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Lichen save the day: Protesters

FRANCIS CAMPBELL SALTWIRE NETWORK fcampbell@herald.ca @frankscribbler

The Last Hope camp protesters are claiming victory in their fight to protect a stand of old forest in Annapolis County from a planned harvest and they are crediting endangered lichen with the save.

“Where government is failing to protect the natural world we all rely on, citizens are stepping up,” said Nina Newington, a member of Extinction Rebellion and one of the protesters who set up camp on Dec. 1 at Beals Brook on South Mountain in an effort to block a 24-hectare cut of Crown forest contracted by WestFor Management and approved by the provincial government.

“That is the big message of our Last Hope camp,” Newington said in a news release. “Government biologists sit behind their desks, signing off on harvests. Ministers hand off decisions to industry. But citizens, working with Indigenous traditional government, are saying, 'No, we do not consent to the ongoing destruction of nature. There is a better way.' The Last Hope forest is still standing, still sheltering endangered species. If needed, we'll be back. We know the road.”

The road to the campers declaration of success was constructed by lichen, a complex life form that is a symbiotic partnership of two separate organisms, a fungus and an alga.

Three endangered species of lichen were discovered by a lichenologist early in 2022 growing on oak and maple trees in a swamp area of the intended harvest.

The provincial Natural Resources Department paused the planned harvest and directed a survey of the area to determine the prevalence the three endangedered species found there, namely the frosted glass whisker, the black-foam and the wrinkled shingle.

The species-at-risk specimen requires a 100-metre buffer zone around it where no cutting is supposed to take place.

Subsequent discovery of 17 occurrences of three different species at risk in the proposed cut block have put 60 per cent of the original 24 hectares off limits to any disturbance, leaving the remainder hard to access and uneconomical to harvest, the Last Hope camp crew declared in their victory news release.

“Last Hope camp will become the Last Hope Campaign, continuing to offer workshops in and around this forest,” the release stated.

The workshops will teach more Nova Scotians the skills needed to protect the biodiversity of our forests, from identifying species at risk to using free apps to navigate logging roads, identify cut blocks and record information about them.

“All the at-risk lichens identified in this forest depend on undisturbed, continuous habitat,” Frances Anderson, co-author of Common Lichens of Northeastern North America, said in the release.

“Given the government's pledge to protect 20 per cent of our lands and waters, we should be saving whatever is left of old forests like this one on Crown lands. There are few forests left on Crown that are over 80 years old — it would be such a simple step for government to save them. This forest and its at-risk lichens would have been lost without the dedication and vigilance of the campers.”

The campers, after roughing it in their logging road enclosure for 202 days that included some harsh winter storms, are celebrating their success with a summer solstice feast.

The campers planned a talking circle to recognize National Indigenous Day as part of their victory celebration.

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2022-06-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-06-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://saltwire.pressreader.com/article/281582359319960

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