Fall 2019 Newsletter
We’ve been very busy this fall speaking, hosting and participating in numerous conferences and events. In October, we sent our General Manager, Mary Jane Rodger to the Land Trust Alliance Rally in Raleigh, North Carolina. This is a huge event, that gathers all the American Land Trusts along with some international participants, and provides extremely valuable workshops and seminars on the intricate issues that Land Trusts face. Some highlights from the seminar session included, “How to Ask for Money” and “Talking to Conservative Audiences about Conservation”. The event was inspirational in many ways, and great for brainstorming as our partner project, the Nova Scotia Working Woodlands Trust awaits gaining charitable registration.
Last month we hosted a Women of the Woods workshop in partnership with the Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute (MTRI). We had Donna Crossland, MScF and Minga O’Brian, MSc, Forest Technician, along with Mary Jane as our experts on the topic of the day, Ecological Forestry. Participants (nearly 25 of them!) were taken into the MCFC license area where we visited our recently completed partial harvest nearby Oak Lake. The event was very encouraging and we had a wide-variety of female participants very keen to learn about stand succession, tree marking and natural disturbance regimes.
Participants at the Women in Forestry event at Oak Lake.
Biodiversity Study
Wrapping up the last of our summer projects, we’re looking forward to seeing the results from our Biodiversity study, done this summer by our Forest Research Intern, Jennika Hunsinger. Jennika is in her final weeks of the Masters of Forest Conservation at the University of Toronto, and will be presenting the results of her summer fieldwork in December.
Her study objective was to provide an assessment of the effects of harvest operations on forest stand structure and wildlife population distribution trends overtime. An exciting part of the study was the incorporation of game trail cameras and bait to attract and identify mammals in the sample plots. The cameras captured plenty of footage of bears, deer, squirrels, a bobcat, fisher and a reintroduced marten. There’s lots to learn about the forest by comparing what animals are present and where. Jennika’s findings will help us inform management decisions to promote regeneration and restore natural conditions of the Acadian forest. Read more about Jennika's research in her recent blog post.
Game camera footage of an American Marten snacking on a cow bone in the MCFC license area.
Hurricane Dorian
Following Hurricane Dorian, we’ve been slowly making the rounds to our partial cuts to assess blowdown. Last week we got a boost by the Department of Lands and Forestry who offered a helicopter tour the MCFC’s past harvests. For the most part, damage was low in our partial harvests, but we saw more moderate blow down in historic seed tree harvests and a recently completed variable retention harvest. Although there may be opportunity to salvage some merchantable timber from these cuts, we’re opting for the 'messy woodlot' – allowing that influx of coarse woody debris to decompose and add to the health of the soil and overall biodiversity.
Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA)
Much of our fieldwork this fall has been in collaboration with the Canadian Forest Service (CFS), as they plan a series of silviculture trials to test increased light availability as a means to mitigate, or slow, the spread of HWA. We’re looking at the operational suitability of sites on Crown Land (non-MCFC) as well as private lands. Right now, we need additional private sites in Lunenburg, Queens and Annapolis Counties. If you own a 15+ acre mature woodlot with at least 20% hemlock, and are interested in looking at partial harvests as an option to mitigate HWA, contact us today.
Taken from our post-Dorian aerial surveys, a snapshot of Holland Lake Brook and Oak Lake in the Victory Rd. area.
Harvest Blocks for Public Review
It’s been awhile, but we have new harvest blocks up for comment on the Department of Lands and Forestry’s Harvest Plan Map Viewer (HPMV). They will be open for comment until November 30, and we encourage our members, and members of the community to provide feedback. If you’re not sure where to find our license area in the viewer, they are the only openings in Annapolis County with the Nov. 30 deadline. Check out our website for further details on the harvest prescriptions for these blocks. We are hoping to harvest these blocks in mid-December with Freemans Lumber.
Firewood
Our partner cut/split firewood vendor, RSR Wood Products, still has dry MCFC-sourced firewood for sale this fall. If you’re running behind on your firewood for this upcoming winter Robbie is taking deliveries out nearly every day, give him a call at 902-682-7200. It's also never too early to order your 8 foot logs for spring delivery, get in touch with us if you're interested in a bulk order.