06/13/2026
" In March 2024, the Queens County Fish and Game Association embarked upon an effort to define and recommend additions to both the Tobeatic Wilderness Area and the Tidney River Wilderness Area. Those mapped additions total over 20,000 hectares. These designations will provide a large contiguous area of endangered mainland moose habitat, without harvesting or roads. Moose are easily disturbed by forestry operations, and on many occasions, the result is that they bolt towards the coast, where they are usually poached within one week. We had incorrectly hoped that the province would not procrastinate on our March 2024 additions request.
Minister of Environment Tim Halman thanked our association for the submission and passed it on to his Parks and Protected Areas division. Both Premier Tim Houston and Minister of DNR Tory Rushton were copied on that request.
The province was working with Ottawa under an agreement to spend approximately $28.5 million to designate enough protected areas to reach 15 per cent of Nova Scotia by March 31. Purchasing private woodlands would allow the Crown to designate protected areas while maintaining sufficient forestry lands. Unspent money will likely need to be returned to Ottawa.
DNR staff plotted on the Nova Scotia Harvest Map Viewer about 20 new harvests, existing within our proposed additions. They are problematic locations for forestry as endangered mainland moose currently utilize those locations. Negative responses by citizens to DNR appear to be ignored.
DNR is creating high-production forestry (HPF) in remote areas in the province. The land will be clear-cut, trees planted, fertilized, sprayed after two years to kill the hardwoods, thinned at 25 years, and harvested at 50 years. Taxpayers will pay the high costs to maintain remote roads and bridges to locations for 50 years."
https://www. saltwire. com/nova-scotia/halifax/opinion-halifax/opinion-endangered-mainland-moose-being-neglected-in-western-nova-scotia-and-beyond
