users. Like NSWOOA, the federation has a long history of support for improved forest management.
In addition, the executive director of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture has recommended that his board vote to join the project. About 2,500 farmers own a combined area of forest estimated at 500,000 acres in the province.
Collectively, these organizations have members in every community in the province – people who are united by an interest in enhancing the economic, ecological, social, and cultural values that are created by healthy, well-managed forests.
NSWOOA is not interested in providing long-term forest management services to small, private landowners. We believe the existing service areas and landowner cooperatives should remain the primary providers of on-the-ground forest management services to family forest owners. We believe there is significant and obvious value, however, in working with service providers to help the 30,000-plus woodland owners in Nova Scotia learn more about how to manage their forests in ways that are ecologically and economically sustainable.
The Family Forest Centre will also host a provincial steering committee that meets from time to time to discuss the significant challenges faced by family forest owners, and develop ways for participating organizations to jointly address those issues.
Generating enthusiasm and seeking funding for such projects (outside of the Nova Scotia Department of Lands and Forestry) will be an important function of the steering committee. We hope the centre will facilitate research into key questions involving the sustainable and profitable use of forest resources.
Already, the centre has been invited to take part in two research projects. One, which will look at climate change adaptation by rural and coastal communities, involves a researcher at Dalhousie University’s Agricultural Campus in Truro. The other, led by a researcher at the University of New Brunswick’s Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management, will explore the reasons family forest landowners sometimes undertake types of harvesting that are inconsistent with their professed concerns about the environmental impacts of forest management.
We have also committed to creating a guide to ecological forestry, biodiversity, and climate change; publish an online tool about ecological forestry, modelled after NSWOOA’s current Landowner Goals Self-Assessment; produce a brochure about services available to woodland owners in Nova Scotia; and develop other resources and activities for family forest owners.
If you want to learn more about the project as it grows, you can sign up at https://www.nswoods.ca/family-forest-centre.html.