Voluntary Planning

To Whom It May Concern;

I attended one of the public meetings on this subject and have talked to others who attended and also to one member of the Engagement Committee.

My main interest is Forestry not that I am involved in the Forest Industry directly but because I am only too well aware of the effects almost everywhere in NS (anybody who can see cannot be) of the effects of our current disastrous forest practices. I have clear cuts near where I live. Prior to these flying squirrels were nightly callers to my suet bird feeder. I have not seen one since. What other species have been decimated?

Rather than write an essay I will simply make a number of comments.

1. Across Canada for years pulp mills have been closing down. A year or two ago it was touch and go for 12 months whether Stora (now New Page Port Hawkesbury Mill) would not go the same way. Only further massive subsidies kept it going for the moment. Even that perennial booster of Port Hawkesbury mayor Billy Joe MacLean stated publicly that the pulp wood industry is "a dying industry". There are therefore very good if maybe longer term economic reasons, not to mind all the other reasons, for not continuing the current forestry status quo.

2. The references to 'scientific' forestry come almost entirely from those involved in the pulp wood industry. For any anyone attempting to assess the true value of scientific findings in any field, it is axiomatic not to trust findings that emanate for those with direct monetary or other personal interests in such findings. Given this is the case here any claims to scientific justification for current practices by industry mouth pieces are at least scientifically highly suspect.

3. If 50 people give one point of view then it has to carry more weight than the opposite point of view of 1or 2. The report does not reflect this.

4. Though a case can be made for rights to farm and rights to 'forest' your own land, there are such great differences it is in reality an apples to oranges comparison and as such should not carry much weight.

5. On the other hand it is certainly understandable that wood lot owners want to make a living off their woodlots and unfortunately at present the simplest, easiest quickest and maybe the only way to do this is to provide wood pulp for the industry. However given that properly conserved and managed forests provide a wide range of vital 'natural services' (carbon sequestration, good water etc) to the community at large then woodlot owners should be paid for maintaining their forests in proper condition as is the case in other parts of the world (see article 'The Business of Saving the Earth' by Chris Wood in the November 2008 edition of 'Walrus' magazine). Why cannot this be done in Nova Scotia? Why should current highly destructive forest practices get 95% plus of government forestry subsidies? Why should woodlot owners not be paid to practice good not bad forestry? Practices that mainly benefit the people Nova Scotia and not the shareholders of foreign multinationals. It should and could easily be made financially worthwhile for woodlot owners not to clear cut their woodlands with all the benefits that would accrue to the Nova Scotia and Nova Scotians that would follow from such policy.

6 Current forestry practices are unfortunately very much a case of short term gain for long term pain. Forestry is mimicking the practices of the ground fishing industry that destroyed ground fish stocks.

7. What will be the value of soft wood mono cultured wood stands in CB for instance if the pulp mill in Port Hawkesbury, goes the way of many pulp mills across the country?

8 It is painfully obvious that the planet is in trouble. Those who think otherwise at this time have their thick ignorant heads deep in the sand. 'Pulping' our forests in Nova Scotia accelerates it does nothing to slowdown this deadly process. The promotion financially and otherwise of good forestry practices would.

10. The access to wild places by OHVs must be restricted and as the largely ignored VP findings of a few years ago showed is widely desired by most Nova Scotians.

9. If we continue the way we are going at present our children and grand children, even if they don't do so certainly will have every right to curse us for the legacy we will leave them.

Yours Truly

DR. James V. O'Brien MB DPM FRCPC