HALIFAX –The provincial government and Port Hawkesbury Paper are promising no more reoccurrences of an incident in which old growth forest was cut in Guysborough County.

According to a report in the Port Hawkesbury Reporter, The Department of Natural Resources recently assessed 27 forest stands in the Lawlor Lake area of Guysborough County.

The Forest Technical Note entitled “Old Forest Assessment in the Lawlor Lake Area of Guysborough County, Nova Scotia” by Peter Bush concluded that two of the forest stands that were harvested were considered old growth forest, and eight stands harvested were old forest. It was also determined that 11 stands planned for harvest are old growth forest.

Natural resources minister Margaret Miller said the report was commissioned after the department received public complaints. Miller said after dispatching staff to the area, the department found an independent investigator and group to examine the area and determine if old growth forests were cut.

“They did core samples and looked over all of it to see which of those areas met that policy,” Miller explained.

The environment minister had two reactions to the report. The first was concern over the fact that 29 hectares of old growth forest had been cut. The second was gratitude toward those who stepped forward to inform the department.

“Now that we know that so much of this is old growth forest, it will not be cut, it will be maintained and preserved,” Miller stated. “It will be under protected lands, and certainly under the old growth forest policy, it will be kept. Also, old trees and old forest in that category, it also will be kept because eventually it will be old growth.”

See full report here.