Forest harvest map ‘inaccessible.’
Rural Nova Scotians say internet speeds making it difficult to submit comments
SYDNEY — Three new harvest sites are planned for Crown-owned forests in Cape Breton, as well as other parts of the province.
The sites on the island are on five different parcels of land in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, Victoria County and Inverness County, and are open for comment until July 13.
Those wishing to formally submit comments, though, had better have a solid internet connection.
The province has stated that beginning June 2, only emails submitted using the comment function on its Harvest Plans Map Viewer will be considered during the harvest review process.
NO CONNECTION
For Anne Rogal, a resident of Roberta in Richmond County, this has made it nearly impossible to submit comments, since the online map tool doesn’t load well (or at all) for those with slower internet speeds.
“I think that whenever I have tried to go and look at the provincial site I have been defeated by it,” said Rogal in an interview with the Post. “I am on a Seaside (Wireless Communications) tower which was not upgraded, so my speeds are quite slow, ‘up to 1.5 Mbps’ is what it is sold as. At some times of the day I might get that.”
Rogal said she was able to look at the harvest map and submit a comment on Saturday morning, a time of day when her network has the least traffic and is able to handle “bigger jobs.”
However, other times when she has tried to use the map it wouldn’t load and she “gave up.”
Adam Malcolm of River Inhabitants, Richmond County, is a former high school science teacher who founded and runs the Facebook group Stop Clearcutting Unama’ki. He has had similar problems accessing the map viewer.
“For many rural Nova Scotians with poor internet service, like myself, the HPMV doesn’t load properly (it’s not particularly easy to navigate even when it does load), so commenting by email to forestrymaps@novascotia. ca has been the only option,” said Malcolm. “Now, in essence, they’re telling us that if we, as citizens, wish to express our disapproval of a proposed clearcut on our shared public land, they don’t want to hear from us. That is, unless we go up there to the site and do the job of a forest manager ourselves.”
100 PER CENT INACCESSIBLE
Rob Bright lives in Hampton, Annapolis County, and said that the changes to the commenting process mean that he now has no way to submit comments “whatsoever.”
“I have tried multiple times to use the HPMV tool. I’ve even asked three different people who know how to use the tool for instructions. But even with their detailed, written instructions I cannot get past step 1 using the HPMV tool. It is completely, 100 (per cent) inaccessible to me.”
Bright said that he knows of several other rural residents with poor internet service that have none or “very limited” access to the harvest map tool.
“Internet speed is crucial, (as well as) the ability to stay online — ex. not having your connection interrupted or dropped — to use the HPMV tool.”
He believes the province should “completely overhaul” the system to make it accessible to Nova Scotia citizens with varying internet speeds.
The Post reached out to the provincial government for comment on this issue but did not receive a response in time for deadline.