Out of Sight; Out of Mind ?

This Tuesday, Annapolis County municipal council voted unanimously to send a letter to the provincial Ministers of Lands and Forests, and Environment to stop aerial spraying of glyphosate in the County. In particular, three parcels owned by Freeman Lumber Ltd: two in Roxbury adjacent to Paradise Lake and one next to Eel Weir Lake.

This weekend, a map was produced showing the three parcels on a topographic base.

Land set for aerial spraying shown in red.

Also, on the weekend, I finished reading Brenda Thompson’s book Tales from the End of the Old Military Road.

I found these two paragraphs relevant today.

“Most local people were disgusted and referred to the clear cuttings as ‘moonscapes’. The land looked barren, scary as if the world we knew was coming to an end And this was what the new world would look like. The new world was called Clear Cutting and everything in the path of the monsters, save one ridiculous little patch of trees was sheared, ripped and slashed down. Trees, brush, nests, dens – it did not matter to the Monsters. All of it was to be killed.” p.134.

“The local people had tried hard to convince both their government and the corporations that logging could be done in a different manner, a responsible manner which did not have land looking like a war zone with animals, birds and even mushrooms losing their habitats. The government listened but were politically beholden to the corporations.” p.135.

What can we do?

Over two years ago, I have posted a couple of blogs.

Community monitoring of the landscape, 21 January 2018 (Drone video link HERE).

The Five Little Pigs, 04 May 2018 (Drone video link HERE).

These blogs have links to drone video of the clearcuts on South Mountain taken by Neil Green.

What can we do today in 2020?

We can encourage Annapolis County Municipal council to represent the interests of its citizens. DONE.

We can obtain maps of Annapolis County which show all theparcels that have been clearcut, their ownership and spray schedule.

We should notify citizens living down stream/ down slope of the spray parcels.

We should work with forestry companies to adhere to ecological forestry practices, especially in those watersheds containing rural communities.

Acknowledgements

The support of the Annapolis County Municipal Council. The Burlington team and the Extinction Rebellion group for dogged determination. Edward supplied the blog graphics.

Postscript

Heather joined me on a road trip this evening (Wednesday). From our house on Hwy#201, we went up the Trout Lake Road to the Crisp Road and to Hwy. #10. Turn off to Trout Lake Road. Drive logging roads to Roxbury, from Roxbury to Hwy #201 and home. Total distance 39 km. Time 6 pm – 7:40 pm. We were in a Honda CRV. Only recommend for high clearance trucks.