Tobeatic Wilderness Committee
NEWSLETTER

A FAX PETITION to Premier Savage is a part of this document. We urge you to join us in our protest by forwarding the fax to the Premier. Tobeatic Wilderness Committee, Vol.2 No.1, February 1997 The Parks & Protected Systems Plan - What Plan? What's Been Happening? In November 1996 the Tobeatic Wilderness Committee (TWC) went to Halifax to meet with the Honourable Eleanor Norrie, Minister of Natural Resources. The purpose of the meeting was to ask about the inclusion of the Tobeatic "finger" in the Parks and Protected Systems Plan. As you will recall, the government of Nova Scotia accepted all the recommendations of the committee responsible for the public review process. The Tobeatic "finger" adjacent to Kejimkujik National Park, and predominantly in Annapolis County, were included as part of these recommendations. Mrs. Norrie was unable to attend the November meeting. However, Mr. Hogg, the Deputy Minister, advised us that an announcement would be forthcoming that would include the Tobeatic "finger" as part of the Parks and Protected Systems Plan - except 350 hectares or 5% of our proposed "finger." As a result, the watersheds of the region and the canoe routes and portages would be protected by the Parks and Protected Systems Plan. Committee asked that any cutting near the Tobeatic "finger" be closely monitored to ensure that proper forest guidelines are met. We did not receive an answer. Nor did we receive an answer when we requested that special legislation be put in place to protect these areas. We believe that it is imperative that this type of legislation exist. Adding these sites to the Crown Lands Act is simply not good enough. In December 1996 the Committee learned that the provincial government eliminated the Jim Campbell's Barrens, one of the thirty-one protected sites, from the Parks and Protected Systems Plan. Due to a strong lobby from a small group of economically driven interests from the Cheticamp / Cape Breton area, government eliminated this protected site by a special resolution of Cabinet. The TWC is appalled by this decision because we feared this action would have a "ripple-effect" across the province and call the government's commitment to the Plan into question. In the meantime, no announcement regarding the Tobeatic "finger" or a schedule for enacting special legislation, has been made. Fighting the Old Battles In January 1997 interested organizations and individuals from Queens County requested that the TWC make a presentation to the Queens Regional Municipality. This request was as a direct result to Harry Freeman's and the NS Forest Products Association's lobby to Queens Regional Municipal Council. They wanted Council to support their opposition to a proposed Department of Natural Resources' plan to have portions of the forests designated as protected areas. As was indicated in The Advance, January 8 issue, Mr. Freeman stated that "no land should be protected without first investigating the social and economic impacts." He further said, "this will take some time, but a decision should be made on facts rather than beliefs or ill-conceived romantic notions." He was also quoted as saying " thousands of Nova Scotians who use the forest as a source of income will lose their livelihood if government removes sections of land from productive use." Jim Todd, TWC, noted in his presentation that the largest job losses in the forestry industry have been due to mechanization, not from the Province's initiative to protect 5% of crown land. Don Rice, Chair of the TWC, advised that the Tobeatic will create jobs in the tourism sector and provide opportunities for scientific study and most important, habitat protection. Exclusion of Jim Campbell's Barrens from the Plan is no doubt responsible for this lobby. Queens Regional Municipality's Mayor, Chris Clarke, indicated it was his understanding, in light of the Barren's decision, that the Systems Plan was on hold and open to negotiation with the Province. The TWC has written letters to the Premier and Minister of Natural Resources expressing opposition to the exclusion of Jim Campbell's Barrens from the Systems Plan. We stated that this action sets a dangerous precedent and is currently having repercussions. We are frustrated by government's slow pace in moving toward implementation of the Plan and legislation to protect all sites, including the Tobeatic. We do not believe the Crown Lands Act, on its own, will provide any significant protection for the candidate areas. Committee urges the Province to enact specific legislation to protect the Parks and Protected Systems Plan as soon as possible. The TWC had concerns about the Department of Natural Resources not taking a leading role in defence of its own plan. We request that the Department institute a public information and education process to promote the values, aims and purposes of the Systems Plan to Nova Scotians. The TWC Needs YOUR Help We need your help to lobby government to: uphold and actively promote the objectives and spirit of the Systems Plan. maintain the integrity of the thirty-one candidate protected areas through meaningful legislation. enact effective legislation to protect these sites and establish a more aggressive time table. respect the recommendations of the public process in which the citizens of Nova Scotia participated. confirm the status of the Tobeatic "finger" as an integral part of the candidate area and include it in the Parks and Protected Systems Plan. If you believe as we believe, we encourage you to complete the petition on the last page of this newsletter and fax it "post haste" to the Premier. (The fax number is on the petition.) We would appreciate hearing from you, and we can be contacted at: RR1, Box 5, Riverview Road Bear River, NS B0S 1B0 (902) 467 3313 The Last True Wilderness in Nova Scotia The Tobeatic Wilderness covers approximately 100,000 hectares of crown land in Southwest Nova, near Kejimkujik National Park. The landscape is a legacy of the last ice age with boulder-strewn barrens, abundant lakes, streams, wetlands and significant forests. Some of the forested areas of the Tobeatic contain magnificent old growth sites, particularly white pine and Eastern hemlock. FACTS: the Tobeatic area contains over 100 kms of canoe routes that have been used by Nova Scotians for generations. Nova Scotia's oldest river, the Shelburne, runs through the Tobeatic and has been nominated as a Canadian Heritage River. due to its inaccessibility, the Tobeatic harbours large populations of Black Bear, River Otter, Bobcat and Moose. the Tobeatic is home to the last significant gene pool of native moose in Nova Scotia. The area's isolation from outside impacts is one of the reasons these large species still thrive here. the Blandings Turtle, recently designated by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada as a threatened species, lives within this region. Pine Martins which were wiped out in Nova Scotia have been re-introduced into the wild. other species include the Southern Flying Squirrel, the rare Ribbon Snake, Northern Goshawk, Canada Warbler, the Loon and the Pied Billed Grebe, all depend on the undisturbed wilderness habitat. the area provides a safe and sensitive habitat for Water Penny Wort, Golden Crest, Red Root and Long's Bulrush, that are all listed as threatened or endangered. Any kind of development that could effect water quality or shorelines could be devastating to these sensitive plants. the Tobeatic is known for one of the largest known Eskers found in Eastern Canada. (The esker stretches for 1 3 kms from the western part of Keji into the Tobeatic.) parts of the Tobeatic are underlain by a feature called the Orstein Formation. This is a layer of impermeable hardpan lying near the surface that makes regeneration of vegetation extremely difficult. (If forests are cut within these sections, there is little chance of regeneration.) the Tobeatic's soils and waters are low in PH and would suffer from what might come from forest or mining extraction. Facts About Us The Tobeatic Wilderness Committee was formed in 1992 in response to an immediate threat to what is known as "the last true wilderness left in southwestern Nova Scotia and indeed the Maritimes." The Tobeatic area is next to Kejimkujik National Park. We are a group of private citizens working to ensure that the Tobeatic remains an "inviolable" wilderness by promoting the value of bio-diversity and landscape, compatible recreational and educational use and long-term sustainable economic benefits for Nova Scotia. Over the past five years, the TWC has concentrated on ongoing negotiations and discussions with the Department of Natural Resources and the promotion and value of the Parks and Protected Systems Plan. Watch for our Home Page on the World Wide Web About the Plan The Parks and Protected Systems Plan was researched and developed by the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources the Parks and Protected Systems Plan represents twenty-six of Nova Scotia's seventy-seven unique landscapes. it will provide management and protection for these sites. it involved twenty-five public meetings across Nova Scotia. participation by two thousand Nova Scotians and five hundred eighty two written submissions. (Only eleven submissions were to the contrary.) Did You Know?... Nova Scotia crown land presently under protection is 0.34% or 18,837 hectares. federal / provincial and private reserves under protection are 2.89% or 160,600 hectares. proposed systems plan, including all thirty-one sites, would equal 5.17% or 286,814 hectares. total protection with systems plan would equal 8.0%. Nova Scotia is bound to comply with the Canadian Ratified United Nations Conference on Environment and Developing Bio-diversity Treaty which set the goal to preserve 12% of the wild areas of each nation. according to conservation biologists, a wilderness the size of the Tobeatic (between 100,000 and 300,000 hectares) is ideal in terms of its protection value and its manageability. over one acre of forest is destroyed every second on earth. over two hundred acres of forest are destroyed in Canada every hour. one species per hour becomes extinct on earth. over three hundred species are on the endangered list in Canada. Twenty new ones are added per year. Raise Your Voice and Be Heard To express your interests / views, please contact the following: Premier John Savage PO Box 726, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3J 2T3 Ph: (902) 424 6600 The Honorable Eleanor Norrie Minister of Natural Resources PO Box 698, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3J 2T9 Ph: (902) 424 4037 A FAX PETITION to Premier Savage is a part of this document. We urge you to join us in our protest by forwarding the fax to the Premier.