N.S. pauses logging operations after discovery of at-risk lichen species

Nova Scotiasays logging can't go ahead until the company conducts surveys in the forest and the government looks into the situation.

The Nova Scotia government has suspended commercial logging operations in a forest in Annapolis County after environmentalists raised the alarm about the presence of several at-risk species of lichens.

The Department of Natural Resources says WestFor Management Inc. was given approval last spring to harvest 343 hectares on Crown land around Goldsmith Lake, about 175 kilometres west of Halifax.

But the province now says logging can’t go ahead until the company conducts surveys in the forest and the government looks into the situation.

The province’s reversal is in reaction to the discovery by the Arlington Forest Protection Society of eight at-risk species of lichens — a form of life composed of fungi and algae — including black ash, blue felt lichen and frosted glass whiskers lichen.

Society member Lisa Proulx says the discovery of lichen is significant because it signals the presence of old-growth forest, which she says should be protected.

Proulx calls the pause on logging “a step in the right direction,” adding that her small group of self-described “citizen scientists” hope to have further input as the province investigates.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 29, 2022.