‘It’s time for us to come together’

The Arlington Forest Protection Society is partnering with Citizen Scientists of the Southwest Nova Biosphere in a campaign to protect the province’s old forests.

The Save Our Old Forests campaign was launched March 25 in Bridgetown. The campaign’s petition

calls on the provincial government to pause all harvesting and road-building activities in forests that are more than 80 years old on Crown land until 20 per cent of the province’s land has been permanently protected.

Society spokesperson Rob Bright said the campaign’s purpose is to engage local communities in protecting the forests by having fun and letting the government know it wants to help.

“We’re launching the campaign in Annapolis County, but we’re hoping people in other counties decide to

follow suit,” said Bright. “We are all facing the same biodiversity crisis. We can all see how little old forest remains. It’s time for us to come together and save the best of what’s left.”

Lisa Proulx, from the Citizen Scientists of the Southwest Nova Biosphere, said she hopes governments accepts its offer to help. She is one of the peole who has identified species at risk lichens at Beals Brook and Goldsmith Lake.

“I’m retired and I’m happy to spend hours in the woods even when it’s

cold but it’s horrible to feel like the logging machinery may come in at any minute,” she said. “I know how vulnerable lichens like the frosted glass-whiskers are to any disturbance, let alone the extraction routes they’d be putting in, even for ecological harvests. It’s not ecological to harvest in forests that should be protected.”

The kick-off event also featured speakers Bob Bancroft and Donna Crossland.

Atlantic Briefs Desk sw-briefs@saltwire.com