A couple of years ago Eastern Woods & Waters magazine attracted the attention of all other regional media and a whole lot of people when we ran a series exposing gross abuse of aboriginal hunting rights in the Cape Breton Highlands of Nova Scotia. (read the article here)

Rumours and anecdotal complaints had been rife for several years, but we were never able to collect enough evidence to justify publishing an article before then.

For an absurd $500, under this "rent an Indian" scheme, a non-aboriginal would accompany an Indian into the Highlands, illegally shoot a moose, safe in the knowledge that unless caught in the act, the aforesaid Indian would simply claim he did the shooting.

The Honourable John MacDonell Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources

Aug. 6/09

Dear sir:

Several days ago my wife and I were notified by a neighbour of a public notice, erected off a back road and barely visible, discovered only by accident. The sign theoretically (we assume to meet the letter of the law only) notifies the public of Northern Pulp's intent to spray a toxic chemical defoliant a kilometre or so from our homes in a few days.

In 2009, with all of the knowledge now possessed of the complex links and accumulative impacts of chemicals on the human body, the required public notification process seems woefully inadequate. If a corporate entity proposes to ostensibly place the health of my family and neighbours at risk, I would like to suggest that a much more meaningful process of public notification and discourse is morally warranted.

For the record-a neighbour moved the sign from its less than prominent position, barely visible from the road (see enclosed photographs-it is the bottom sign, almost totally obscured by underbrush) to a more visible location on the road. It was promptly moved back out of public view-presumably by a company representative. The sign contains a telephone number to be called for further information. When the number is dialed, the caller is placed on a dysfunctional carousel of recorded messages which culminate in an endless recording repeatedly asking the caller to punch the specified extension number. One is surely tempted to question whether there is intent here to appear to respect the law (such as it is) but to avoid actual public notification.

When finally contacted (not easily, and by means other than that provided on the public notification) a company spokesman repeated ad nauseam that Northern Pulp has a legal right to spray as intended and that the chemical trade name "Vision" is approved in Nova Scotia for such use.

I remind you that DDT was officially "approved" until discovered to be an environmental time bomb. I remind you that Fenitrothion was "approved" for forest spraying until children started dying in New Brunswick from Reyes Syndrome.
Pesticides and herbicides have been linked to many different types of cancer in humans from breast cancer (DDT) to non-Hodgkins lymphomas and soft-tissue sarcomas. ??Linkages have also been identified between home and garden pesticide use and leukemia and brain cancer in children. A National Cancer Institute study in the U.S. indicates that children are as much as six times more likely to get childhood leukemia when pesticides are used in the home and garden. ??A recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health (February, 1995) found elevated levels of cancer in children where pesticides were used in their homes and yards. Now that we have entered the (enlightened) 21st century, municipalities across Canada are busy banning lawn chemicals.

The active ingredients in Vision are glyphosate and polyethoxylated tallowamine. A credible 2007 scientific study seriously questions the safety of this herbicide in light of new scientific evidence and calls for an urgent regulatory review. This is 2009. Has your department conducted one?
Yet, with the highest cancer and asthma rates in the nation, Nova Scotia clings to a seriously outdated and woefully ineffectual policy of public notification of the spraying of potentially hazardous chemicals in close proximity to human habitation (in addition to wildlife consequences). There have simply been far too many situations in Nova Scotia where individuals were exposed to herbicide spray, and weren't even aware that it was planned for that particular day.

In the internet age, Nova Scotia's absurd circa 1950s, obscure signage, public notification process is an appalling dereliction of one of the most fundamental responsibilities of government-public safety.

Will your new government address it?

Jim Gourlay,
(Representing 14 full time (including children) and 16 part time (including children) residents of Hemlock Loop, Stewiacke East)

There's been a fair bit of press recently in Nova Scotia about people wishing to build wilderness camps-with no septic system-being obliged to go through an expensive bureaucratic process of site inspection anyway, as though they did plan to install a septic system.
Just another bunch of useless and expensive red tape? Not really. Things are actually 'way worse than that.

Departments of the Environment have been charged with protecting our fresh water resources. That's a good thing-in theory.

Because old, leaky septic systems were "polluting" (more on that in a minute) it is now often necessary to place a new septic field far back from any lake or riverbank, even if sewage has to be pumped uphill to the field.

We have been looking at very low returns so far (to end of last week July 11) in most locations. There are hopes now the full moon July 7 will get things started.

The south coast of Newfoundland was enjoying good returns after a slow start to the season, and fish have been returning in good numbers to the Exploits and Gander on the north coast (although water has been high), but the northern Peninsula and west coast rivers have been very poor to date.

Labrador rivers have also been very slow to start, although some fish were starting last week. In New Brunswick the Miramichi has been very slow, with higher than desirable water conditions. Northern New Brunswick and the Gaspé have seen near perfect water conditions and very few fish indeed.

Nova Scotia has been little better. Margaree has had low water and very few fish while the eastern shore and south shore rivers have been slow as well, in spite of good water. Things were starting to pick on St. Mary's in recent days after a huge flood last weekend.

We are hearing reports of very late ice and cold sea water off Labrador again this year (that happened two years ago making fish almost two weeks late in most locations). The next week or so should tell the tale. There are a lot of crossed fingers out there.

There was jubilation last year among Atlantic salmon fishermen watching the best returns to rivers, by far, in 20 or more years. After decades of steady decline, no-one expected it.

In Newfoundland, where some of the healthiest rivers are still to be found, some runs doubled over the previous year. In Nova Scotia, where things have gone 'way downhill in a hurry since the mid-80s, it was "almost like the old days" on some rivers.

Across the Atlantic, it was the same. The annual Review from the Association of Salmon Fishery Boards showed the total rod catch for 2008 was the third highest since consistent records began in 1952.

But before we start blowing trumpets, it's necessary to put all of this into perspective. On this side of the Atlantic, exceptions were PEI, where things remain pretty bleak: 11 of 33 rivers no longer have salmon and seven of the balance are in dire straits…

And the 33 inner Bay of Fundy rivers (10 in New Brunswick and 23 in Nova Scotia) from where 40,000 wild salmon have been missing since1987. Fundy salmon were declared endangered in 2001.

Internationally, scientists are warning that we will fail to meet even minimum conservation targets of large salmon (not grilse) between 2009 and 2011. These important salmon that contribute the majority of eggs needed to seed Canadian and American rivers have declined 82 per cent since we started keeping records. Despite the sudden improvements in runs last year, not one region of North America produced enough large salmon to meet conservation limits during 2008.

In the next two weeks, summer runs will again start returning to salmon streams all across the region and by the end of July we will know if 2008 was just a weird anomaly that no-one-not even marine biologists-understands.

There are things going on in the ocean (most of them very worrying indeed) that no-one fully understands yet. Nevertheless, we do understand that if we catch and kill thousands of salmon in commercial fisheries then those salmon will not spawn. The very damaging Greenland fishery has been bought out in recent years-but we still have three tonnes of salmon being taken each year by 43 fishermen from St. Pierre and Miquelon-a French départment (province) with no salmon streams. Those are American and Canadian fish.

With respect to this year's runs, there a lot of fingers crossed: ours among them. We'll know soon.

(But stalwart conservation groups stick with it. There is some amazing work being done by volunteer groups all over the place. Read one example below in this CBC report…)  

Conservation groups look to get Atlantic salmon into Petitcodiac River

Ten conservation groups say they're going to work together to reintroduce the endangered wild Atlantic salmon back to the Petitcodiac River in New Brunswick when the gates of the Petitcodiac River's causeway in Moncton are opened in the spring of 2010.

Tom Benjamin, president of the New Brunswick Salmon Council, said restocking the river with salmon when the causeway is opened could help the local fish habitat.

"With the Petitcodiac being as large a system and a significant volume of high-quality habitat, if we're able to get fish back here this really could be the key lynchpin to turning around the population levels for wild Atlantic salmon in the inner Bay of Fundy stock," he said.

The groups will consult with scientific experts to try to figure out which stock is genetically appropriate for the area, Benjamin said.

Tim Van Hinte, a spokesman with the Petitcodiac Riverkeeper, said it's important to try to restock the river even if the salmon numbers never fully recover.

"Nobody is going to stand here and guarantee we're going to have the same numbers of fish that we had historically in the river," he said.

"But what we do think is that the only way we're going to fix it is if we all work together and try and work towards a common vision."

Benjamin said the conservation groups will use the time try to hatch a plan to get some fish in the river very quickly as a long-term restocking plan is developed.

I heard an interesting CBC radio report last week of a Halifax cop seizing a kid's bike from right under him because the young fella was not wearing a helmet. While the cop was clearly a jerk (some are) and handled it badly, this is the law.

It's getting just silly out there.

After September 15 this year, you will also be in violation of the law ($250 fine) if you choose to run your little outboard motor without a government pleasure craft operator card (that'll be $41.95 with tax, thank you-and another 20 bucks plus tax on the tax if you're dumb enough to sign up for the three-hour course).