Expert panel member critical of N.S. clear cutting policy

A member of an expert panel that examined management of Nova Scotia’s natural resources in 2011 says he’s disappointed the province is moving away from a goal of reducing clear cutting in forests by 50 per cent.

Allan Shaw, chairman of the Shaw group of companies, said Thursday a progress update released last week by the Department of Natural Resources doesn’t include the “better balance” between conservation and development that was called for five years ago.

“I am very disappointed,” he said. “We have too much clear cutting now and what we do now is not sustainable.”

The update said the province’s 10-year natural resources strategy committed to taking action on forestry practices such as clear cutting and wholetree harvesting based on “our best information and intentions at the time.”

But the document said “times had changed” and that the department had learned more about what it means to take an “ecosystem-based, landscape-scale approach to land management.”

“In some areas, clear cutting will not have an impact on the total health of the forest – it may even improve it,” the document states.