News from Groups
- Posted by Raissa Marks
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 5976
November 19, 2018
On Saturday, November 17, 2018, three environmental awards were presented to New Brunswick citizens and groups in honor of exemplary service to their community.
Left to right: Raissa Marks, Executive Director, New Brunswick Environmental Network; Lois Corbett, Executive Director, Conservation Council of New Brunswick; Chris Rouse, PEACE-NB; Arthur Melanson, Janet Gordon, Warren Redman, Save Wetlands Waters and Tourism. Photo credit: NBEN.
Lois Corbett, Executive Director of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, was honoured with the Phoenix Award for “contributing her extensive expertise in communications, advocacy, and policy development to New Brunswick’s environmental movement, enabling us all to amplify our impact on local, provincial, and national environmental issues.” The Phoenix Award is awarded to a group or individual who has dedicated their efforts to policies and legislation and have been through “the fire”.
The citizens’ group Save Wetlands Waters and Tourism was honored with the Samaqan Award “for sounding the alarm about threats to coastal ecosystems and communities along the Northumberland Strait and for advocating for government transparency and accountability in addressing these threats.” The Samaqan Award is awarded to a group or individual who has dedicated their efforts to the waters and the species that inhabit the waters.
Chris Rouse, member of PEACE-NB, was honored with the Gaia Award for “his solutions-based environmentalism that has led to improvements in laws and regulations and, most recently, to detailed technical and economic modeling aimed at transitioning New Brunswick to a low-carbon economy.” The Gaia Award is awarded to a group or individual who has dedicated their efforts to the earth and the species that inhabit the earth.
The awards were presented during the New Brunswick Environmental Network’s annual meeting, Eco-Confluence, which was held in Fredericton over the weekend. Each year, significant efforts by citizens and citizen groups toward the protection and restoration of New Brunswick’s environment are recognized at a special awards ceremony.
The New Brunswick Environmental Network is a non-profit communications network of over 100 citizens’ environmental groups from across the province. The goal of the Network is to encourage communication and collaboration among groups and between groups, government and other sectors.
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Media Contact:
Raissa Marks, 506-855-4144, nben@nben.ca
- Posted by Corey Robichaud
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 7111
New Brunswick may be facing an uncertain political future, but there is one topic that all New Brunswick MLAs, new and old, can agree on: the need to protect nature and the natural beauty of our province.
Right now, 95 per cent of New Brunswick’s land and water is unprotected, leaving vital ecosystems vulnerable to development, climate change and pollution.
We can change this, and right now is the time to do it.
Canada has made an international commitment to protect 17 per cent of its landscape by 2020. New Brunswick needs to do its fair share to help the country hit this target. That’s why we need you — or, rather, why your MLA needs to hear from you.
The Conservation Council is joining forces with Nature Canada, the Nature Trust of New Brunswick, Nature NB, and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society NB Chapter in calling on our members to write their MLA and provincial political party leaders to speak up for nature protection in N.B.
We’ve made it easy for you to do your part.
Simply fill out the form below to send our pre-written letter (which you can edit freely) to your MLA and each of the party leaders. Not sure who your MLA is? No problem — just fill in the postal code field below, we’ll take care of the rest.
Regardless of which party forms the government, let’s make sure every Member of the Legislative Assembly knows that protecting nature in New Brunswick is something we can all agree on. Send your letter today!
Click here to send your letter today!
- Posted by Jean Louis Deveau
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 7478
Speakers include:
Margaret Stewart, Director of Center for Earth Jurisprudence
Grant Wilson, Directing Attorney at Earth Law Center
Cormac Cullinan, Directing Attorney with Cullinan & Associates in South Africa, CEO of EnAct International
Shannon Biggs, Co-Founder of Movement Rights
Catherine Iorns Magallanes, Professor University of Wellington, National Board Member of Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand
Deon Ben, Grand Canyon Trust and Navajo Nation
Kirsten Anker, Faculty of Law at McGill University
Hugo Echeverria, Environmental Attorney in Ecuador
Craig Kauffman, University of Oregon, Associate Professor of Political Science
Rachelle Adam, Animal Rights and Environmental Attorney and Activist in Israel, Lecturer and Faculty of Law at Hebrew University
Linda Sheehan, Senior Counsel Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation Reed Loder, Professor at Vermont Law School
Kevin Schneider, Executive Director of the Nonhuman Rights Project
Thomas Linzey, Executive Director of Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF)
For the full agenda, click here.
- Posted by Anita Cannon
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 7239
Join us for our annual local food celebration at the Conservation Council Southeast Chapter’s 100-Mile Dinner Fundraiser.
This popular event takes place on Sunday, Oct. 14 from 5-8 p.m. at Dolma Food, 251 St. George St. (second floor) in Moncton.Tickets are $25 in advance or $30 at the door. You can buy tickets online here, at the Dolma Food stores in Moncton and Dieppe, or by contacting Anita at ccnbsoutheast@gmail.com or 506-859-8104. The 100-Mile Dinner gathers friends, neighbours and community members to celebrate with a locally-sourced tapas buffet (including vegetarian options), guest speakers, a live auction, draw prizes, and presentation of the third annual Beth McLaughlin Environmental Journalism Award. If you have items you’d like to donate to the auction, please contact Anita at ccnbsoutheast@gmail.com or Dave at 506-859-8104. Seating is limited so get your tickets today!
- Posted by Jim Emberger
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 7711
Jim Emberger, Commentary, Telegraph Journal September 13, 2018
The freshly released Progressive Conservatives platform contains only a single sentence on shale gas, and leaves "regional social license" – mooted by leader Blaine Higgs in April – entirely unexplained.
Even without adequate detail in the platform, the very concept is a clear case of putting the cart before the horse.
The shale gas moratorium’s first condition sensibly dictates that, before social license can be granted, citizens must receive “clear and credible information about the impacts of hydraulic fracturing on public health, the environment and water.”
As I have documented in previous articles, the “clear and credible evidence” from science and public health studies, court cases, journalistic investigations and government regulatory actions reveal shale gas impacts including:
- A host of serious diseases affecting those living near gas wells, and especially the unborn.
- Water contamination from every aspect of industry activity.
- Leaking methane from gas infrastructure, making it a leading contributor to climate change.
- Toxic wastewater created by fracking, with no safe way of disposal.
- Universally inadequate regulations and oversight, plus the precarious financial state of the industry, means that these threats continue unabated.
Meanwhile, extensive government reviews of shale gas elsewhere have almost unanimously led to bans or moratoriums. These include Quebec, Canada’s Maritime Provinces, 19 of the 25 countries of the European Union, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and several U.S. and Australian states. Mexico, a major fossil fuel producer, is banning fracking.
In many U.S. states that launched the shale industry before conducting public reviews, hundreds of cities and counties have passed resolutions restricting fracking.
Before New Brunswick's last election, over 70 municipalities and dozens of medical, public health, religious, community, environmental and indigenous groups called for a moratorium – including Mr. Higgs’ community of Quispamsis.
The PCs apparently are aware of this widespread public opposition, and attempt to sidestep it by claiming that fracking will be limited to Sussex and Albert County, because those localities want it.
Yet the municipality of Sussex Corner supported the moratorium, as did citizen groups in the nearby agricultural area of Cornhill, and in Penobsquis, where existing gas wells are located.
In Albert County, the municipalities of Hillsborough and Alma supported the moratorium, as did the neighboring city of Moncton. Citizen groups – e.g. the Petitcodiac Watershed Alliance, Water and Environmental Protection for Albert County, and the Chepoudy Communities Revitalization Committee – have reaffirmed their support for the moratorium.
So who will grant "social license," and how is "regional" defined? The PC platform contains nary a clue.
Do businessmen reaping financial benefits, but living away from the wells, get the same vote as pregnant mothers living next to gas wells, who – willingly or not – will assume greater health risks?
Airborne chemical pollution affects those with asthma and respiratory problems up to hundreds of kilometres away. Likewise, waterborne contaminants can travel the length of whatever waterways they enter. How far downstream and downwind is the regional line drawn for health and environmental risks?
Increased health care and road repair costs have been documented everywhere a shale gas industry exists, as have the costs of dealing with abandoned wells. These financial risks and costs will be borne by all the taxpayers of New Brunswick.
Leaking methane gas damages the climate for everyone.
These widespread risks to health and environment from fracking have been proven. Living on one side of some arbitrary regional line doesn’t grant the right to accept those risks for everyone.
The ethics of medical research require that every individual give their informed consent to be a ‘guinea pig’ before being exposed to toxic, carcinogenic or untested chemicals. Fracking, which uses hundreds of such chemicals, is a massive uncontrolled experiment and should require no less a standard.
And yet, the PCs are running with the slogan that they will restore trust.
Mr. Higgs recently wrote a commentary in this newspaper on his plans to fight climate change ("A carbon plan, not a carbon tax," Aug. 18, A11). It did not once mention his policy on shale gas. Does he know the gas industry is a major contributor to climate change?
Also unaddressed is the 800-pound gorilla in the room. The rapid depletion of shale gas wells means the industry must continually drill new wells. Thus, a "regional" industry won’t stay regional for long.
The PCs have not discussed these concerns, or any of the risks catalogued above. Their platform does not even contain the words "shale," "fracking," or "moratorium." Doesn’t the path to trust demand a demonstration that one understands and can discuss the concerns now, before the election?
If facts don’t support a policy, the policy must change. Not discussing the facts won’t build trust.
Canada’s Dr. John Cherry, one of the world’s foremost experts on groundwater contamination, testified before our Commission on Hydrofracturing, noting, “It is hard to make the case for social license if you have no scientific proof of safety.” These are words the PCs, and indeed all New Brunswickers, need to heed.
Jim Emberger is spokesperson for the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance.
- Posted by Annika Chiasson
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 6035
- Liberal: Did not answer the questions in the survey but instead sent a two-page written response that addressed some of the survey questions.
- Progressive Conservative: Did not answer the questions in the survey but instead sent a short letter.
- Green Party: Responded to all survey questions.
- New Democratic Party: Has not yet responded to the survey.
- People’s Alliance: Has not yet responded to the survey.
Note: This page will be updated regularly if additional responses come in.
- Posted by Jim Emberger
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 7559
At a recent oil and gas industry conference, Terry Spencer, head of natural gas infrastructure company, ONEOK, told the audience: “One of these days, one of these big ol’ fracs will be operated with nobody there..... We are as an industry working towards where we can operate 24/7, unattended.”
He wasn’t forecasting the distant future.
In 2016, the Houston Chronicle was already reporting,“These new rigs, using sophisticated software and robotics, could reduce the number of people working in the oil patch by up to 40 per cent.” The article continues: “The Holy Grail [is] to not have to touch the pipe and totally automate the process.”
The 2014 fossil fuel crash forced companies to slash the number of drilling rigs and lay off 440,000 workers. Although the number of rigs is slowly growing back, analysts say that half the workers may never return.
That’s because the fracking industry, despite its growth, has always been mired in debt – the Wall Street Journal calculates US$280 billion. To have any chance of reaching profitability, the industry must cut costs, meaning eliminating jobs and increasing automation.
For example, SWN, the American company once exploring in New Brunswick, has announced it will layoff 200 workers to save on annual personnel costs of $65 million.
Since the fracking industry has always sold itself as a source of high-paying, blue-collar jobs, it doesn’t publicize that many of those jobs are now disappearing. Replacing workers with machines is masked as “efficiencies” and “cost-savings,” and, with no apparent sense of shame, as “worker safety measures.”
Industry debt also leads to numerous bankruptcies and company closures, posing financial threats to taxpayers and landowners in the form of thousands of abandoned, often leaking, gas and oil wells.
Governments should have demanded sufficient funds from the industry in advance to cover the costs of closing wells, but did not. Industry claimed it couldn’t afford the upfront cost. Now, bankruptcy laws that give creditors first access to the assets of insolvent companies leave little money to remediate abandoned wells.
Saskatchewan’s auditor general estimates the problem will cost the province $4 billion, while Alberta, with its hundreds-of-thousands of wells, faces a mind-numbing $47 billion in future costs. Saskatchewan has already asked Ottawa for a few hundred million until they can figure out a long-term plan, so we can surmise that federal and provincial taxpayers will be on the hook for bailout money.
Any taxpayer bailout will be a bitter pill, as the industry already receives billions from Canadian taxpayer subsidies, another fact not discussed. The International Monetary Fund estimates that Canada’s subsidies to the natural gas industry are 44-per cent greater than its foreign aid payments.
The British Columbia government, for instance, offers exemptions from income, sales and climate taxes, provides lower electricity rates, and offers extremely generous “royalty credits for fracking operations.” The Energy Ministry calculates that these “credits” equal nearly $5 billion in lost royalty revenue.
Despite generous subsidies, Alberta (our largest gas producer) has seen royalties plummet 90 per cent since 2008: from $5 billion down to $500 million.This explains why the Petroleum Services Association of Canada just announced a decrease in Canadian natural gas drilling this year, citing low natural gas prices and reduced demand.It noted: “Many companies are sitting at near break-even points or are still in negative territory.... This is not sustainable from a business continuity and competitiveness perspective,” and explains the “lack of attractiveness for investment.”
These subsidies, debts and job losses occur in tandem, with multiple economists warning that market forces may turn Canada’s billions of dollars of fossil fuel infrastructure into worthless “stranded assets” by 2030.
All of this news comes from industry or government sources.
So why would conservatives, economists and various chambers of commerce members who write newspaper commentaries promoting shale gas not address any of these issues? One would expect that, as businesspeople, they would be aware of the industry’s financial and trade news.
What are we to think when they endlessly repeat the meaningless phrase “responsible resource development” while displaying no more detailed knowledge about shale gas economics than they do about its health and environmental threats?
Should we pin our economic hopes on an industry built on subsidies, debt and potentially huge costs to taxpayers, one that provides fewer jobs with each passing year, while putting our health, environment and climate at risk?
Or, should we instead keep the moratorium on fracking, and choose a business sector with an economic case that is booming with jobs and prospects. Clean Energy Canada’s recent study of a basic energy efficiency plan for New Brunswick shows that by 2030 we could increase GDP by $5 billion and create 25,879 jobs.
Going beyond the basic plan, and adding renewable energy, makes those numbers skyrocket. These aren’t imaginary figures. Jobs in energy efficiency and renewable energy far outnumber those in the fossil fuel industries, while ensuring a healthier, more sustainable, future.
Jim Emberger is spokesperson for the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance (NoShaleGasNB. ca)
- Posted by Roberta Clowater
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 7666
Roberta Clowater, Executive Director of CPAWS’s New Brunswick Chapter, says, “This Forest Strategy is a positive indicator of movement in the right direction for conservation. We are pleased that government has listened to those ecologists, wildlife groups, Indigenous Peoples and environmental organizations who made the case for increased conservation. We are cautiously optimistic that this shows stronger intention for habitat conservation, and protecting water quality and the forests’ role in flood prevention. However, we should note that it slowly returns habitat conservation to 2012 levels and is not an advance in on-the-ground conservation by itself. CPAWS encourages the government to go even further with their plans regarding climate change and forests, making sure that the resilience of the forests is paramount in all forest management decisions.”
Governments have been eroding protection of forest habitats. In 2012, the provincial government reduced the level of conservation forest from 31% of Crown forests to 28%. In 2014, against the advice of wildlife ecologists, that number was reduced even further to 23%. As a result, many of the provinces old growth forests have been lost to five years of forest cutting and road-building. Wildlife that need old forests, such as flying squirrels, American marten and pileated woodpeckers, have been put at risk.“
To protect the nature in our forests, more of the so-called “conservation forest” needs to be in protected areas. This Forest Strategy does not tell us what level of protection the habitats will be given. A modern Forest Strategy needs to have a serious insurance policy of significant areas where nature is permanently protected from industrial development,” says Roberta Clowater. “This would also help New Brunswick address the commitment Canada has made to protect 17% of its landscape by 2020.”
To date New Brunswick has protected only 4.6% of the province and needs to add more.
The Forest Strategy includes plans to increase transparency about the state of New Brunswick’s forests. While this is a positive move, it means the public will find out after the fact about the impacts of forest harvesting on habitats, water or other values. CPAWS New Brunswick believes the Strategy needs to actively promote cooperation among governments, Indigenous Peoples, industry, NGOs, researchers and the tourism sector. Together, with public input, we can develop forest management plans that manage risks, protect a wide range of forest values, and have consistent ways for the public to be involved.
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For interviews, contact: Roberta Clowater, rclowater@cpaws.org ; phone: 506-452-9902
- Posted by Jim Emberger
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 7661
July 24, 2018 Telegraph Journal, Daily Gleaner, Times Transcript
It was gratifying to see a recent article acknowledging that climate change has already changed our weather, and that weather-related problems will become ever more frequent and severe (“Not ... our grandparents’ weather, July 14, A2).
In the piece, a senior climatologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada, David Phillips, laid out in no-nonsense terms that New Brunswickers will be challenged to adapt to our increasingly confused climate.
Warnings and good advice about adapting are a necessary discussion, but the real conversation we need to be having on climate change is about preventing the growing threats from a changed climate.
It’s not as if there is some mysterious force wrecking the climate, with nothing we can do besides learning to live with it. Rather, it is undeniable that the climate-change culprit is our burning of fossil fuels, and the way to slow climate damage is to simply burn fewer of them.
This elementary and obvious policy solution, however, seems impossible for some to publicly acknowledge. Perhaps, that’s because once you acknowledge a fact, then you must act on that knowledge even if it is uncomfortable.
Mr. Phillips could have painted an even darker picture. Numerous studies show the climate is changing faster than originally thought and will result in an even hotter world. This past month’s global heat wave shattered temperature records worldwide, often by double digits. Fifty-four people died in Quebec as a result of the heat wave.
It’s a foreshadowing that should focus our minds, much like the record-breaking floods in New Brunswick. Adaptation to such catastrophes will certainly be necessary, but there are limits to adaptation, especially if conditions continually get worse.
How many times can you raise the height of a dike, seawall or house on stilts? For trees destroyed by tropical storms, ice storms, warmer temperatures and an ever-growing list of invasive species, it’s too late to adapt.
And when it’s too hot to work (or even exist) outdoors, adaptation has reached its end, as it is already has in some places. The only long-term solution is to keep conditions from getting worse, and that means reducing our use of fossil fuels.
Recently, I asked Progressive Conservative leader Blaine Higgs how his plans to lift the moratorium on fracking and promote a shale gas industry fit into plans to combat climate change. It was actually a trick question, because there is only one answer: To slow climate change we cannot exploit any new fossil fuels, and we must leave much of what we have already discovered in the ground.
This reality now drives global economic trends, which cast doubt on the wisdom of any new fossil fuel investments.
New studies predict that the plunging cost of renewable energy, advances in battery storage, electric vehicles and energy-efficiency measures will reduce the demand for fossil fuels so significantly that $1 trillion dollars of fossil fuel infrastructure will become worthless by 2035.
If governments act to reduce emissions as well, the losses grow to $4 trillion dollars and the timetable is shortened by years.
The U.S. and Canada would be the biggest losers in this scenario because they produce the most expensive fossil fuels – fracked oil and gas, and oil sands. New Brunswick is fortunate to not have much existing unconventional fossil fuel infrastructure at risk.
But the Atlantica Centre for Energy and Encana claim that now is the time to build a shale gas infrastructure, because current supplies from Nova Scotia will soon run out, leaving 8,600 buildings without gas.
The obvious rebuttal to this argument is to simply buy gas from elsewhere. But an even better answer is that most gas customers can switch to cleaner sources of energy, which they will eventually have to do anyway. The government and NB Power could even assist in their transition, as part of climate, innovation and energy-efficiency programs.
In any case, New Brunswick has 319,773 private dwellings and 30,164 businesses. Simple math shows that 8,600 gas-using buildings make up only two per cent of the total. This hardly makes a case for undertaking the huge financial, health and environmental risks of building a new shale gas industry.
Ireland and Scotland also have fracking moratoriums. Ireland just decided to disinvest all government funds from fossil fuel projects, and Scotland is debating whether to even accept fracked gas from other countries.
Canada, however, remains among the world’s top three contributors to climate change on a per person basis, due to the high greenhouse gas emissions of our unconventional fossil fuel industries.
Surely, our New Brunswick moratorium makes the moral statement that “we” at least won’t make things worse for our children, the world and ourselves.
Keeping the moratorium not only protects us from fracking’s many threats to our health and the environment. It also helps slow climate change, and keeps us from making an unnecessary and seriously self-destructive fiscal decision.
Jim Emberger is spokesperson for the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance (NoShaleGasNB.ca).
- Posted by Roberta Clowater
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 7697
All jurisdictions in Canada have committed to work together to achieve the 2020 protected area target. Added to the $1.3 billion investment in conservation in the 2018 federal budget, we have an unprecedented opportunity for Canada to safeguard nature in the spirit of reconciliation between Indigenous governments and Crown governments, and between all peoples in Canada and nature.“In New Brunswick, our government does not have a target or action plan to add new protected areas, and our province is noticeably behind compared to all other parts of the country,” says Roberta Clowater, CPAWS New Brunswick Executive Director.
“With political will and a bold action plan, New Brunswick can step up and help Canada reach our goals. Immediate opportunities are to establish the Restigouche Wilderness Waterway, and protect our remaining old forest habitat, provincially significant wetlands, coastal mudflats, and natural areas in our drinking water watersheds.”
Diverse voices across the country are now calling for action on protected areas, and momentum is growing. With 2020 right around the corner, people are asking, “can Canada do this?” “Can our country almost double the protection of our lands and freshwaters in 2 years?” The answer is YES. In the report, CPAWS identifies places in each jurisdiction where a considerable amount of collaborative work has already been done on proposed protected areas. With the 2020 target fast approaching, CPAWS makes the following recommendations -- that federal, provincial, and territorial governments:
- Demonstrate their commitment to almost double Canada’s protected areas by publicly announcing the areas they intend to protect by 2020 to contribute to meeting the target;
- Develop a western science and Indigenous knowledge-based plan by 2020 for completing an effective network of interconnected protected areas that will act as a foundation for conserving nature in the face of climate change;
- Make a clear commitment to adhere to recognized standards for the protection of nature, including those developed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and the Canadian Council on Ecological Areas;
- Ensure conservation funding from federal Budget 2018 is allocated primarily to support the creation of new protected areas by federal, provincial, territorial and Indigenous governments and other partners; and
- Support Indigenous governments’ work to create Indigenous protected areas.
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Read the full Report; read the Executive Summary
For interviews, contact: Roberta Clowater, rclowater@cpaws.org ; phone: 506-452-9902
- Posted by Vision H2O
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 6521
- Posted by Jim Emberger
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 7110
Here’s what you can do:
- ‘Like’ the page and ‘Follow’ to ensure you receive the latest posts (buttons are under the banner)
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- Comment-Comment-Comment! Comments show community involvement. In particular, comment strategically as a means to deliver additional information so we can raise the discussion level with added value (we want it to deliver more than just expressed opinions or complaints, etc.) Consider how you might hold a conversation with another group member in the comments section that organically delivers as much or more information than the actual post/news link and drives the post to the top of newsfeeds.
- Posted by Raissa Marks
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 5981
- Posted by Anita Cannon
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 7090
By recognizing the best environmental reporting, this award seeks to inspire journalists in all media and showcase reporting that best addresses important environmental issues in New Brunswick. We invite journalists from traditional news media, independents, and non-profits, citizen journalists and students to submit their finest work.
Submission deadline: All entries must be received by July 31st, 2018. Submit entries to Conservation Council of New Brunswick, Southeast Chapter Environmental Journalism Award Committee at ccnbsoutheast@gmail.com
Full details: http://www.conservationcouncil.ca/en/call-for-nominations-2018-beth-mclaughlin-environmental-journalism-award/
- Posted by Jim Emberger
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 7817
Telegraph Journal June 14, 2018
Last winter the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance asked the provincial party leaders for their views on energy, climate change and the fracking moratorium. Each party, except the Progressive Conservatives, responded.
Additional requests to PC leader Blaine Higgs for evidence to justify his plans to lift the moratorium, and to explain the process for lifting it, have gone unanswered.
Fortunately, Mr. Higgs was the first speaker in the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce’s series featuring party leaders last week, so I went there seeking some answers.
I began my question by noting that all of the other Maritime provinces, states like New York, and many European nations had passed moratoriums after conducting in-depth expert examinations.
Additionally, over a thousand scientific studies and investigations have now validated fracking’s threats of water contamination, air pollution, earthquakes and especially threats to public health, including serious harm to infants and children.
I asked if he had evidence to contradict these scientific studies, and by what process would he publicly explain why we should lift our moratorium and accept serious risks?
Echoing stale talking points from eight years ago, he first responded by saying that for every study saying fracking is bad, there is another study that says the opposite.
This is simply, and provably, false.
Ask yourself, if there were a thousand studies saying fracking posed no threat to public health, the environment or clean water, wouldn’t we have heard about them by now, with heavy promotion from the gas industry?
Mr. Higgs then predictably moved to the classic misleading statement that there are many places that have been fracking“safely and responsibly”for 50 years.
Anyone familiar with this topic knows that what we now call fracking is only roughly 15 years old. In the last few years, there has been a drastic increase in the amounts of water, sand, toxic chemicals and wastewater it involves.
As for fracking“safely and responsibly,” what do those words mean when applied to those jurisdictions that unquestioningly welcomed fracking?
The British Columbia Oil and Gas Commission identified significant methane leaks from hundreds of gas wells, but withheld that information from politicians and citizens for four years.
The B.C. government didn’t tell the public that frackers had built 92 illegal and uninspected dams to sequester water, threatening people living downstream and local ecosystems.
So many sizeable earthquakes have been caused by fracking in B.C. that fracking can’t be done within five km of critical infrastructure.
For 12 years, Pennsylvania regulatory officials hid 9,442 Citizen-Reported Fracking Complaints, 44 per cent of which concerned water contamination.
Canada’s tens of thousands of abandoned gas and oil wells will eventually reach hundreds of thousands. Natural Resources Canada describes methane leakage from abandoned wells as risking “irreversible contamination of freshwater aquifers, accumulation of explosive gases within and around residences ... and contribution to greenhouse gases.”
The former chief environmental scientist with the Alberta energy regulator stated, “The expertise to assess the health risk of abandoned wells really doesn’t exist in-house.”
A life-threatening gas, hydrogen sulphide (H2S), often accompanies shale gas. A Saskatchewan investigation into incidents involving releases of H2S found “repeated and continuing serious infractions, a string of failed safety audits, and H2S readings that exceeded air quality standards on a daily basis.”
These few examples illustrate that neither the government nor the industry has operated in a safe or responsible manner, even in these “best regulated”jurisdictions.
As to the process for lifting the moratorium, Mr. Higgs offered to“talk”to municipalities that want shale gas.
His earlier, opening remarks reflected his concern that the recent flood damage was becoming the “new normal.”
Using this reference to climate change, we noted that New Brunswick and the world have experienced increasing numbers of very costly natural disasters, for which climate change is at least partially responsible.
Natural gas, once considered a way to transition from other fossil fuels, is now known as one of the largest and fastest growing sources of greenhouse gases, due to methane leaking from gas infrastructure. Some analyses consider it worse than coal.
“How then,” we asked, “does opening a new shale gas industry fit into plans to fight climate change?”
After spending a great deal of time discussing the unrelated issue of carbon taxes, Mr. Higgs said there is a risk in everything, and that we have to strike a balance.
Like editorial writers who worry about climate change damage, but then call for fossil-fuel projects, Mr. Higgs must believe we can bargain with the laws of physics to allow us to burn more fossil fuels, yet somehow not contribute to climate change.
Alas, we still don’t know whether the PC’s actually have any cogent energy or climate policies, or even good reasons for lifting the fracking moratorium. They seem unaware of scientific risk analyses.
That’s a problem for a party running on a platform of “responsible leadership.” Responsible leaders should not be so out of touch with the great issues of our time.
Jim Emberger is a spokesperson for the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance.
- Posted by Jon MacNeill
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 7687
The Conservation Council is hosting a pair of film screenings with award-winning independent filmmaker Neal Livingston on June 12 and June 13, including the 40th anniversary screening of Budworks, a film about the controversial, decades-long budworm spraying program in New Brunswick that was featured in Rachel Carson’s seminal book, Silent Spring.
Watch Budworks (1978 – 35 minutes) with filmmaker Neal Livingston at Conserver House (180 St. John St., Fredericton) on Tuesday, June 12 at 7 p.m.
The next night (Wednesday, June 13), Livingston will screen his latest film, 100 Short Stories (2016 – 68:30 minutes), an inspiring film about the struggle against gas fracking and renewable energy in Cape Breton, at Conserver House at 7 p.m.
Admission to each film is by donation. Livingston will be on hand for discussion following each film.
Budworks takes an in-depth look at the politics and environmental decision-making surrounding New Brunswick’s controversial aerial insecticide spraying program which began in the 1950s and ran for decades, and how spraying was stopped in Cape Breton with the lead activist being a young activist Elizabeth May. An important part of New Brunswick’s history, the film explores the role of government and community activists, and examines the economic and health impacts of aerial insecticide spraying. It was featured in “What’s Happening?”— a weekly series of new films at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1978.
100 Short Stories is a first-person account of the years-long struggle to develop Black River Wind’s renewable energy project while the community of Inverness County worked to stop oil and gas drilling and fracking on Cape Breton Island. With a focus on eco-activism and contemporary life in Atlantic Canada, the film explores energy policy, governance and regional culture in Nova Scotia. Premiering in Halifax in 2016, the film has received wide recognition, including the 2017 Energy Award at Cinema Verde in Gainesville, Florida, and presentations at the Planet in Focus Festival 2016 in Toronto, and the Bozcaada International Festival of Ecological Documentary in Turkey 2017.
Neal Livingston has been making films for more than 40 years. He lives in the Mabou Inverness area on Cape Breton Island, where he also makes art, runs a renewable energy business, is an active woodlot owner and runs a commercial maple syrup farm.
- Posted by Jon MacNeill
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 7382
Get inspired and find out what innovative homeowners are doing in your neighborhood by signing up to participate in our Passport to a Low Carbon Future EcoHome Tour scheduled for June 9 in southwestern New Brunswick.
Organized by dedicated volunteers from the Conservation Council of New Brunswick and the Saint John chapter of the Council of Canadians, the tour will shine a spotlight on low-carbon homes and public buildings in Bocabec, Letete, Saint John, Quispamsis and the Kingston Peninsula. Click here to register.
TIME & LOCATION : ST. ANDREWS : 9:00 AM– 1:00 PM / SAINT JOHN : 12:00 PM– 5:00 PM
Visit an off-grid artist’s cabin in the woods; a home with rammed earth construction, solar and wind power, green roof, and a permaculture garden; a timber frame, passive solar, straw wall, earth berm home with sod roof; a LEED Gold Certified building, an innovative recreational complex, an 18 room inn using solar energy for hot water heating, the First Certified CHBA Net Zero Home in New Brunswick; an off-grid hobby farm; an off-grid boatbuilding workshop and more.
The home owners and business people on the tour will be there to answer your questions about how they went about reducing their carbon footprint and the challenges they encountered along the way.
UPDATE: We will be sending out an e-brochure with descriptions and directions to the EcoHomes to everyone who has registered sometime in the third week of May.
After the tour, we invite you to join us for a chance to meet and greet and share information and light refreshments starting at 5 p.m. at the fabulous Elmhurst Outdoors at 65 Ganong Road on the Kingston Peninsula.
- Posted by Canadian Rivers Institute
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 7540
The Canadian Rivers Institute has two upcoming courses in eastern Canada. We offer discounted course fees for students, Indigenous People, and people who work for NGOs. For select courses, we also offer group discounts with the 5th member of every group booking receiving free registration Please email info@canadianriversinstitute.ca to arrange a group booking.
See below for course details and links to the registration forms.
River Management in Addressing Long-Term Maintenance Challenges
This 1-day course will be presented in a class-room setting by Dr. Bill Annable. The overall objective of the course is to provide a high-level overview of river processes and identify conflicts in river management from various planning, watershed, reach and site-specific scales. This course is particularly relevant to senior managers and young professionals in the fields of river science, planning, management, and engineering.The course fee is $225 (+HST) for professionals and $175 (+HST) for students, NGOs, and Indigenous People. The course fee includes lunch and coffee breaks. The course is currently scheduled for June 1st in Shediac New Brunswick.
The registration deadline in May 18th. Please use the following link to register:
https://www.regonline.com/registration/Checkin.aspx?EventID=2325138
Hydrometry/Hydrology & Geomorphology
This 3-day field course will be presented by Dr. Andre's St-Hilaire and Dr. Normand Bergeron. The course will be held at the INRS Field Station in Sacre-Couer, Quebec. The course learning objectives include:- A brief introduction to the water cycle and hydrological budget.
- An introduction to the dynamic equilibrium of rivers.
- Familiarization with different flow measurement techniques.
- Construction of flow rating curves.
- Introduction to meteorological and water temperature measurements.
- Introduction to sediment sampling in rivers.
The course fee (includes meals and accommodation at the field station) is $600 (+HST) for INRS/CRI Students, $700 (+HST) for students/NGOs'/Indigenous People, and $900 (+HST) for professionals.
The registration deadline is June 19th. Please use the following link to register:
https://www.regonline.com/registration/Checkin.aspx?EventID=2376058
- Posted by Jim Emberger
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 7423
Telegraph Journal, Times Transcript, Daily Gleaner - May 4, 2018
The Progressive Conservatives’ plan to lift the moratorium on shale gas paints a disappointing portrait of a party unable to exercise even minimum due diligence on this issue.
We filed a lawsuit challenging the Province’s embrace of shale gas in 2014, and unlike the PC’s, we have tracked every scientific study since then, from a handful to over 1,300 today.All can be found in the, “Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking.”
The evidence presented to the Commission on Hydrofracking from even the modest number of studies available in 2014 was strong enough to lead to our moratorium. Constantly accumulating evidence presented to commissions in Nova Scotia, PEI, Newfoundland, New York, Maryland, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, and others, likewise led to moratoriums or bans.
Essentially, the only places hosting a shale gas industry are those where the industry was established before any public examination. In light of this history, any call for lifting a moratorium must be accompanied by new evidence that the problems cited in the moratorium have been resolved.
That the PC’s offer no such evidence suggests that they know none exists, or that they made no effort to check; instead choosing to simply offer an ideological opinion, disregarding the wellbeing of the citizenry.
In summarizing the evidence of 1,300 studies the ‘Compendium’ notes, “Earlier scientific predictions and anecdotal evidence are now bolstered by extensive empirical data, confirming that the public health risks from unconventional gas and oil extraction are real, the range of adverse environmental impacts wide, and the negative economic consequences considerable.”
“Findings to date from scientific, medical, and journalistic investigations combine to demonstrate that fracking poses significant threats to air, water, health, public safety, climate stability, seismic stability, community cohesion, and long-term economic vitality.”
The shale gas industry obviously cannot satisfy any of the conditions for lifting the moratorium. We could now demonstrate to a court that evidence against the industry has grown in every respect.
With horizontal wells now commonly exceeding 2 miles in length, “fluid injections, once typically three to five million gallons per fracked well, can now easily reach 10 to 20 million gallons.”
“Cases of drinking water sources contaminated by drilling and fracking activities, or by associated waste disposal, are now proven.”
Wastewater disposal still lacks a good solution. “Fracking wastewater discharged into rivers and streams through treatment plants created dozens of … disinfection by-products that are particularly toxic and raise concerns regarding human health.”
Recycling wastewater for reuse “can transfer volatile pollutants from water into air… and water treatment emissions can serve as an important point source of air pollutants.”
Wastewater injection causes thousands of earthquakes, which are not limited to the time and place of injection: “Fracking wastewater injection can migrate for years before encountering a geological fault — traveling for miles beyond the disposal well and persisting for a decade or more as injected fluids travel underground. ”
Fracking itself has caused such large earthquakes that critical facilities in BC, such as hydroelectric dams, are protected by “no frack” exclusion zones with a 5-kilometer radius.”
An analysis of health studies could not find any way “that fracking can be practiced in a manner that does not threaten human health.” Pregnant women, infants and children are especially vulnerable.
“The introduction of fracking reduces health among infants born to mothers living within 3 kilometres of a well site during pregnancy,” far beyond the few hundred metres even the toughest regulations require between gas wells and residences.
“Studies of mothers living near oil and gas extraction operations consistently find impairments to infant health, including: elevated risks for low birth weight and preterm birth, neural tube defects and congenital heart defects.”
“Dozens of known endocrine-disrupting chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, at levels to which people can be realistically exposed,” are linked to, “harm to fertility and reproductive success… miscarriage, prostate cancer, birth defects, and decreased semen quality and counts.”
“Higher rates of leukemia [were found] among children and young adults living in areas dense with oil and gas wells,” and “Living near drilling and fracking operations significantly increases asthma attacks.”
The industry’s huge contribution to climate change has been exposed. “Well sites leak far more methane and toxic vapors than previously understood, and they continue to leak long after they are decommissioned.”
Finally, oversupply and low prices led the Wall Street Journal to note that, "energy companies…have spent $280 billion more than they generated from operations on shale investments." Meanwhile, renewable energy is as cheap as gas and grows cheaper, while gas can only get more expensive.
These conditions spark warnings of “large-scale firings, cutbacks in safety measures, and landscapes pock-marked by abandoned wells in need of remediation and long-term monitoring.”Mr. Higgs, please abandon this ill-conceived decision, and suggest something that will actually help all New Brunswickers.
Jim Emberger, Spokesperson
New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance
- Posted by EOS Eco-Energy
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 7342
- Posted by Vern Faulkner
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 7080
Documents obtained by Stop Spraying New Brunswick through the right to information process show that in 2015, the government spent $2.3 million to subsidize herbicide application on public land, with an additional $419,498 spent on spraying private lands. In 2016 the costs were about the same, with $2.29 million spent to spray public land, with a program total of $2.77 million. Last year, the total subsidy increased to $2.86 million. “The increased costs make no sense, given the public demands to end the practice of herbicide spraying,” said Vern Faulkner, the communcations director for Stop Spraying New Brunswick. “This taxpayer subsidy is one of the many reasons more and more people each day call for an end to herbicide spraying”. In 2017, some 15,841 hectares of public land were sprayed with herbicides despite a petition from more than 35,000 residents calling for an end to this practice.
Glyphosate – the main ingredient in the herbicides applied to Crown land – has been scientifically linked to reproductive defects, liver issues, cancers and a wide array of other health concerns. Further, it has been shown to cause long-term damage to aquatic species and insects, including pollinators like bees. Many in the province also believe the spraying program is part of a larger mismanagement of forests that has led to diminished deer populations. Herbicides are applied to Crown lands to eliminate hardwood species that forestry companies do not consider valuable, despite business cases showing that harvest of maple and birch products could take place with benefit to the economy.
“The government is not only ignoring calls to end spraying, it is spending more each year to have a dangerous chemical applied to our forests. It’s a slap in the face to the thousands of citizens who have asked their government to do the right thing,” said Faulkner.
Representatives of SSNB will be on hand at the Moncton Sportsman’s Show at the Moncton Coliseum, running Friday to Sunday.
- Posted by Roberta Clowater
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 6256
The New Brunswick government needs to step up to establish an action plan that will protect our crucial natural areas. This momentous decision should be a game-changer for nature conservation across Canada, including in New Brunswick. For the first time, the federal budget includes significant support for provinces, territories, and Indigenous governments’ work to establish more protected areas. This cost-shared model is similar to the way we deliver other shared priorities in Canada, such as infrastructure, climate change mitigation, and health care. Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society - New Brunswick (CPAWS NB) and our supporters are hopeful this is an opportunity for the New Brunswick government to receive much needed funding to support the creation of new protected areas in our province.
New Brunswickers need to show our decision-makers that we support strong efforts to protect more of our nature. Politicians and government leaders need to rally collective action to achieve conservations goals. We all have a role to play in protecting what is important to us. New Brunswickers depend upon natural areas for flood control, clean air and drinking water, habitat for wildlife and pollinators, and green and blue spaces for healthy outdoor recreation. Yet, we don’t have a robust action plan to protect these areas. As a result, they are being degraded and lost to expanding industrial and urban development, and growing impacts of climate change. Parks, protected areas and nature contribute millions of dollars to our provincial economy, including in rural areas. They support thousands of jobs and businesses in tourism. If we expand our opportunities to visit and explore protected nature, on land and sea, we can drive a more sustainable economy.
New Brunswickers are deeply connected to nature. It underpins our economy, culture, history, health and well-being. Nature is also our best protection from the impacts of climate change, as long as we conserve the natural resilience of our forests, rivers, wetlands and ocean.Our government has immediate opportunities to protect more of New Brunswick’s nature. A proposal is in the works, from a community level, to establish a Restigouche Wilderness Waterway - a wide protected corridor that could link up with protected forest areas along the river. This would establish a world-class ecotourism destination in rural northern New Brunswick, and protect and grow businesses that depend upon nature, such as salmon angling, canoeing, nature tours and hiking.
The government should establish protected natural areas in the largest remaining old forest habitats on Crown land, and on provincially significant wetlands and bogs. Critical for the survival of many kinds of wildlife, these rich habitats also help slow or prevent climate change impacts.
New Brunswick’s coastal shores shelter internationally important mudflats, islands and rocky beaches, so these should be part of the mix to protect our treasured natural heritage. The provincial government also needs to cooperate with the federal government to find ways of protecting the natural wonders of the Bay of Fundy, the Northumberland Strait and the Bay of Chaleur.
The budget acknowledges the leadership of Indigenous peoples in conservation across Canada. This funding will help advance their work in New Brunswick, and allow us to work together, in reconciliation, for protection of the nature that supports us all.
- Posted by Vanessa Roy-McDougall
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 7736
REGISTRATION FOR THE FESTIVAL OF NATURE IS OPEN!
Nature NB is excited to be hosting our 2018 Festival of Nature in Bathurst June 1, 2, and 3 2018.Join us for exclusive nature adventures, including birding, hiking, canoeing, and more! Celebrate with us at our banquet dinner, with guest speakers and award presentations!View our brochure and REGISTER: www.naturenb.ca/festival-nature-2018
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- Posted by Caroline Lubbe-D'Arcy
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 8705
The board of Stop Spraying New Brunswick today approved a new logo. The simple, clean design features a leafless tree and the name of the organization.
Several designs were displayed on the SSNB Facebook page with a poll seeking input, and the tree-and-name design proved the most popular, with a similar design coming second.
“The logo that won captures the main concern of our supporters: the loss of hardwood trees and our biodiverse forests, with the resultant loss of wildlife and economic opportunities in rural New Brunswick,” stated SSNB president Caroline Lubbe-D’Arcy.
- Posted by Caroline Lubbe-D'Arcy
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 9687
SSNB files request for spraying costs
Fredericton – Feb. 5
Today, Stop Spraying New Brunswick, Inc. (SSNB) filed an official request seeking to learn how much the taxpayer pays to have forestry companies spray glyphosate-based herbicides on Crown forests.
“It’s important for the public to know how much they are subsidizing big forestry companies,” stated Vern Faulkner, a director with the non-profit advocacy group. The Right to Information and Privacy Protection Act request, better known as a freedom of information request, asks for total costs spent in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
- Posted by Don Alexander
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 8543
Irving Center Bouctouche NB February 22nd, 2018 09:00 to 15:30
Morning Session
1) Introduction
2) Why do we do habitat/watercourse restoration?
3) How do we implement a habitat/watercourse restoration project?
4) What are our expected outcomes of a habitat/watercourse restoration project?
5) How do we know if habitat/watercourse restoration projects are successful?
- Posted by Nature Moncton
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 7512
Date: March 20, 2018.
Time: 7:00pm.
Location: Mapleton Park Rotary Lodge (across from Cabela’s)
Speaker: Laura Tranquilla.
Wetlands provide a vast array of ecosystem services. Unfortunately, wetlands have been rapidly declining in number, size, and quality throughout North America. Those that remain are threatened by pollution, filling, draining, and other human impacts. Many marsh-dependent species have been affected, and are in need of monitoring, protection, and recovery efforts.
- Posted by NB Community Harvest Gardens Inc.
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 8251
Farming practices taught will be regenerative, human-scale and relationship-based, positively impacting:
- Climate change
- Meaningful job creation
- Food security & food sovereignty
- Revitalization of our urban & rural communities
- Posted by Terry Wishart
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 8930
Village of Gagetown Adopts Declaration of Environmental Rights
written by Voices for Sustainable Environments and Communities
written by Voices for Sustainable Environments and Communities
On Monday Jan 15th, about 20 citizens turned out on a snowy wintery evening for the Village of Gagetown Council meeting, held at the Village Rec Council. They were there to see the Village Council issue its Environmental Rights Declaration in support of the Blue Dot movement. Blue Dot is an initiative of the David Suzuki Foundation that works toward the right to a healthy environment for all Canadians.
- Posted by Annika Chiasson
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 6373
1. Updated look for Our Website
2. On-line interactive Risks & Benefits Calculator (plus Appendix)
Proposals are due January 29, 2018.
- Posted by Jon MacNeill
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 10296
A leak of a highly-flammable gas at Irving Oil’s operations forced roughly 65 people from their homes in an east Saint John neighbourhood on Monday, Jan. 8.
The CBC reported on the butane leak at Irving Oil’s Saint John East Terminal after the company announced on Twitter that it had discovered the rupture during “routine testing.”
As of Wednesday morning, the residents from roughly 30 homes over four streets still could not return home.
- Posted by Vanessa Roy-McDougall
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 8228
Visit http://www.naturenb.ca/mynaturenb-photo-and-storytelling-c…/ and vote for the video/photo/story you like the best. You can vote once per day!!This project was funded by the Government of Canada*****************
D’aujourd’hui jusqu’au 19 janvier nous vous demandons de voter! Nous avons visité cinq endroits magnifiques au Nouveau-Brunswick comme partie de notre concours de photos et d’histoires #MaNatureNB, et nous avons maintenant besoin de votre aide afin de choisir le lieu gagnant!Visitez http://www.naturenb.ca/manaturenb-concours/ et votez pour le vidéo/ la photo /l’histoire que vous préférez. Vous pouvez voter une fois par jour !!Ce projet a été financé par le Gouvernement du Canada.
- Posted by Jon MacNeill
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 9534
“The provincial water strategy released today includes short-term and long-term actions that demonstrate what can happen when citizens and groups like the Conservation Council speak up for clean water.
Introducing a new water protection act over the next two years — legislation that will both make watershed protection action plans mandatory and legally enforceable and set science-based water quality standards — is a big move, and a smart one.
The commitment to develop a coastal protection regulation over the next few months that would protect wetlands, estuaries and important coastal habitat like eelgrass stands out for me, and it is an important step to protect towns and villages all along the Northumberland Strait.
Adding a recreational water monitoring program for all provincial parks — slated to be ready for summer 2018 — will protect young and old swimmers who cool off in our favourite places like Parlee Beach and the Mactaquac headpond.
With this strategy, New Brunswick is one step closer to having the modern protections we need to ensure the health of our communities and waters, including our beloved beaches, rivers, lakes, streams, bays, wetlands and drinking water supplies.”
- Read A Water Strategy for New Brunswick
- Read the technical working group’s Recommendations for Enhanced Watershed Management in New Brunswick
- Read the government’s press release on the water strategy
- Read the Conservation Council’s full submission on the draft water strategy (November 2017)
- Read the Conservation Council’s statement on the release of the draft water strategy (October 2017)
- Posted by Vanessa Roy-McDougall
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 6918
We are thrilled to let you know that we are publishing a special edition of our magazine, the NB Naturalist, on Nature, Biodiversity and Climate Change.The magazine is free, and is ready for mailing by the end of November. We would like to make it available across the province, please let us know if you are interested in helping with the distribution in your region. The edition is fully translated. Please fill in the form here: https://goo.gl/forms/IdGVeuUJQOwBqj8o2.
If you have any questions, please contact us: 506-459-4209
- Posted by Jon MacNeill
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 8640
FREDERICTON — Lois Corbett, Executive Director, issued the following statement regarding today’s announcement about climate change legislation. She is available for comment.
“I’m pleased the province has followed the Conservation Council’s advice, and that of the Auditor General, by enshrining climate change targets in law. It is not clear, however, that climate fund the bill sets up will go far enough to protect the health and safety of New Brunswick families and communities already suffering from extreme ice storms, hurricanes and flooding caused by climate change.
There are no new incentives, financial or otherwise, to innovate, reduce pollution or change behaviours. By toeing the status quo, the government has missed its goal of helping N.B. transition to a low-carbon economy and create jobs.
It is an uninspiring follow-up to last December’s climate change action plan, which was a smart road map for climate action and job creation that was among the best in the country. And I sorely doubt it will meet the bar set by the federal government.
Instead, we have legislation that largely maintains the status quo and sets us on a race to the bottom when it comes to protecting the health and safety of New Brunswickers and taking advantage of the economic opportunities that come with ambitious climate action.
There are some good things in the bill: it requires the Minister to report on how the money in the Climate Change Fund is spent every year; it requires the government to report annually on the progress of its Climate Change Action Plan; and it enshrines in law the government’s carbon pollution reduction targets.”
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Recommended Links:
- Read the Climate Change Act
- Read the government’s press release on the Climate Change Act
- Read the government’s backgrounder on the Climate Change Act
- Read the Conservation Council’s background materials on N.B.’s carbon pricing system (Dec. 12, 2017)
- Read the Conservation Council’s media backgrounder on carbon pricing (2016)
- List of the large carbon polluters in New Brunswick
- Posted by Jon MacNeill
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 8978
Attention News Editors: Here is some background that may be helpful in reporting on Environment and Local Government Minister Serge Rousselle’s comments today about a carbon-pricing system for New Brunswick:- To date, Canadian jurisdictions that have announced or implemented a system for pricing carbon include Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, and, now, New Brunswick.
- In June 2017, New Brunswick’s Auditor General delivered a substantive review of the province’s climate change plan, including recommendations to turn policy intentions into on-the-ground work to protect homes and communities from what she called “one of the greatest challenges for communities, governments and corporations in the coming decades.” Among other things, the review called for an aggressive timeline and full details on how the government plans to execute the 118 actions laid out in its Climate Change Action Plan.
- New Brunswick’s Climate Change Action Plan, released in December 2016, contained all the elements for effective climate action in N.B., including commitments to Premier-led governance, target-driven policies, and sources of funding to support programs for low-income families, homeowners, and industry. It also included several measures called for by the Legislative Select Committee on Climate Change, including legislating carbon pollution reduction targets and energy-efficiency improvement targets, and phasing out coal from electricity production and phasing in more renewable energy like solar, wind, biomass and hydro.
- One month after the climate change plan was released, New Brunswickers experienced a sobering example of climate change impacts at home with the January 2017 ice storm that led to two people dying from carbon monoxide poisoning and nearly 300,000 homes and businesses left without power, some for up to 13 days. NB Power estimates the damages to its infrastructure at $30-million, making it the most expensive restoration in the utility's history.
- New Brunswickers are keenly aware that climate change is already happening in their communities in the forms of more extreme ice storms, hurricanes and flooding events. The Ice Storm Review 2017, released in August 2017, provided a snapshot of climate change-related extreme weather events in New Brunswick, including but not limited to:
- Hurricane Arthur in July 2014, which brought torrential rains and 100-km/hour winds that caused road closures and washouts and significant infrastructure damages across the province. The total damages were estimated at $12.5 million.
- A Nor-easter in December 2014 which impacted 56 roads with flooding or washouts across several regions, with impacts primarily concentrated in the Moncton region. Damages totalled $10.3 million.
- Extreme flooding and storm surges in December 2010 which resulted in $13.8 million in damages from flooding in Charlotte and York Counties, and $3 million in damages associated with storm surges affecting the east and northeast coasts of the province.
Jon MacNeill
Communications DirectorConservation Council of New Brunswick/
Conseil de conservation du Nouveau-Brunswick
458-8747 | 238-3539
- Posted by Sam Arnold
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 6703
The statement calls on the government of New Brunswick to:
- adopt the establishment of the Low-Carbon Economy as the base for a stable and more resilient economy starting in 2018;
- include transparent safeguards preventing the possibility to hide or misrepresent emission and carbon credit figures;
- ensure success by not allowing “output-based pricing,” revenue neutrality measures and other backsliding measures from corporate and consumer interest groups;
- allow no grace period in fully implementing the carbon pricing program, or give away carbon credits rather than sell them to industries that pollute under the cap-and-trade regime; and
- invest and reinvest all provincial carbon tax revenues in clean energy, clean transportation and infrastructure, and energy efficiency.
Association for the protection of marshes and beaches at l'Aboiteau
Bathurst Sustainable Development
Citizens Coalition for Clean Air – Saint John, NB
Concerned Citizens of Saint John
Council of Canadians – Atlantic
Council of Canadians – Kent County Chapter
Department of Geography and Environment, Mount Allison University
East Brûlé Citizens for Protected Wetlands and Beaches
Esgenoopetitj Watershed Association
Friends of Rockwood Park, INC. – Saint John, NB
Green Light – Grand Falls, NB
NB Anti-Shale Gas Alliance
New Brunswickers Against Fracking – Doaktown, NB
OCIA Atlantic
PEACE-NB
Recherche Indépendante de Retraité en Écologie
Red Dot Association of Shediac Bay
Sierra Club Canada Foundation Atlantic Canada Chapter
Sustainable Energy Group – Woodstock, NB
Taymouth Environmental Action
University of New Brunswick Saint John Green Society
Voices for Sustainable Environments and Communities – Village of Gagetown, NB
West/Ouest Brûlé Ltd.
- Posted by Nature Trust of New Brunswick
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 8073
Fredericton, New Brunswick (Nov 29, 2017) – Dr. James (Jim) Goltz, a renowned veterinary pathologist, Manager of Veterinary Laboratory Services for the New Brunswick Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Aquaculture, and dedicated volunteer naturalist has been honoured with the Lieutenant-Governor’s Award for Excellence in Land Conservation. Dr. Goltz’s dedication to supporting conservation organizations in New Brunswick has made a significant impact on the progress of land conservation efforts in our beautiful province.
"I am delighted to recognize the long and dedicated work of Dr. Jim Goltz, "says Lt-Gov Jocelyne Roy Vienneau. "He serves as an inspiration for everyone trying to make a 'green' difference. His is a wonderful New Brunswick story from which we can all learn."
A true leader in the conservation field in our province, Dr. Goltz has been an active field botanist for nearly 30 years, with a special interest in the flora of New Brunswick. From nature walks, to sitting on committees, and caring for natural areas, his enthusiasm in the conservation field continues to make a significant impact today. As a dedicated volunteer for the Nature Trust of New Brunswick, Jim has led nature walks at preserve openings, stewarded nature preserves by monitoring rare species of flora and fauna, and continues to provide advice regarding species identification and management activities. Jim is always willing to share his wisdom. These are just a small testament to Jim’s long history as a conservationist.
“For such a small province, New Brunswick has an incredibly rich biodiversity with many natural history wonders worthy of protection and global recognition. Soon after I moved here in the mid-1980s, I fell in love with the province, especially the beautiful river valleys, magnificent forests, spectacular wetlands and diverse coastlines, and the many wild plants and animals that reside here.” Says Dr. Goltz, “The province’s strong reliance on natural resources continues to put tremendous pressure on the landscapes and wildlife, including plants and animals, that human residents of the province and visitors so deeply cherish and take for granted. It’s a profound and humbling honour to be recognized among the cadre of dedicated conservationists who are working tirelessly to preserve the species and natural ecosystems of this province. I am especially delighted to witness amazing progress in protecting the Appalachian Hardwood Forest remnants in the St. John River Valley, thanks to the Nature Trust of New Brunswick, the Meduxnekeag River Association, the Nature Conservancy of Canada and the communities and many people who support them.”
“On behalf of the Nature Trust of New Brunswick, our team would like to extend a congratulations to Dr. Goltz. His considerable work in conservation in New Brunswick makes Jim an excellent recipient for this year’s award.” Says Vince Zelazny, President of the Nature Trust of New Brunswick, “Jim can identify a very long list of birds, amphibians, reptiles, butterflies, moths, and is without a doubt among the most hard-working and well-rounded field naturalists in Canada. We are pleased to join our Honorary Patron, The Honourable Jocelyne Roy Vienneau, to give thanks to those who contribute so much to the excellent work being done in land conservation in our province.”
“With top-notch credentials, expert knowledge of botany and ornithology, and a passion for exploration, he could have pursued his professional career, and made his home and name as a naturalist, in any part of Canada or elsewhere. He chose New Brunswick. Perhaps it was love at first sight—I don’t know. But clearly, he soon fell for the place and people here. He realized that, for an area of its size, New Brunswick has a remarkably varied and interesting natural environment.” Says Stephen Clayden, Curator at the New Brunswick Museum and Jim’s longtime friend, “In short order he got to know naturalists and others around the province, and became widely known and admired for his extraordinary generosity. He has freely shared his expert knowledge of flora and fauna, led countless outings, and lent his time and organizational skills to many groups and projects.”
“Each and every nature foray here still evokes for me an incredible sense of awe and wonder. Through leading nature forays, sharing my enthusiasm for nature and showing people photographs of nature’s treasures, I hope that others will be inspired to learn more about nature, do whatever they can to pass on their love and knowledge, and translate these into conservation actions. I very much appreciate New Brunswick’s scientists, naturalists, outdoor enthusiasts and other experts who continue to graciously and generously share their wealth of knowledge with me and others, feeding our insatiable curiosity to learn more about the world around us.” Says Dr. Goltz.
Dr. Goltz will be awarded the Lieutenant-Governor’s Award for Excellence in Land Conservation by the Honourable Jocelyne Roy Vienneau at Government House in Fredericton on Wednesday, November 28th during the annual award ceremony.
About the Award
The Lieutenant-Governor’s Award for Excellence in Land Conservation was established in 2012 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Nature Trust of New Brunswick. Previous recipients of the award have included the late Mary Majka, the Meduxnekeag River Association, Roberta Clowater, and the late Don Dennison. As the Honorary Patron of the Nature Trust of New Brunswick, Lieutenant-Governor Jocelyne Roy Vienneau, presents the annual award in recognition of an individual or organization that has made significant contributions to the protection of natural heritage through stewardship, volunteerism, donation of lands or building effective partnerships. In 2015, the Donald G. Dennison Nature Trust of New Brunswick Legacy Fund was created from memorial donations to the Nature Trust following Don’s death from cancer. His family established the Legacy Fund in Don’s honour.
About the Nature Trust of New Brunswick
Established in 1987, the Nature Trust of New Brunswick is a registered charitable land conservation organization dedicated to preserving the province’s ecologically significant landscapes. To date, the Nature Trust has conserved over 7,000 acres (2,700 hectares) in more than 50 beautiful and diverse nature preserves in New Brunswick. For more information, visit www.naturetrust.nb.ca.
- Posted by Raissa Marks
- Category: News - Nouvelles
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With a focus on green community economic development, EconoUs 2018 will feature leading speakers, engaging sessions, and tailored networking opportunities about People (inclusive communities), Planet (sustainable environments), and Economy (local prosperity) and how these things, together, create an economy that works for all.Who or what should be included in the agenda? Let the planning committee know here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/V2QXMY2
- Posted by Nature Trust of New Brunswick
- Category: News - Nouvelles
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The beautiful 600-acre Caughey-Taylor Nature Preserve features more than 9 km of hiking trails that lead through various ecosystems and forests. This preserve is enjoyed year-round by hikers, kayakers, and snowshoers. The Nature Trust is currently in the final stages of acquiring a 12.5-acre extension that will provide a buffer to the Sam Orr’s Pond and allow for the extension of the nature trail.
The J T Clark Family Foundation has generously pledged to match any further donations to the Nature Trust’s fundraising campaign, up to $3500. “We are very thankful for the continued support from the Clark Foundation.” says Nature Trust President, Vince Zelazny. “The Clark Foundation has supported many other nature preserve acquisitions in the past. We are excited to continue this partnership and secure this important extension at Caughey-Taylor Nature Preserve, and ask the public to help the Nature Trust reach its fundraising goal for this important extension.”
Caughey-Taylor Nature Preserve is designated under the Protected Natural Areas Act, which provides the highest level of protection possible and helps to support the diverse wildlife that seek refuge in the rich wetlands and forests. In addition to providing crucial habitat for wildlife, the preserve sees hundreds of visitors each year. “Caughey-Taylor is truly a gem in the Bay of Fundy area.” says Caughey Taylor Nature Preserve volunteer and Board member, Walter Emrich. “With an extensive trail system, visitors to the preserve are taken through various ecosystems and breathtaking lookouts as they make their way to Berry Point, the last stop on the trail.”
The Nature Trust has pushed the property closing date to December, and needs support from the community to complete this extension. Donations to the fundraising campaign can be made online via Chuffed at https://chuffed.org/project/caughey-taylor-extension or by calling the Nature Trust office at (506) 457 2398.
Caughey-Taylor Nature Preserve can be found on Route 127 in Bocabec, 12 km north of St. Andrews. You can learn more about Caughey-Taylor Nature Preserve by visiting www.naturetrust.nb.ca. If you have any questions about Caughey-Taylor Nature Preserve or the fundraising campaign, please contact Renata at renata.woodward@ntnb.org.
About the Nature Trust of New Brunswick
Established in 1987, the Nature Trust of New Brunswick is a registered charitable conservation organization dedicated to preserving the province’s ecologically significant landscapes. To date, the Nature Trust has conserved over 2,830 hectares (7,000 acres) in 50 beautiful and diverse nature preserves in New Brunswick. For more information, visit www.naturetrust.nb.ca.
The J T Clark Family Foundation has generously pledged to match any further donations to the Nature Trust’s fundraising campaign, up to $3500. “We are very thankful for the continued support from the Clark Foundation.” says Nature Trust President, Vince Zelazny. “The Clark Foundation has supported many other nature preserve acquisitions in the past. We are excited to continue this partnership and secure this important extension at Caughey-Taylor Nature Preserve, and ask the public to help the Nature Trust reach its fundraising goal for this important extension.”
Caughey-Taylor Nature Preserve is designated under the Protected Natural Areas Act, which provides the highest level of protection possible and helps to support the diverse wildlife that seek refuge in the rich wetlands and forests. In addition to providing crucial habitat for wildlife, the preserve sees hundreds of visitors each year. “Caughey-Taylor is truly a gem in the Bay of Fundy area.” says Caughey Taylor Nature Preserve volunteer and Board member, Walter Emrich. “With an extensive trail system, visitors to the preserve are taken through various ecosystems and breathtaking lookouts as they make their way to Berry Point, the last stop on the trail.”
The Nature Trust has pushed the property closing date to December, and needs support from the community to complete this extension. Donations to the fundraising campaign can be made online via Chuffed at https://chuffed.org/project/caughey-taylor-extension or by calling the Nature Trust office at (506) 457 2398.
Caughey-Taylor Nature Preserve can be found on Route 127 in Bocabec, 12 km north of St. Andrews. You can learn more about Caughey-Taylor Nature Preserve by visiting www.naturetrust.nb.ca. If you have any questions about Caughey-Taylor Nature Preserve or the fundraising campaign, please contact Renata at renata.woodward@ntnb.org.
About the Nature Trust of New Brunswick
Established in 1987, the Nature Trust of New Brunswick is a registered charitable conservation organization dedicated to preserving the province’s ecologically significant landscapes. To date, the Nature Trust has conserved over 2,830 hectares (7,000 acres) in 50 beautiful and diverse nature preserves in New Brunswick. For more information, visit www.naturetrust.nb.ca.
- Posted by Raissa Marks
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 7630
The violet, as New Brunswick’s provincial flower, represents the province and its environment. The centre is the network which brings us all together.
The logo was designed by Annika Chiasson, the NBEN’s Communications Coordinator and talented graphic designer.
- Posted by Caroline Lubbe-D'Arcy
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 10677
October 31, 2017
(For immediate release)
Fredericton, NEW BRUNSWICK. A retired research scientist for the Canadian government and expert on genetically modified foods, Dr. Thierry Vrain, will be in New Brunswick between October 30 and November 2, 2017, where he will be presenting his findings to the public in four communities: St. Louis-de-Kent, Edmundston, Petitcodiac and Fredericton Junction.
Dr. Vrain worked for 30 years as a research scientist for the Canadian government in Québec and British Columbia where he conducted research on genetically modified potatoes, among other projects. In British Columbia, Dr. Vrain was section Head of the Biotechnology and Nematology sections at the Pacific Agri-Food Research Centre (Agriculture Canada) in Summerland.
The most common genetically engineered crops have been modified to be resistant to glyphosate-based herbicides such as Monsanto’s Round-Up, and this has been a major focus of Dr. Vrain’s work. For the past decade, he has been travelling the world to inform the public of the unacceptable risks that glyphosate poses to human health and the environment.
In New Brunswick glyphosate-based herbicides are widely sprayed on agricultural land and on forests or softwood plantations to kill off hardwoods that might complete with conifers planted for pulp and other low-value wood products.
Dr. Vrain’s visit could not be more timely. The subject of herbicide spraying on public forests and on NB Power right-of-ways is garnering a great deal of public attention and provoking widespread protest, spearheaded by the work of the Stop Spraying NB movement (Facebook Group: Stop Spraying in New Brunswick).
In recent years, glyphosate has come under a great deal of scrutiny world-wide. In 2015, the World Health Organization’s research arm labelled glyphosate a “probable carcinogen” and in 2017, a long-term study published in Science Reports linked “chronic ultra-low dose” exposure to glyphosate-based herbicides with liver disease in rats. The same year documents unsealed by court order in the United States revealed collusion between an official in the Environmental Protection Agency and Monsanto to falsify academic reports and stifle others to give glyphosate-based herbicides a clean bill of health. More recently, California has added glyphosate to its list of cancer-causing agents that must come with a warning label.
In New Brunswick, a number of municipalities, including Moncton, Cap Pelé, Tracadie, Miscou, Tide Head, Paquetville, Sackville and community groups such as the Saint-Quentin and Cap Pelée/Beaubassin-Est Chambers of Commerce, have publicly expressed their support of the Stop Spraying NB movement by either sending letters of concern to provincial government or signing a resolution against spraying in our forests and under NB Power lines.
The movement to stop pesticide spraying in New Brunswick on public lands and under NB Power lines is rapidly gaining momentum. Signs calling for an end to the spraying are popping up all over New Brunswick. At the Union of Municipalities Tradeshow on September 29, 2017, municipal politicians and staff noted that, “there are signs everywhere.”
More than 35,000 people have already signed a petition to stop the spraying, with more coming in every day. Citizens of this province are growing more and more aware of the immense value of their diverse Acadian forests, their wildlife, their drinking water, their rivers and lakes, forest foods, and their health. They are demanding a ban on the spraying of herbicide on their woodlands.
Dr. Vrain’s presentations are of utmost importance, focusing as they do on the research that Health Canada is choosing to ignore, the negative effects of glyphosate residue in and on edible plants, including the berries, mushrooms, medicinal plants that NB citizens gather in our forests, and which wildlife depend on for their survival.
Dr. Thierry Vrain’s public presentations are being hosted and funded by local community groups, together with a number of grassroots organizations that are listed below, and will help the public become better informed about scientific knowledge on long-term, low-dose exposure to glyphosate.
Wednesday, November 1, 7-9 pm
Maritime Motorsports Hall of fame
Petitcodiac, NB
(Organized in collaboration with SSNB Inc.)
Thursday, November 2, 7-9 pm
Royal Canadian Legion Branch 55
159 Sunbury Drive
Fredericton Junction, NB
(Organized in collaboration with The Right Not To Be Poisoned)
CONTACTS:
(English) Dr. Caroline Lubbe-D'Arcy (Chair, SSNB Inc.): 506-292-7503 email: caroline@stopsprayingnb.ca www.stopsprayingnb.ca
(English) Morris Shannon (Right not to be Poisoned): (506) 455-4232 email: 245tmo@gmail.com
(French) Francine Levesque (Écovie): 506-284-2769 email: canot@explornet.ca
- Posted by Raissa Marks
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 7641
October 30, 2017
On Saturday, October 28, 2017, an environmental award was presented to New Brunswick citizens in honour of exemplary service to their community.
The Red Head Anthony’s Cove Preservation Association was honoured with the Phoenix Award “in recognition of their unfaltering and ultimately successful commitment to defending their community and home from the threat of heavy industrial development.” The Phoenix Award is dedicated annually to a group or individual who has dedicated their efforts to policies and legislation and have been through “the fire”.
The tank farm and marine export terminal for the Energy East pipeline were slated to be built in Red Head, in East Saint John. Concern over the environmental impact of this project to their home community and communities across the country and around the Bay of Fundy caused local residents to organize against the Energy East pipeline. Due to their efforts, alongside those of many along the entire route of the proposed pipeline, the Energy East proposal was withdrawn by TransCanada earlier this month.
Raissa Marks, Executive Director of the New Brunswick Environmental Network, praised the efforts of the Red Head Anthony’s Cove Preservation Association. “They impressed many in the environmental movement and beyond. They showed that dedicated, hard-working citizens can stand up to big industry, build broad alliances, and come out of a big challenge stronger and more united. Red Head residents were at ‘the end of the line’, and showed that, regardless of where you are located, standing up matters.”
The award was presented during the New Brunswick Environmental Network’s annual meeting, Eco-Confluence, which was held in Fredericton over the weekend. Each year, significant efforts by citizens and citizen groups toward the protection and restoration of New Brunswick’s environment are recognized at a special awards ceremony.
The New Brunswick Environmental Network is a non-profit communications network of over 100 citizens’ environmental groups from across the province. The goal of the Network is to encourage communication and collaboration among groups and between groups, government and other sectors.
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Gordon Dalzell, Citizens Coalition for Clean Air, presenting the 2017 Phoenix Award to Lynaya Astephen, Red Head Anthony's Cove Preservation Association. Photo Credit: Pascale Ouellette
- Posted by Nature Trust of New Brunswick
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Wednesday, October 4, 2017
30 Days of Biodiversity
(Fredericton, NB) Across New Brunswick, local organizations are supporting the conservation of biodiversity through research, restoration, and education initiatives, which engage people in their communities. These organizations are passionate about promoting and protecting biodiversity in our beautiful province. Many of these initiatives will be featured in the new 30 Days of Biodiversity campaign, which will run through the month of October. The New Brunswick Biodiversity Collaborative will be promoting one initiative per day on social media and various websites.
"We are so fortunate in New Brunswick to have such a rich natural heritage,” said Nadine Ives with the Conservation Council of New Brunswick. “New Brunswickers care about nature and it's wonderful that so many groups and individuals are sharing their passion for species and habitats and working hard to understand and protect them. We are delighted to feature these great initiatives through our '30 Days for Biodiversity’ campaign." You can check out all the initiatives here: http://nben.ca/en/biodiversity-initiatives-in-new-brunswick
During “30 Days of Biodiveristy”, initiatives from more than 20 organizations will be featured. Examples of these initiatives include the New Brunswick Alliance of Lake Associations’s Invasive Plant Patrol Program, which aims to prevent the introduction and spread of non-native plant species. These invaders can cause habitat destruction, and loss of plant and animal communities, and other problems. Another program, hosted by Nature NB since 2016, has been producing guides for children that they can use to identify birds, frogs, trees and more in their own backyards. These are available in both French and English, and are free for any child in New Brunswick.
These are just two of the many biodiversity initiatives in our province. Environmental groups, community groups, researcher, and others are encouraged to submit their initiatives to be featured, which can be done here: http://nben.ca/en/biodiversity-initiatives-in-new-brunswick.
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About Biodiversity: Biological diversity, or biodiversity for short, refers to the variety of all living things, as well as the ecosystems and natural processes that support them. The province of New Brunswick has a provincial strategy that focuses on conserving biodiversity and using biological resources in a sustainable manner. The provincial strategy aligns with the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy established to support Canada’s obligations to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, which provides a Strategic Plan for Biodiversity, including the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, for the 2011-2020 period.
About the Collaborative Effort on Biodiversity in New Brunswick: The Collaborative Effort on Biodiversity in New Brunswick is a multi-stakeholder effort to address the protection of biodiversity and species-at-risk. The aim of the collaborative is to work together to enhance stewardship activities on the ground and provide a comprehensive approach to the protection of biodiversity in the province. Involved agencies are diverse; the collaborative brings together citizens’ conservation and environmental groups, federal, provincial, and municipal government, academics and researchers, rural and municipal planners, and businesses to work in a spirit of cooperation.
Media Contacts
Raissa Marks, New Brunswick Environmental Network, raissa.marks@nben.ca | 506-855-4144
Nadine Ives, Conservation Council of New Brunswick, nadine@conservationcouncil.ca | 506-458-8747
Curtis Richardson, Nature Trust of New Brunswick, curtis.richardson@ntnb.org | 506-457-2398
- Posted by Nature Trust of New Brunswick
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(Saint John, NB) - In celebration of the Nature Trust of New Brunswick’s 30th anniversary, Conservation on Canvas, an exhibition of paintings featuring Nature Trust of New Brunswick Nature Preserves by New Brunswick artist and art educator Michael McEwing opens at the New Brunswick Museum on Thursday, 5 October 2017, from 5-7 PM. The exhibition, a partnership between the Nature Trust of New Brunswick and the New Brunswick Museum showcases the natural beauty of New Brunswick. A series of 33 oil paintings captures unique ecosystems and landscapes of Nature Trust preserves from around the province. The exhibition will travel throughout New Brunswick in 2018, and will be accompanied by art-in-nature workshops, immersing visitors in the natural wonders that surround us in our beautiful province.
The project began nearly four years ago, when Michael McEwing approached the Nature Trust with the idea to capture the beauty of Nature Trust preserves on canvas. “Early on, it began to dawn on me that this project would become about more than just exploring and painting nature preserves,” says McEwing, “it has become just as much about the incredible people who have joined me on the journey. The inspiration and knowledge that has been shared from the Nature Trust board members, staff, and volunteers is now embedded in the works themselves--a merger of artistic expression and passion for the biodiversity of nature."
Featuring preserves from Grand Manan and Blacks Harbour in the lower Bay of Fundy, to Shea Lake in the North, the Conservation on Canvas exhibition is a diverse showcase of New Brunswick’s landscapes and biodiversity. McEwing explains; “This series invites the viewer to join me on this adventure of discovering the wide diversity and unique ecology of these outstanding nature preserves.” The goal of the project is to raise awareness of the natural diversity across New Brunswick, and to celebrate land conservation as a means of ensuring these landscapes and habitat remain protected for future generations.
“The Nature Trust is proud to be continuing our partnership with the New Brunswick Museum and the art community.” says Vice President of the Nature Trust’s Board, Wayne Burley, “it has been a joy to see these paintings take shape, depicting the varying landscapes of our province, and leaving a legacy like the nature preserves they represent. The community has rallied behind this project from day one, and have supported the art-in-nature workshops we’ve hosted.” Burley has been involved with the project as an advisor since it began.
“Our province’s landscape has been the subject of many artists’ work for over two and a half centuries – Michael McEwing’s focused attention captures a beauty that is worthy of both our attention and our preservation efforts,“ states Peter Larocque, New Brunswick Museum Art Curator. “The New Brunswick Museum is very pleased to continue our longstanding collaboration with the Nature Trust of New Brunswick and to help share the ongoing exploration of the province’s natural beauty and to showcase the talent of its contemporary artists.”
The exhibition will remain at the New Brunswick Museum until mid-January 2018. It will travel then travel to the Andrew & Laura McCain Art Gallery in Florenceville-Bristol, the Sunbury Shores Arts & Nature Centre in Saint Andrews and the Grand Manan Art Gallery and the Grand Manan Museum. The exhibition tour will conclude at Government House in Fredericton in fall 2018. Art-in-nature workshops and guided excursions on nearby nature preserves will accompany the exhibition at each location, led by McEwing, fellow artists, and naturalists, that will allow guests to deepen their knowledge of local biodiversity and create their own masterpieces.
All are welcome to join the artist and representatives of the organizing partners at the free exhibition opening at the New Brunswick Museum on October 5th at 5-7 PM.
Financial support for this project has also been graciously given by TD, McCain Foods, Stewart McKelvey and other supporters.
For more information:
Caitlin Griffiths or Aristi Dsilva, Communications & Marketing, New Brunswick Museum
(506) 654-7059 or (506) 643-2358
info@nbm-mnb.ca
Curtis Richardson, Communications Coordinator, Nature Trust of New Brunswick
(506) 457-2398
curtis.richardson@ntnb.org
- Posted by Nature Trust of New Brunswick
- Category: News - Nouvelles
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(Elgin, NB) On Sunday, October 1st from 1 to 4 pm, the Nature Trust of New Brunswick will host its Annual General Meeting at the Maple Tree Café in Elgin, New Brunswick. With the recent protection of the Mapleton Acadian Forest Nature Preserve in the community, the annual general meeting will be accompanied by a nature walk. Nature Trust supporters, volunteers and members will have the opportunity to meet, as well as reflect and discuss plans for the future of the organization.
“As the Nature Trust continues to celebrate its 30th anniversary celebrations, we are gearing up to begin our strategic planning sessions,” says Nature Trust President Vince Zelazny. “We have spent this summer engaging with members of communities throughout New Brunswick to learn what area of our organization is most important to them. We plan on using the data we’ve collected to help guide us during our planning.”
The Nature Trust has had a very successful year in 2016/17, conserving three new nature preserves, extending three existing preserves, and renewing a lease. The three new preserves were the Mapleton Acadian Forest Nature Preserve in Elgin, the Nelekwenekek Nature Preserve on Middle Island, and the Bonney Nature Preserve on the Kingston Peninsula. The three preserve extensions were on Caughey-Taylor Nature Preserve in Bocabec, Sugar Island Nature Preserve on the Saint John River, and at the Connors. Bros Nature Preserve at Pea Point. Finally, the lease for Shea Lake Nature Preserve, the Nature Trust’s first preserve, was renewed with Acadian Timber. The Nature Trust also grew it’s stewardship groups, implemented a new CRM, worked with landowners and harvesters on protecting the Appalachian Hardwood Forest, and held a very successful Great Fundy Cleanup in the lower Bay of Fundy, among many other great accomplishments in 2016-17.
“Looking back on this year, it’s clear that the Nature Trust has had a significant impact on New Brunswick’s natural spaces.” Says Nature Trust Executive Director, Renata Woodward. “Our conservation, stewardship, and education efforts are growing each year, with more people joining us in supporting our organization. I encourage anybody interested in learning more about protecting New Brunswick’s biodiversity to join us at our annual general meeting.”
A conservation options presentation will begin at the Maple Tree Café at 12:30, with the annual general meeting taking place from 1 to 1:45 pm. All are welcome to attend and learn more about the Nature Trust’s conservation, stewardship, and educational initiatives. Follow the meeting, there will be a guided nature walk taking place on the nearby Mapleton Acadian Forest Nature Preserve from 2:30 to 4 pm, providing a unique opportunity to experience one of the Nature Trust’s nature preserves firsthand. For more information and to attend the AGM, please contact Curtis Richardson at curtis.richardson@ntnb.org or (506) 457-2398.
About the Nature Trust of New Brunswick
Established in 1987, the Nature Trust of New Brunswick is a registered charitable conservation organization dedicated to preserving the province’s ecologically significant landscapes. To date, the Nature Trust has conserved over 2,830 hectares (7,000 acres) in 50 beautiful and diverse nature preserves in New Brunswick. For more information, visit www.naturetrust.nb.ca
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Environment and Climate Change Canada Reluctant to Enforce Regulations against Aquaculture Operators
- Posted by Corey Robichaud
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 10880
For Immediate Release - Sept. 26, 2017
Environment and Climate Change Canada Reluctant to Enforce Regulations against Aquaculture Operators
K’JIPUKTUK/HALIFAX - A retired Environment Canada employee and conservation and environmental law groups are calling for action from the federal government after Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) confirmed certain aquaculture activities result in a disposal at sea, likely violating the federal Disposal at Sea Regulations. Despite this confirmation the activities appear to be continuing without any enforcement action by ECCC.
Aquaculture companies use a variety of drugs, disinfectants and pesticides in response to sea lice and disease on salmon, issues that come along with farming fish in the open ocean. Chemical residues and pesticides are released into the ocean after use despite limitations under the Disposal at Sea Regulations and the serious risk of harm these chemicals pose to the marine environment and wildlife.
In February 2016, retired Environment Canada employee Bill Ernst launched a formal complaint about the practice to ECCC. In his complaint, Ernst identified specific companies but noted that an industry-wide investigation was needed.
After more than a year of reviewing the complaint and undertaking investigations of activities taking place in New Brunswick, officials from ECCC confirmed to Mr. Ernst on April 25, 2017 that they had a reasonable belief that the companies he identified were violating the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 and that the department would take ‘appropriate’ enforcement action.
Yet, despite repeated requests from Ernst on how ECCC will enforce the Disposal at Sea Regulations, no clear enforcement action has happened. The aquaculture industry’s widespread practice of discharging chemicals into the marine environment continues.
Ernst, East Coast Environmental Law, West Coast Environmental Law Association, Conservation Council of New Brunswick, Ecology Action Centre, Living Oceans Society, and Friends of the Earth Canada are calling for an industry-wide investigation into the chemical dumping practice.
“I continue to be concerned that by the Government’s inaction. Minister McKenna is abdicating her responsibility to protect the marine environment and, in doing so, is giving the impression that the Government of Canada is willing to promote the aquaculture industry at the expense of other industries and environmental sustainability,” says Ernst.
Adds Lisa Mitchell, Executive Director with East Coast Environmental Law: “Aquaculture may be a valuable economic driver in the Atlantic Canadian economy, as are many other coastal industries, but to ensure these industries remain viable, the laws that protect the environment upon which they depend must be applied fairly and effectively. Private citizens should not bear the burden of enforcing those laws.”
“We commend Mr. Ernst for his efforts to ensure that the laws to protect our environment and coastal fisheries are being enforced,” says Matthew Abbott, Fundy Baykeeper with the Conservation Council of New Brunswick. “It is disappointing that ECCC has not taken the opportunity provided by Mr. Ernst’s complaint to comprehensively investigate pesticide and other chemical use on aquaculture sites in Canadian waters. An industry-wide investigation is needed.”
The ECCC report regarding Mr. Ernst’s complaint can be viewed here.
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For more information contact:
Bill Ernst
Environment Canada retiree
Wrernst1@gmail.com, 902-865-5771
Matthew Abbott, Fundy Baykeeper
Conservation Council of New Brunswick
matt.abbott@conservationcouncil.ca 506-458-8747
Lisa Mitchell, Executive Director
East Coast Environmental Law Association
lisa@ecelaw.ca 902-670-1113
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- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 7186
Date: September 18th, 2017
Dundas, NB - This past Friday, the New Brunswick Environmental Network in collaboration with École Notre-Dame and the Pays de Cocagne Sustainable Development Group launched the 2017 Branch Out, Make Waves challenge at École Notre-Dame.
“Branch Out, Make Waves” challenges youth and community groups to work together in their local community to help conserve New Brunswick landscapes and shorelines. Over 400 young New Brunswickers participated last year, together planting 1254 trees and cleaning 20 hectares of shoreline!
“This is a great opportunity for youth to contribute to conservation and to create partnerships with environmental groups in their community. I look forward to the 2017 challenge and what it will bring,” said Pascale Ouellette, Education and Outreach Programs Coordinator with the New Brunswick Environmental Network.
The launch on the 15th was also one of the 150 tree planting events across the country in 2017 to commemorate Canada’s 150th. This project is made possible in part by the Government of Canada, Tree Canada, the EcoAction Community Funding Program, UNI Coopération FInancière, and the many dedicated volunteers across the province.
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Contact Person:
Pascale Ouellette, Education and Outreach Programs Coordinator, NBEN
Tel: 506-855-4144
Email: nben@nben.ca
Tree Canada representative, Fabrice Parisi, speaking on Tree Canada’s role in tree planting events through Canada.
Students of École Notre-Dame welcoming ceremony attendees.
- Posted by Jon MacNeill
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 6021
There is nothing quite like that back-to-school feeling.
But what if you could capture the freedom of summer days, the exploration of experimenting and learning outside, year round?
New Brunswick is home to a dedicated and innovative group of outdoor nature educators who know how to teach, outside.
The educators behind the Great Minds Think Outside program of the New Brunswick Environmental Network (NBEN) come from a broad range of backgrounds and disciplines, and they know their stuff. These educators know, for example, that a child who learns outside reaps benefits in physical, mental, emotional, and social development, in addition to improved academic outcomes. Math? Plot a graph of the plants found in different areas of the playground. Group objects found in nature according to colour, shape and texture.
Science and climate change? Measure temperature, rain, and snowfall and track changes over time. Observe the life cycle of frogs in a local wetland.
Literacy? Write a story imagining a day in the life of a bug, or a tree. Use adjectives to describe the clouds.
Sometimes those who struggle in the classroom blossom when given opportunities to learn outside - and pretty well everyone loves exploring outdoors.
So it is good news that as teachers, parents and students across the province head back to class for another school year, our team of outdoor nature educators is gearing up for another season of helping teachers connect their students to the wealth of learning opportunities just outside their classroom walls. After all, in New Brunswick, nature is never far from our doorstep.
Since 2015, the Great Minds Think Outside team has visited more than 40 schools across the province to help teachers make lessons leap off the page and come alive before students' eyes in the outdoors.
The training sessions are activity-filled opportunities for teachers to experience for themselves the excitement of taking curriculum outside to see how effective it is for making memories full of important learning moments that will stay with children for years.
The activities can be adapted for any subject area, tying memorable hands-on experiential learning opportunities to the important skills and development goals outlined in the provincial curriculum. As one teacher from Sackville's Salem Elementary School said after taking the training, "this is the future of education." Many teachers who've participated in Great Minds Think Outside sessions say it is a fantastic way to reach kids who just learn better by doing, while reinforcing lessons learned previously inside the classroom. One teacher from a recent session put it best: "The more senses involved, the more movement and positive experiences, the better the learning." After taking a lesson outside, students return to the classroom with more focus and creativity, stronger recall and memory, and are better at problem-solving and working cooperatively with classmates. And it's not just the children who benefit. Teaching outside gives teachers a renewed enthusiasm for their work and promotes more innovative teaching strategies. A teacher who takes the class outside for a science lesson suddenly starts seeing ways to connect it to math, language arts, social studies and more. Talk to your child's teacher about inviting the Great Minds Think Outside team to your school. You can book a session by contacting Pascale Ouellette, the Education and Outreach Programs Coordinator with the New Brunswick Environmental Network, at 506-855-4144 or by emailing nben@nben.ca. Learn more about the program at www.nben.ca/greatminds.
Let's make sure that this year, at more and more schools across the province, going back to class does not mean going back inside!
Nadine Ives, The Learning Outside Coordinator for the Conservation Council of New Brunswick and a founding member of the New Brunswick Environmental Network's Great Minds Think Outside program.
- Posted by Nature Trust of New Brunswick
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 7661
Caughey-Taylor Event: This Caughey-Taylor with a focus on trail maintenance and bird monitoring. Volunteers will meet in the new parking lot at the entrance to the Taggart’s Marsh and Chickahominey Mountain Trail.
WHEN: Sunday, Sept. 3rd, 2017 from 9 am to 12 pm.
WHERE: Caughey-Taylor Nature Preserve, Bocabec, near St. Andrews, NB.
Clark Gregory Event: The Friends of Clark Gregory Nature Preserve land stewards will be gathering to meet new volunteers and complete trail work at the nature preserve. Volunteers will meet at the parking area at the top of the entrance road to the northern parcel of the preserve.
WHEN: Sunday, Sept. 3rd, 2017 from 1:30 pm to 4 pm.
WHERE: Clark Gregory Nature Preserve, Deer Island, NB.
RSVP: For more info and to RSVP, please contact Richelle at richelle.martin@ntnb.org or 506-453-4886.
- Posted by Jim Emberger
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 10104
The struggle to keep unconventional gas and oil development (UNGOD) out of New Brunswick is a story filled with many actors, heroes and organizations, each playing important and vital roles.
However, for many of us involved in that struggle, the seeds for our victory were largely sown by a single person – Stephanie Merrill, the Water Specialist at the Conservation Council of New Brunswick. What follows is our special tribute to Stephanie, who is now heading out to share her expertise with the Global Water Futures program at the University of Saskatchewan.
http://www.noshalegasnb.ca/tribute-to-stephanie-merrill/
- Posted by Margo Sheppard
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 8906
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Fredericton — (August 1, 2017)
Resist spraying, groups tell rural New Brunswickers
An alliance of 12 groups is calling on members of the public to be on the lookout for industrial-scale spraying of herbicides in their areas and to ask the spray crews to leave the area, states a press release from The Alliance to Stop Spraying NB (TASS-NB).
As spray season gets fully underway on plantations and powerlines around the province, Stop Spraying NB Inc. spokesperson Dr. Caroline Lubbe-D’Arcy says there is nothing illegal in rural residents politely asking sprayers to not spray, out of concern for deer and other wildlife habitat and their family’s health.
Most, but not all, spraying will take place on Crown/unceded land during the months of August and September.
Lubbe-D’Arcy says people should not put themselves at risk by approaching crews while they are actually applying the glyphosate herbicide, or get directly under spray planes or helicopters. Several incidents already this season have seen individuals who breathed in spray that drifted towards them sent to hospital for nausea and dizziness. Rather, people should try to go up to them before the spray begins.
Timber companies J.D. Irving, AV Cell, Acadian Timber and Fornebu as well as NB Power start actively carrying out their annual “vegetation management” programs this month. These involve both aerial and ground spraying of plantations and in the case of NB Power, transmission lines, dams, substations and other energy-related facilities.
Lubbe-D’Arcy notes there is much concern in the rural areas where alliance groups have been speaking with landowners and distributing signs opposing herbicide spraying.
“We are hearing from hunters that their hunting territories have been destroyed and the deer populations have vanished. Also, moose livers often cannot be consumed, leaving doubts about the quality of the meat they are feeding to their family. We strongly suggest hunters call their MLAs and the Department of Energy and Resource Development (DERD) in their area to tell them to stop spraying their hunting zones,” she said.
Maps showing the proposed locations for spraying were released by the DERD last week and are available at http://geonb.snb.ca/herbicide/index.html. Stop Spraying NB had to file a “Right to Information” request in order to acquire maps showing spraying that took place from 2013-2016. In the past four years, more than 60,000 ha of New Brunswick Crown/unceded land has been sprayed at a total cost of $10 million in taxpayer funds. People who do forest thinning and brush clearing for a living are losing jobs due to this practice.
“The herbicide glyphosate is a “probable human carcinogen” according to the World Health Organization, and New Brunswick has the highest application rate in all of Canada when it comes to forestry,” Lubbe-D’Arcy says.
Volunteer Joan Goodwin Price is one of a dozen or so volunteers out talking with rural people about spraying. “At first we weren’t sure how we were going to be received. But the reception we’ve had has been completely overwhelming. People embrace us and the signs because they [signs] express their outrage” against the spraying and the government which permits it to go on, she says.
Signs have started popping up in the Rogersville, Blackville, Doaktown, Petitcodiac, Elgin, Parkindale and Moncton areas over the past several weeks.
Alliance member group Écovie (Kedgwick) is taking their objections to spraying outside — to an area where glyphosate is slated to be applied — in order to make their point. This year, the "Happy Campers" of Restigouche West will be camping in an area where spraying is planned, beside the road leading to Mount Carleton Wilderness Park, an important protected area and park.
This action will draw attention to their demand that the spraying stop. Organizers expect campers will erect tents, distribute literature and explain the alternatives to spraying to anyone wishing to learn about it.
Écovie spokesperson Francine Levesque said, “We are being drowned in spray in our region. The map of the past four years of spray activity we have shows the intensity with which lands in the Saint Quentin-Kedgwick area are getting clearcut and sprayed. It is a catastrophe.”
The campers will be on-site August 5, 6 and 7, on Route 385 near the Tobique River.
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Media Contacts:
Dr. Caroline Lubbe D’Arcy, Stop Spraying NB Inc. (506) 292-7503 (cell) carolinelubbedarcy@gmail.com
(French)Ms. Francine Levesque, Écovie, canot@xplornet.ca (506) 284-2769 (landline)
alternate: Denise Melanson, Council of Canadians, inrexton2013@yahoo.ca (506) 523-9467.
Kevin Shaw, Miramichi Headwaters Salmon Federation, Juniper (506) 245-1960 (landline)
- Posted by Roberta Clowater
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 7708
Fredericton – In its latest annual report on the state of protected areas in Canada, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) is calling upon New Brunswick to step up efforts to protect more land by 2020. CPAWS’ 2017 report “From Laggard to Leader? Canada's renewed focus on protecting nature could deliver results” calls Canada out for ranking last among G7 countries in the percentage of land and freshwater protected for conservation purposes, and encourages governments to conserve Canada’s natural heritage, starting by delivering on their international commitment. New Brunswick ranks 2nd to last among the Canadian provinces and territories.
With only 10.6% of its landscape currently protected, Canada lags behind the global average of 15%, and also trails other large countries such as China, Brazil, and Australia. In 2010, as part of a worldwide effort to stem the tide of biodiversity loss, Canada committed under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity to protecting at least 17% of land and inland waters by 2020 and improving the quality of their protected area systems to more effectively conserve nature.
The report recognizes that Canadian governments are finally starting to take this commitment seriously after years of inaction. In February 2017, federal, provincial and territorial Ministers responsible for parks and protected areas publicly announced their commitment to work together to achieve this target. A new Pathway to 2020 process was initiated, and the Indigenous Circle of Experts and National Advisory Panel appointed to advise Ministers on this work.
“In New Brunswick, there has been no progress on working towards the national protected areas targets,” says Roberta Clowater, Executive Director of CPAWS New Brunswick. “There are steps that can be taken by the province immediately to help Canada reach our goals, including setting a target to increase protected areas, developing an action plan to 2020 and beyond, and protecting the Restigouche Wilderness Waterway.”
“With less than 3 years to fulfill our 2020 commitment, we need to get going now,” adds Hébert-Daly. “In the report we identify places across Canada where a considerable amount of work has already been done on proposed protected areas. By acting now to permanently protect these sites, while also planning for what’s needed to conserve nature in the long term, Canada has a chance to move from laggard to leader.”
Clowater adds, “The New Brunswick government could create a world-class wilderness tourism destination by establishing the Restigouche Wilderness Waterway – a wide protected corridor along the river, on Crown land. Currently, 97% of the New Brunswick portion of the Restigouche watershed is open to development, and industrial development is eating away at the region’s wild forests and rivers year by year. By conserving this area’s special nature, promising ecotourism businesses could reliably promote a quality wilderness destination to nature-seeking tourists around the world.”
Protected areas are important to conserve wildlife and wilderness, as well as provide clean air and water for all Canadians, store carbon, and play a major role in improving our health and well-being. They also make economic sense. Protected areas around the world generate US$600 billion per year in direct spending, while costing less than US$10 billion per year to manage.
For over 50 years, CPAWS has been working with all levels of government, and other partners across the country to protect more of Canada’s public lands. As the only nationwide charity dedicated to the protection of our public lands and water, we are uniquely positioned to help governments protect what nature really needs.
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Read the full report. http://cpaws.org/uploads/CPAWS-Parks-Report-2017.pdf
Read the Executive Summary with recommendations. http://cpaws.org/uploads/CPAWS-Parks-Report-Executive-Summary-2017.pdf
For interviews, contact: Roberta Clowater, rclowater@cpaws.org; 506-452-9902
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 9115
A founder of the Miramichi Environmental Society and a former board member of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, Ben was a geologist and an environmentalist when being an environmentalist wasn’t cool nor easy.
Ben Baldwin at the Conservation Council’s Spring Auction in 2009.Starting almost immediately upon his return from Western Canada to live a life on his family farm in Miramichi in 1985, Ben soon responded to remedy a local farmer’s concerns of chemicals oozing onto her property from the Domtar Wood Preserving Plant, and then to a long list of other environmental problems plaguing Miramichi.
“Ben was a big guy with a big heart who stood up for what he believed in. I had the good fortune to know Ben as a friend, and my life is the richer for it,” wrote David Coon, who worked with Ben during both their time with the Conservation Council of New Brunswick.
My earliest memory of Ben is of my dad, Donald Glynn, and Ben talking about their vegetables at the Miramichi Agricultural Exhibition on a hot summer day in August. Ben’s vegetables from Spruce Shade Farms almost always took first prize. Whenever dad spoke of Ben, it was always with such respect — an admiration shared by many across the province.
Ben was the partner of Inka Milewski, the Conservation Council’s former science advisor. The Conservation Council family expresses condolences and love to Inka and Ben’s children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Written by Tracy Glynn of The Conservation Council of New Brunswick
- Posted by Anita Cannon
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 8313
Were you informed, inspired, or impressed by environmental reporting in New Brunswick in the past year? If you know of a deserving writer consider nominating them for this 2nd annual award. The deadline for nominations is July 31st, 2017.
The Beth McLaughlin Environmental Journalism Award
By recognizing the best environmental reporting, this award seeks to inspire journalists in all media and to showcase reporting that best addresses important environmental issues in New Brunswick. We invite journalists from traditional news media, independents, and non-profits, citizen journalists and students to submit their finest work.
Criteria and eligibility:
Entries must be predominantly about an environmental subject occurring in or affecting New Brunswick, and must have been published, broadcast, or posted during the calendar year preceding the current prize year (ie. in 2016).
Entries which address the following issues are particularly encouraged:
* investigative reporting that uncovers an important environmental issue in New Brunswick or is about an important issue not covered elsewhere
* stories alerting readers/listeners/viewers to an important emerging issue in New Brunswick
* stories that help clarify complex environmental issues or events of significance in New Brunswick
* stories that uphold the journalistic principle of protecting the public interest
* stories that resulted in improvements or positive change in the community
How to Apply:
Nominations may be made by environmental groups, media organizations, teachers, or any other interested parties. Applicants may be self-nominating.
Submission deadline: July 31st, 2017.
Submit entries to: Conservation Council of New Brunswick, Southeast Chapter Environmental Journalism Award Committee, at ccnbsoutheast@gmail.com
Information to Include:
1. Nominator’s name, email, and phone number.
2. Journalist’s name, email, phone and/or other contact information.
3. Provide links to broadcast and online entries. Print entries can be provided as a pdf or html attachment or via web links where the entry is published or posted and publicly accessible. All links must be to the same version of the entry as originally aired, published or posted, with all the same graphics, headlines, photos, etc. and not modified after the contest year.
4. If the entry is not publicly accessible, permission must be obtained from the publisher for CCNB SE to link to it or repost it for public access.
5. Background information on the piece for the judges may be added, but is not required.
Thanks to generous donors, the award this year is worth $500.00 and two tickets to the CCNB SE Chapter fall event.
Full details at : http://www.conservationcouncil.ca/13679/
- Posted by Kaleigh Holder
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 10450
PRESS RELEASE
Swim Guide launches third version of water quality app
July 6, 2017
(FREDERICTON) -- Getting ready for beach time in New Brunswick? Before you go, download the brand-new version of the Swim Guide app.
With over a million users worldwide, the popular (and free!) application gives beachgoers access to the latest water quality monitoring results for their favourite beaches, along with descriptions, photos, and directions.
New in 2017
The 2017 update means Swim Guide is now available in French, English and Spanish. It includes information for over 7,000 beaches in Canada, the United States, Mexico and New Zealand, and has individual entries for over two dozen New Brunswick beaches.
What’s in it and Why is it Helpful?
Swim Guide lets people browse the map or search for a beach by name. Each beach has a description that list amenities, informs you about lifeguards, provides tips about where to park and other valuable information.
If you don’t know your way to the beach, don’t worry, the app also provides directions whether you’re walking, cycling, driving, or taking transit.
Using Swim Guide
Every beach in Swim Guide is marked with an icon that easily lets you know if the water quality is safe for swimming.
- Green means the beach’s most recent test results met relevant water quality standards.
- Red means the beach’s most recent test results failed to meet water quality standards.
- Grey means water quality information for the beach is too old (more than 7 days old) to be considered current, or that info is unavailable, or unreliable.
Quotes
“Since launching Swim Guide in 2011 our goal has been to make water quality information simple to access and easy to understand, for as many people as possible. In addition to improving the search, design, and data presentation with this latest version of the iOS app, we are incredibly proud to be able to provide this service in multiple languages so that even more beach lovers can easily find all of the information they need to have a great day on the water.” - Mark Mattson, President, Swim Drink Fish Canada
“The new Swim Guide is timely and evidence-based. We hope NB citizens and visitors love it as much as we do. Its clear information about when and where our beaches are monitored will also help us identify sources of water pollution so that together we can act to protect healthy waters and sustainable communities.” Lois Corbett, Executive Director, Conservation Council of New Brunswick
About Swim Guide
Swim Guide was developed by Swim Drink Fish Canada (previously a project of Lake Ontario Waterkeeper), a non-profit organization based in Toronto, with the goal to ensure that 100 per cent of Canadians have access to basic data about the health of their watersheds. The group just released the first-ever Canada Beach Report, which was created in collaboration with Waterkeepers, Riverkeepers and Baykeepers across Canada, including the Conservation Council.
For more information, see these resources:
- Learn more about Swim Guide online at www.swimguide.org.
- Read more about the first-ever Canada Beach Report, here.
- Read “A treasure too valuable to waste-our shorelines” by Conservation Council’s Lois Corbett.
To arrange an interview, contact: Corey Robichaud, Communications Officer, corey.robichaud@conservationcouncil.ca, 506-458-8747.
- Posted by Jon MacNeill
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 9199
Corbett told CBC Radio’s Information Morning Fredericton on Monday, June 26 that many details surrounding the project — such as the specific design of the tailings dam needed to protect the Nashwaak watershed and surrounding communities from toxic mine waste, or who would pay for the costs of replacing drinking water and repairing stream habitat in the event of a leak or breach like we saw at Mt. Polley, B.C. — have yet to be made public.
Northcliff Resources, the company behind the Sisson project, was given 40 conditions to meet during the provincial environmental assessment process last year. Corbett said there was talk at Friday’s announcement that the company had met all the conditions, but “I’ve yet to see any evidence of that. There’s not a spot on the website where you can go and download a detailed tailings dam design, for example.
“Perhaps the company has provided some material, so someone could check a box on a long list of conditions. I haven’t seen any evidence of that, and I would hope the government would let us all see soon, sooner as opposed to later,” she said.
Listen to the full interview with host Terry Seguin here.
For more coverage of CCNB on the Sisson Mine project, check out:
- Corbett called for greater transparency from the provincial government in this CBC article published Friday, 23, saying “this project is a long way from being complete — a piece of paper from a federal minister saying approval is granted, with no details, doesn’t give me much confidence.”
- The New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal reported on concerns raised by Corbett and Taymouth Environmental Action’s Jim Emberger about the risks to drinking water, river habitat, and nearby communities.
- Corbett questioned the logic behind risking drinking water for a limited number of unsustainable jobs in this Canadian Press story, saying “I remain to be convinced that those jobs created over the life of the project are equal in weight to the risk to the water.” The story was shared by Global News, CTV, the Globe & Mail, The Financial Post, Metro News, Nanaimo News, the Red Deer Advocate,105.3 the Fox, 104.9 and K93.
- Corbett commented on the environmental risks of the project in stories by L’Acadie Nouvelle and L’actualite.
- Posted by Nature Trust of New Brunswick
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 8522
Long before the river was named the St. John River, it was known by Wolastoqiyik/Wəlastəkwiyik (Maliseet People) as ‘Wolastoq’/Wəlastəkw, meaning ‘Beautiful and Bountiful river’, a name that the nation is currently working to reclaim. ‘Noloqonokek/Nələkwənəkek’ is the traditional Wolastoqiyik/Wəlastəkwiyik name for what is now known as ‘Middle Island’. Nolomiw refers to upriver and ‘qono’ refers to a ‘long period of time’ therefore, ‘Noloqonokek/Nələkwənəkek’ is relating to upriver and a long period of time. The Maliseet language was an oral language and two linguistic spelling variations of the language have been developed and are both recognized today.
“Wolastoq ancestors wisely named each and every landscape and waterway according to a detailed description of each unique area.” Says Wolastoq Grand Chief, Ron Tremblay. “For instance, Wolastoq means “Beautiful and Bountiful River” for it once was Beautiful as well as provided everything our people needed to survive.”
For many generations, Middle Island has served the farming families of the Maugerville area as summer pasture ground. The Nature Trust acquired the new nature preserve to conserve in perpetuity the floodplain forest and Provincially Significant Wetlands that supports a diversity of plant life, birds, amphibians, and rare insects. The preserve is part of the Grand Lake Meadows, Atlantic Canada’s largest freshwater wetland complex.
“The Nature Trust is excited to work with landowners on protecting new pieces of the Grand Lake Meadows.” Says Nature Trust President, Vince Zelazny. “As the largest wetland in the Maritimes, the Grand Lake Meadows is a hotspot for a diversity of rare and endangered species. This acquisition is important to protecting the habitats that these species rely on for survival.”
On the afternoon of June 24th from 1 – 5 PM, the Nature Trust, along with Wolastoqiyik elders, and Canoe Kayak New Brunswick, will be hosting a grand opening event. Members of the public are invited to join a paddle in the big canoes, starting at Douglas Hazen Park, going past the Welamukotuk Cinerea Nature Preserve on Oromocto Island, with a stop at the shoreline of Noloqonokek. For more information and to join the grand opening event, please contact Bethany at bethany.young@ntnb.org or at (506) 457-2398.
A special thank you to those who contributed to the protection of Noloqonokek/ Nələkwənəkek Nature Preserve including major funders: The Government of Canada through the Natural Areas Conservation Program, the NB Wildlife Trust Fund, the Davis Conservation Foundation, The William P. Wharton Trust, the Sitka Foundation, and the ECHO Foundation.
About the Nature Trust of New Brunswick
Established in 1987, the Nature Trust of New Brunswick is a registered charitable conservation organization dedicated to preserving the province’s ecologically significant landscapes. To date, the Nature Trust has conserved over 2,800 hectares (7,000 acres) in 50 beautiful and diverse nature preserves in New Brunswick.
About the Natural Areas Conservation Program
The Government of Canada’s Natural Areas Conservation Program (NACP) is a unique public-private partnership managed and directed by the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC). To date, $345 million has been invested in the NACP by the Government of Canada to secure our natural heritage. Additionally, more than $500 million in matching contributions has been raised by NCC and its partners.
- Posted by Jon MacNeill
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 8830
Conservation Council reacts to Auditor General’s report on climate action in N.B.
The Auditor General of New Brunswick, Kim MacPherson, has delivered a substantive review of the province’s climate change plan and what is needed to turn policy intentions into on-the-ground work to protect homes and communities from what she says “may be one of the greatest challenges for communities, governments and corporations in the coming decades.”
“New Brunswick’s Auditor General’s report should put wind in the sails of the government’s plans to reduce carbon pollution and make our communities healthy and strong in the face of climate change,” says Lois Corbett, Executive Director of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick.
“She points out, and rightly so, that while the 2016 Climate Change Action Plan lays out a series of 118 actions, we lack an aggressive time table or details on implementation.
She recommends that the government introduce legislation to set its pollution targets into law, similar to that found in British Columbia, Quebec, Ontario, and Nova Scotia.
We couldn't agree more and might go even a bit further — let’s see the legislation introduced the next time the Legislative Assembly meets, and let’s hope all parties vote for its speedy adoption.
“If we want to catch this boat, the time for the government and NB Power to move is now. Not in 2018. Not ten years from now," says Corbett.
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The Conservation Council of New Brunswick
Established in 1969, the Conservation Council of New Brunswick has remained the province’s leading public advocate for environmental protection. A member of the UN’s Global 500 Roll of Honour, we work to find practical solutions to help families and citizens, educators, governments and businesses protect the air we breathe, the water we drink, the precious marine ecosystem and the land, including the forest, that support us.
Recommended links
- Read Chapter 3 (on climate change) from Volume I of the 2017 Auditor General’s Report
- Read New Brunswick’s Climate Change Action Plan
- Watch CCNB video series: Green Energy: Making Informed Choices
- Check out CCNB’s Climate and Energy Solutions hub
Jon MacNeill, Communications Director | 458-8747 | jon.macneill@conservationcouncil.ca
- Posted by Terry Wishart
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 6912
Maliseet Grand Council wins an adjournment
The Maliseet Grand Council obtained an adjournment (postponement of proceedings) in Court earlier this week in its efforts to stop the Province from developing a snowmobile grooming hub at Mount Carleton Provincial Park, an area sacred to the Maliseet.
“The first matter presented by our lawyer Gordon Allen was to adjourn the proceedings scheduled for the morning to give us for more time for a full hearing of the matter. We also needed an adjournment to amend our original application,” said Grand Chief Ron Tremblay, who was at the Woodstock courthouse on Tuesday.
“The amendments will define how the proposed snowmobile grooming hub would affect the spiritual connection our People have with this place and how that relates to the Promises that were made to us in the Treaty of 1725/26,” adds Tremblay.
The Province’s counsel opposed the proposed adjournment, but after hearing Allen, Judge Richard Petrie considered the submissions and agreed to the request. He also issued timelines for both parties to complete certain tasks so that the matter may proceed before the Court in a more efficient fashion.
Within the next 60 days, the parties will finalize amendments and deal with issues regarding evidence before the Court. A pre-hearing conference will also be scheduled to set a new date for the full hearing and all the important issues it raises.
A gofundme campaign has so far raised over $20,000 from 145 people in support of this judicial review.
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- Posted by Terry Wishart
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 7795
Mount Carleton court case to resume this week
Right to information request from ACOA discredits government statements
In dealing with Aboriginal Peoples, the government must act with “honour and integrity, avoiding even the appearance of sharp dealing,” says the Supreme Court of Canada.
But, that is not how the New Brunswick government is acting, says Grand Chief Ron Tremblay, one of the applicants seeking a judicial review of a decision made by the New Brunswick government to develop a snowmobile grooming hub at Mount Carleton Provincial Park.
“We’re being told one thing, only to find out through Right to
Information that the opposite is true. The government
is clearly not acting with honour and integrity.”
- Wolastoq Grand Chief Tremblay
When first announced, the project consisted of groomers, a designated trail up the side of Mount Carleton, and two new snowmobile bridges.
“The two new snowmobile bridges are the most essential elements of this project as they tie everything else together,” says Jean Louis Deveau, the other applicant in the judicial review.
The project was registered for an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in September 2016. At the time government argued the bridges weren’t being considered part of the project.
Yet information recently obtained from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency through the Right to Information and Protection of Privacy Act indicates that the proposal submitted by the applicants for funding from to ACOA included a request for money to build the two bridges at the centre of this controversy. And in the contract made between the applicants and ACOA, bridge funding is included.
“We’re being told one thing, only to find out through Right to Information that the opposite is true. The government is clearly not acting with honour and integrity,” says Grand Chief Tremblay.
The court is scheduled to continue hearing this matter on June 13th in Woodstock. A crowdfunding campaign (https://www.gofundme.com/27ru624) was started in June 2016 to help pay legal fees.
The Parks Act (2014) stipulates a management plan based on a zoning system must be completed prior to any development in Provincial Parks. Mt. Carleton has been zoned but doesn’t have a management plan.
- Posted by Vanessa Roy-McDougall
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 8871
We’re excited to announce the #MyNatureNB contest in partnership with Canada 150! Celebrate New Brunswick nature and have the chance to win awesome prizes! Grand prize is Whale Watching for two in beautiful, scenic St. Andrews, NB. Top 5 winners will receive outdoor adventure prize packs and weekly winners will receive our Canada 150 seed pods! Between June 1st and June 30th, 2017, you have the opportunity to share your special place or activity that connects you with nature. Whether it’s exploring your family’s wood lot or walking your dog in Cape Tormentine, we want to hear your story. It’s that easy! Make sure you hashtag #MyNatureNB to be entered!
Visit mynaturenb.ca for full contest details
*****
Nous sommes excités d’annoncer le concours #MaNatureNB en partenariat avec Canada 150! Célébrez la nature du Nouveau-Brunswick et courrez la chance de gagner des prix superbes! Le grand prix est une sortie d’observation de baleines pour deux dans la région magnifique et pittoresque de St Andrews, N.-B. Les premiers 5 gagnants recevront des ensembles de prix pour les aventures en plein air et les gagnants hebdomadaires recevront nos capsules de graines Canada 150! Entre le 1er juin et le 30 juin 2017, vous aurez la chance de partager votre endroit spécial ou l’activité qui vous relie à la nature. Que ce soit explorer le terrain de votre famille ou promener votre chien à Cap Tormentine, nous voulons entendre votre histoire. C’est si simple! Assurez-vous d’utiliser le hashtag #MaNatureNB afin d’être entré au concours!
Visite manaturenb.ca pour les détailes de concours complets.
- Posted by Corey Robichaud
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 9434
Media Advisory: Fundy Baykeeper honoured tonight by Atlantic Salmon Federation
Wednesday, May 17, 2017 — Fredericton
Attention news editors: The Fundy Baykeeper, a program of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, receives the Atlantic Salmon Federation’s top national honour, the T.B. “Happy” Fraser Award, during a gala ceremony at the Algonquin Hotel in St. Andrews tonight. Matt Abbott, the Fundy Baykeeper since 2011, accepts the award.
The Fundy Baykeeper, the flagship program of the Conservation Council’s Marine Conservation Program, was selected for its longstanding commitment to the ecosystems of the Bay of Fundy, where wild Atlantic Salmon are on life support, and its decades-long work to protect New Brunswick’s coastal environments from pollution.
“Our coastlines in New Brunswick are true treasures,” says Abbott. “From the sprawling tides of the Bay of Fundy, to the warm ocean waters at Parlee Beach, our work to protect these spaces is all about consistency, dedication, and the commitment of our team to achieve results over time.”
Matt Abbott is available for media interviews upon request.
To arrange an interview, contact:
Jon MacNeill
Communications Director
506-458-8747 (w) | 506-238-3539 (m)
jon.macneill@conservationcouncil.ca
- Posted by Corey Robichaud
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MEDIA RELEASE
Conservation Council welcomes investments to protect
health of people and ecosystem at Parlee Beach
Fredericton, May 5, 2017 — Today, the provincial government announced infrastructure investments and restrictions on new development specific to the Parlee Beach area. Lois Corbett, Executive Director of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, issued the following statement.
“Today’s announcement is an important step to protect the health of our treasured Parlee Beach ecosystem and the families who swim and play there.
These investments, coupled with better impact assessment for new developments, including campgrounds, should speed up the repair of this valued beach ecosystem. Better sewage treatment, combined with smart education programs, will reduce harmful bacteria that can pollute our coast and jeopardize human health. Keeping our bays and beaches clean always pays off for our coastal economies.
Pollution from near shore developments on the Northumberland Strait, like campgrounds and roads, won’t be solved by today’s announcement. The Conservation Council encourages the Minister of Environment to move the coastal zone protection policy from being a paper document to a regulation under the Clean Water Act, and to classify important bay areas to protect their health, like they currently do in Maine. Putting in place a comprehensive land use policy and much wider wetland and salt marsh buffer zones for the entire Northumberland Strait region would further safeguard public and environmental health.
Projects we will monitor closely with respect to Parlee Beach water quality include the cumulative effects assessment and protocols development (which will study the impact of the total pollution going into Shediac Bay, not just pollution from individual projects), and an independent ground survey of local wetlands to improve our understanding of their size and the ecological services these critical spaces provide.”
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BackgroundIn April, the Conservation Council welcomed the provincial government’s decision to use Health Canada’s technical and science-based guidelines for beach water safety at Parlee Beach. The protocol includes daily water quality testing, seven days a week, with all monitoring results and public health advisories posted online for easy public access.
The province announced rules for notifying the public about water quality test results after it was revealed that high levels of fecal contamination in the water at Parlee Beach, including E. coli, went unreported for the past three summers.
Escherichia coli (abbreviated as E. coli) is bacteria found in the environment, foods, and intestines of people and animals. Although most strains of E. coli are harmless, others can make you sick and can cause kidney failure, urinary tract infections, respiratory illness and pneumonia. When we discover E. coli in water, it usually has come from sewage runoffs, and animal faecal matter. That’s why health officials all over the world carefully monitor E. Coli and its different strains.
Health Canada has set safe limits for E. Coli in drinking water and E. coli in recreational waters. The number of faecal bacteria considered unsafe for recreational swimming varies depending on whether the bacteria is found in freshwater or saltwater. If tests find more than an average of 35 for every 100 millilitres (just a wee bit less than 1/2 cup), it is declared unsafe for all and the beach is closed.
To arrange an interview, contact:
Jon MacNeill
Communications Director
Conservation Council of New Brunswick
506-458-8747 | 506-238-3539
jon.macneill@conservationcouncil.ca
- Posted by Corey Robichaud
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April 5, 2017
FREDERICTON – The Conservation Council of New Brunswick’s Executive Director, Lois Corbett, made the following comments in response to the provincial government’s announcement today about new rules and procedures for reporting water quality at Parlee Beach:
“It’s a smart protocol, one that will increase health protection. Deciding to use Health Canada’s technical and science-based guidelines for beach water safety is the right decision.”
“Testing the health of the water every day, seven days a week, when the beach is open, will provide our citizens, our local businesses, and our visitors with clear information — Minister Rousselle gave us exactly what we needed. ”
“And now that the testing, reporting and public communications issues have been resolved, we can next move more quickly to stop the pollution that contaminates the water.”
“That step is very important and will require both stopping harmful practices like filling in wetlands and salt marshes, and reducing human and animal waste — the main source of the health threats to swimmers. We need to attack all sources — whether it is business or farm runoff, the local sewage system, or private septic tanks and recreational boaters.”
“Reducing the sources of water pollution is something we all care about but, as individuals, and we sometimes feel we have little to contribute. Well, not this time. It’s all hands on deck to fix the problem and continue to make this beach, and others, a destination of choice.”
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- Posted by Raissa Marks
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The documentary film, Every Living Thing - experiencing a bioblitz, will take you on an amazing journey of what it's like to spend four weeks over two summers exploring all aspects of nature – fish, insects, plants, fungi, reptiles, amphibians and mammals - that live in NB’s own Grand Lake Protected Natural Area.
Celebrate the UN Decade of Biodiversity – host a film screening in your community!
Unlike reality TV, this documentary film features real scientists speaking about real issues affecting real people living in real communities.
Every Living Thing was produced by NB-based company, Flower Power Production, in collaboration with the New Brunswick Museum's BiotaNB program. BiotaNB is a 20-year biodiversity research project to identify and catalogue as many species in the province of New Brunswick, before human encroachment and climate change intensifies. The NBEN is partnering with Flower Power Production to promote community film screenings of this film across Canada.
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http://fallsbrookcentre.ca/wp/get-involved/volunteer-opportunities/
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Reference: Second Nuclear Reactor Could Happen, Telegraph Journal, January 27, 2017
- Posted by Corey Robichaud
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PRESS RELEASE
CCNB’s Fundy Baykeeper applauds restart of Energy East Pipeline Review and calls for a reform of the NEB before the review moves forward
The Conservation Council of New Brunswick’s Fundy Baykeeper applauds the National Energy Board’s decision on Friday to restart the Energy East review process.“This is an important decision, but not an unexpected one,” said Fundy Baykeeper Matt Abbott. “Given the questions of bias hanging over all decisions made by the last National Energy Board panel, the only way to move forward was to void all the past panel members’ decisions.”
The ruling was made following the filing of a Notice of Motion with the NEB on Jan 10 by Ecojustice lawyers representing Transition Initiative Kenora (TIK) calling for the Energy East proceedings to be declared void as a consequence of reasonable apprehension of bias. Read the Motion here.
The project’s 2016 hearings were suspended late last August, after complaints were filed against two NEB board members – Jacques Gauthier and Lyne Mercier– who met privately with former Quebec premier Jean Charest while he was being paid as a consultant to TransCanada Corp. The review panel recused itself shortly afterwards, prompting demands that the review process be restarted.
All decisions made by the previous panel members are void and will be removed from the official hearing record. Those who’ve already applied to participate need not reapply, but essentially everything re-starts.
Abbott says that this decision won’t fix the NEB process regarding Energy East. The current process was put in place by the Harper Government and has been roundly criticized by many.
“The Energy East review should be delayed until a modernized review process is in place. Given the problems with NEB that the Energy East review has brought into focus, it is clear that we cannot have confidence in the NEB as it is currently constituted,” said Abbott.
“In uncertain, stressful times, it is good to know that a massive, dangerous, project like Energy East does not loom as close as it appeared to a few short months ago.”
According the NEB media release issued this morning, previous decisions that have been voided include:
- Determination that the Energy East and Eastern Mainline applications are complete;
- Decision to review the Energy East and Eastern Mainline applications via a single hearing;
- List of Participants and any subsequent individual rulings on participation;
- Lists of Issues and factors to be included in the environmental assessments under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012; and Hearing Order.
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To arrange an interview contact: Matt Abbott at 506-321-0429
The Fundy Baykeeper works for the Conservation Council to defend the public’s right to a healthy Bay of Fundy. Matt uses a well-marked boat to patrol the Fundy coastline from Alma to St. Stephen. The Fundy Baykeeper is also part of the international Waterkeeper Alliance.
For more information on how the proposed Energy East pipeline would affect the Bay of Fundy, read the National Resource Defense Council’s report on tanker traffic in the Bay of Fundy: Sensitive Marine Ecosystems Threatened by Energy East’s ‘Aquatic Pipeline.’
For a full list of New Brunswick waterways at risk from Energy East, check out our interactive map.
For more information on the risks of Energy East to the communities of the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine, read the Conservation Council’s report: Tanker Traffic and Tar Balls: What TransCanada’s Energy East Pipeline Means for the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine.
For more on the Energy East pipeline, check out:
- Our blog series on the NEB hearings in Saint John and Fredericton last August
- “Don’t risk current jobs, sustainable jobs, for jobs that are short-term,” CCNB’s Lois Corbett on Energy East pipeline
- Increased oil tanker traffic will impact fisheries
- “You can’t avoid climate change,” says CCNB’s Fundy Baykeeper on the Energy East pipeline
- Posted by Corey Robichaud
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PRESS RELEASE
STATEMENT BY CONSERVATION COUNCIL'S MATT ABBOTT ON THE APPOINTMENT OF THE PANEL TO REVIEW THE PROPOSED ENERGY EAST PIPELINE
January 10, 2017
(Fredericton, NB) The Conservation Council’s Fundy Baykeeper says it should be “back to the drawing board” for the review of the proposed Energy East pipeline project, the largest ever pipeline proposed in Canada – one that would cross over 300 rivers and streams in New Brunswick and would export oil from its terminus in Saint John by supertanker across the Bay of Fundy and down through the Gulf of Maine.
“The announcement of the replacement of the project’s review panel members is but one small part of a complicated, and sorely discredited, process,” said Matt Abbott.
“Federal Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr announced an expert panel in November to make recommendations on how the NEB can be modernized, especially with respect to First Nations consultation and support, improved public participation, credible information on the potential impact to Canada’s water systems, including the Bay of Fundy, and squaring oil export with Canada’s plan to reduce carbon pollution,” said Abbott.
“It’s difficult to see how the new panel could embark on any credible process without first seeing the results of the modernization review.“
CCNB first called for a restart of the project review in August, when conflict of interest allegations forced suspension of public hearings and the eventual recusal of the former EE review panel members.
Unresolved issues with respect to any review on the proposed pipeline include whether or not new panel members will hear from scientists, First Nations and environmental groups and fishermen from New Brunswick; whether they will extend the impact zone under review to include the whole Bay of Fundy and whether they will require a complete analysis of both the business case for the pipeline and the impact of eventual spills from it on the natural environment, said Abbott.
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To arrange an interview contact Matt Abbott at (506) 321-0429
For more information on how the proposed Energy East pipeline would affect the Bay of Fundy, read the National Resource Defense Council’s report on tanker traffic in the Bay of Fundy: Sensitive Marine Ecosystems Threatened by Energy East’s ‘Aquatic Pipeline’.
For a full list of New Brunswick waterways at risk from Energy East, check out our interactive map.
For more information on the risks of Energy East to the communities of the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine, read the Conservation Council’s report: Tanker Traffic and Tar Balls: What TransCanada’s Energy East Pipeline Means for the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine.
- Posted by Corey Robichaud
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Media Advisory
Leading Canadian environmental organizations to outline expectations for Friday’s first ministers meeting on clean growth and climate change
December 7, 2016 (Ottawa, ON) — Erin Flanagan (Pembina Institute), Steven Guilbeault (Équiterre), Catherine Abreu (CAN-Rac), Dale Marshall (Environmental Defence) and Dr. Louise Comeau (CCNB) will host an online media briefing to outline expectations for Friday’s first ministers' meeting on climate change and will respond to questions.
Event: Media briefing and Q&A
Date: Wednesday, December 7th 2016
Time: 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. (EST)
Location: via GoToMeeting webinar
RSVP at: Media Briefing Q&A registration
Context: For the first time ever, Canadian political leaders are negotiating a pan-Canadian climate plan to meet or exceed the country’s 2030 emissions reduction target. This webinar will outline trends in Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions in light of recent announcements and will discuss the extent to which governments have made policy commitments commensurate with reducing national emissions by 30% below 2005 levels by 2030.
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Media inquiries:
Erin Flanagan (English / français)
Program Director, Federal Policy, Pembina Institute
587-581-1701
Kelly O’Connor
Communications Lead, Pembina Institute
416-220-8804
Louise Comeau
Director of Climate Change and Energy Solutions, CCNB
506-238-0355
- Posted by Caroline Lubbe-D'Arcy
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MEDIA RELEASE
December 5, 2016
SSNB has the largest petition that has EVER happened in New Brunswick: Another 13,439 signatures to make a grand total of 27,225 to Stop Herbicide Spraying in New Brunswick Public Forests and NB Power right-of-ways.
FREDERICTON - On Tuesday December 6, 2016 13,404 WRITTEN signatures will be tabled at the Provincial Legislature which demands that New Brunswick stops spraying of public forests and NB Power right of ways. This third petition presentations represents again communities from every part of the province including francophone, anglophone and Indigenous communities. The petition drive is continuing to gain momentum and SSNB will continue with future petition signature submissions.
A delegation of community organizers representing “Stop Spraying in New Brunswick” (SSNB) will be travelling to Fredericton from communities across New Brunswick to gather for a photo in front of the Legislature at noon on Tuesday, December 6 2016. During this time supportive MLAs have been invited to join us in this photo.
SSNB has received word, that in addition to Fredericton MLA David Coon, MLA Jake Stewart (South-West Miramichi) will sign the petition and stand with us in the photo. MLA Jake Stewart has spoken out against forest spraying in the past year, and we are pleased that he is joining us.
Petition Presentation schedule:
Tuesday December 6, 2016
12:00 noon photo with supporting MLAs
1:00 pm: peaceful entry into the Legislature building to witness Fredericton MLA David Coon as he tables the signatures, and to hear supportive words from MLAs who are supportive of our demands.
LOCATION:
Provincial Legislature Buildings
706 Queen Street
Fredericton, New Brunswick
As you know, the Stop Spraying in New Brunswick movement has been growing rapidly since the 2015 hunting season when hunters found that there were almost no deer in our public forests. A catastrophic deer collapse continues, with the deer population now one-quarter of what it was 30 years ago. A petition campaign which was started on December 16 2015, with an initial submission of almost 1200 signatures from Kedgwick, was followed by the submission of 12,686 signatures on May 18, 2016. This petition to Stop Herbicide Spraying in New Brunswick Public Forests and NB Power right-of-ways is now the LARGEST petition collection on record in New Brunswick history. Our government has a duty to listen to the 27,225 voters. This number will continue to grow, as more community members are becoming active in this movement. Every week we have new people coming forward to collect signatures in their communities.
In September 2016, a retired New Brunswicker, Amédée Boucher became actively involved in this issue, and collected over 7,000 signatures on the Acadian Peninsula in a period of just 2 months together with a few other residents. Therefore, an event was held by organizers in Tracadie, supported by SSNB, to discuss the spraying issue with great attendance. That evening Fredericton MLA David Coon, who had taken time out of his busy schedule to travel up to Tracadie on that Friday evening, received a total of 12,877 signatures that included the signatures collected by Amédée Boucher and another batch received by SSNB from all over the province. On December 2, 2016 another 566 signatures arrived in the mail to SSNB. The local Liberal MLAs refused to attend.
"The people of the Acadian Peninsula refuse to be poisoned," said Amédée Boucher, responsible for having collected a bulk of signatures in that area, "but signing the petition is only the first step. It'll take your presence on December 6, 2016 to leave a clear message to our politicians: enough is enough."
Recent data from Maine Inland F&W, Quebec Chasse et peche, NSDNR and NBDNR shows that hunting numbers in NB are now 15% of what they were in 1985, whereas in Quebec the numbers have increased threefold and in Maine they have stayed relatively stable over the same period of time. The combination of increased clearcutting and glyphosate spraying of monoculture softwood plantations are eliminating a very large amount of deer food, removing enough browse to feed 32,000 deer each and every year. People who live near or in the woods have noticed the effects on the deer population in New Brunswick themselves.
Wildlife guide and woodlot owner Leo Goguen from Rogersville is out in the woods all the time and has stated this before, "Our livelihood depends on hunting wildlife and fowl. Irving not only poisoned the meat we eat but destroyed multiple game habitat that this game depends on to reproduce and strive. We are losing revenue on recreational activities and our families are being robbed of healthy food.” Leo has also felt the detrimental effects on his livelihood as a private woodlot owner.
Northern New Brunswick is feeling the pain: “We at ÉCOVIE are very much preoccupied by what is being done in our forests”, says Clément Arpin, retired businessman from a value-added wood industry. “28% of all the forests sprayed in Canada are in NB and NB represents 0.7% of the surface of our country. This is a lot of pesticides sprayed all around us! Our beautiful mixed forests are being transformed into plantations....A monoculture is not a forest. We have to realize that a forest with diversity will bring diversity in jobs and a stability in our economy. We cannot extract maple syrup from a spruce tree. So why do we have to kill hardwood when those trees provided us a revenue increase of 1000% in the last decade as stated by our Prime Minister, Brian Gallant, on one of his visits in Kedgwick? We should work with the forest, put our people to work instead of working with pesticides and destroying our beautiful diversity.”
MLA David Coon has been a long-standing champion for the cause to stop herbicide spraying of NB forests and hydro-power lines . On December 2, 2016, David Coon released this powerful statement: “ Stop the Runaway Clearcutting and Say Goodbye to Herbicide Spraying” http://greenpartynb.ca/en/8-news/1007-stop-the-runaway-clearcutting-and-say-goodbye-to-herbicide-spraying. This quote from his statement says enough: “Ours is one of only three Canadian provinces clinging to the practice, despite numerous petitions similar to the present one, and long-standing, vocal objections from our rural residents. They have a right to a safe environment, to live free of fear for their well-being and that of the wildlife inhabiting our forests.”
“The fact that taxpayers are paying to spray our forests at a cost of $2.4M a year is just ludicrous”, says SSNB organizer Dr. Caroline Lubbe-D’Arcy. “On top of that, our forestry is creating less jobs than EVER before, which makes no sense. We need to bring thinning crews back to work. We have trained workers sitting at home so that an unsustainable forest management practice can exist. People could be working and contributing to our economy instead of being underemployed.”
Please arrange to meet members of Stop Spraying New Brunswick and other New Brunswickers who are alarmed about the continued use of these sprays outside the legislature buildings on Tuesday December 6, 2016 at noon. All political leaders and MLA's are invited to attend and show support.
Media contacts: (will be present at the event in Fredericton)
Dr. Caroline Lubbe-D’Arcy, SSNB, Fredericton cell 506-292-7503 (English media contact)
André Arpin, Écovie, Kedgwick cell: 506-284-0593 (French media contact)
Amédée Boucher, Acadie Peninsula, cell: 709-792-4033
- Posted by Jim Emberger
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New Post from New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance
Let’s close the door on shale gas development once and for allCommentary by Jim Emberger (Fredericton Gleaner, Nov 23, 2016) We applaud the Gallant government’s decision to amend the Clean Environment Act to ban the disposal of fracking wastewater in municipal and provincial sewage treatment systems. The scientific studies behind the decision have long noted that municipal wastewater systems were not…Read more … |
- Posted by Raissa Marks
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Pre-budget Provincial
New Brunswickers are invited to attend upcoming public meetings focused on priorities for the 2017-18 budget. November 16-December 5
Electoral Reform Provincial
The Commission on Electoral Reform is looking at alternative voting systems, voting age, and other election rules. Deadline: November 30
Navigable Waters Federal
Review of the previous government’s changes to the Navigable Waters Protection Act. Deadline: December 7
Environmental Protection Act Federal
Comprehensive review of the provisions and operation of theCanadian Environmental Protection Act. Deadline: December 1
Charities Federal
Modernization of the rules governing charities and their political activities. Deadline: December 9
Environmental Assessment Federal
Comprehensive review of Canada’s environmental assessment processes. Deadline: December 18
Fisheries Federal
Review of the 2012-13 changes to the Fisheries Act made by the previous government. Comments welcome on restoring habitat protections that were lost and also on incorporating modern safeguards. No deadline mentioned but the committee responsible is submitting its report in “early 2017”.
National Energy Board Federal
A targeted review of the NEB’s structure, role and mandate under the National Energy Board Act. Deadline: January 17
Clean Air Act Operating Approval – Irving Provincial
Renewal of the Approval to Operate for the Irving Pulp and Paper Limited Reversing Falls Complex in Saint John. Deadline: March 7
- Posted by Corey Robichaud
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Media Advisory
CCNB available for comment on new report calling on federal government
to phase-out coal powered electricity generation by 2030
What: Dr. Louise Comeau, the Conservation Council’s Director of Climate Change and Energy Solutions, will be available to respond to questions about a new report, Out with the coal, in with the new: National benefits of an accelerated phase-out of coal-fired power. The report will be released in Ottawa by the Pembina Institute in collaboration with CCNB and other health and environmental groups. The report assesses the potential health and climate change benefits from phasing coal out of electricity production by 2030.When: Monday, November 21, 2016, 11 am. Atlantic
Who: Dr. Louise Comeau Director of Climate Change and Energy Solutions.
Where: Conservation Council of New Brunswick, 180 St. John St., Fredericton, NB
Why: Burning coal to generate electricity contributes to air pollution affecting human health, as well as climate change through high levels of greenhouse gases per MWh of electricity produced. There is a global movement away from coal to secure health and climate protection benefits. We are asking the federal Government to announce an accelerated coal phase-out in the lead up to First Ministers meeting in Ottawa December 9, 2016.
Contacts:Louise Comeau, louise.comeau@conservationcouncil.ca; 506 238 0355
Barb MacKinnon, New Brunswick Lung Association, barb.mackinnon@nb.lung.ca; 506 455 8961
- Posted by Raissa Marks
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November 22, 2016
Fredericton – The New Brunswick Environmental Network celebrated its 25th anniversary over the weekend. During the celebration, special recognition was given to seven groups that have been members of the network for 25 years: Atlantic Salmon Federation, Vertige at Mathieu-Martin High School, Conservation Council of New Brunswick, Grand Manan Whale and Seabird Research Station, Nature NB, Nature Trust of New Brunswick, and Trees International.
There are now 100 citizen-based environmental groups from across New Brunswick in the Network. “It was a double milestone,” said Raissa Marks, Executive Director of the NBEN. “It was perfectly fitting to approve the membership of our 100th group during the 25th anniversary event.”
“Nature NB is excited to have been part of the NBEN for 25 years,” said Vanessa Roy-McDougall, Executive Director of Nature NB. “The NBEN's diligent work over the years has allowed us to connect with other environmental groups and has made our efforts to conserve New Brunswick's natural heritage even stronger."
Lois Corbett, Executive Director of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, added that her group is “...proud to have been part of NBEN for 25 years. The Network's groups and their members, including the Conservation Council, represent citizens from all over the province and by working together, we've become a strong united voice for clean water and air and for a thriving, greener economy.”
Youth environmental groups have always been an important part of the Network, as explained by Mylène Chavarie of Vertige at Mathieu-Martin High School, “Vertige is extremely proud to be part of the NBEN. The resources provided by the Network have been useful to us over the course of the last 25 years. Our committee is honoured to have been part of the NBEN since the beginning.”
Laurie Murison, of the Grand Manan Whale & Seabird Research Station, reflected back on the last 25 years. “We were happy to join a network of New Brunswick environmental groups 25 years ago. At that time, communication among groups was limited to phone calls, mail outs, or meetings. The need to connect with others, and the chance to learn new skills, was beneficial and desirable. The development of a strong network in New Brunswick over the years with increased membership has strengthened our resolve to remain a member.”
The 25th anniversary celebration, held in Fredericton on Saturday November 19, was attended by over 100 people representing 53 environmental groups from around the province.
The Network’s mandate is to improve communication and co-operation among environmental groups and between these groups, government, and other sectors.
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Contact:Raissa Marks, 506-855-4144, raissa.marks@nben.ca
- Posted by Jim Emberger
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Our support is grounded in many things. In recent history we have been allies against a common enemy that threatened all of us with the contamination of our water, air and land. Many of our members, both Anglophone and Francophone from around the province, stood with the people of Elsipogtog as they peacefully defended their land. Some were arrested alongside them and still others sent money and supplies to support the cause.
We have also stood shoulder to shoulder with our other indigenous allies, the Wolastoqewiyik, in the peaceful defense of mother earth, understanding that such actions are often necessary to protect that which sustains life when it is threatened.
We also support this suit because we are joined with First Nations by history, including the mutual signing of treaties in centuries past. While we cannot undo the hardships that befell First Nations in the years since those treaties were signed, we can say—along with the Supreme Court of Canada—that the passage of time does not diminish the rule of law. Treaties signed remain treaties to be respected and enforced.
Canada’s governments and citizens alike are thus obligated both legally and morally to acknowledge the terms of those treaties which, beyond dispute, entitle the First Nations the right to protect the water, air and land necessary to support their way of life.
By doing so we also acknowledge that we are helping New Brunswick, and the world, rediscover the values that are necessary for our continued existence.
Jim Emberger, Spokesperson
New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance
- Posted by Roberta Clowater
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“CPAWS NB is very concerned about the impact of this project on the wilderness and wildlife of our iconic and wildest provincial park,” says Roberta Clowater, CPAWS NB Executive Director. “Unfortunately, the environmental assessment report does not do a good job of identifying the potential environmental impacts of such a trail. We encourage all New Brunswickers to share their views on this proposed project with our provincial government.”
CPAWS New Brunswick has reviewed the Environmental Assessment report, and developed a summary of comments that it hopes will contribute to the public discussion around this proposed development at Mount Carleton Provincial Park.
Our review found that:
• The provincial government has apparently not done surveys to determine if there are habitats for species at risk, such as bald eagles, Canada lynx, or Gaspé shrews along the proposed development route, especially the new snowmobile trail up the side of Mount Carleton.
• The report dismisses the potential impacts of snowmobile noise and compaction of snow on wildlife, ignoring a significant body of research that indicates snowmobiling can negatively impact moose, bald eagles, hibernating bears and small mammals over the long term.
• The report also ignores evidence that snowmobiles and groomers can reduce winter survival for small mammals by compacting snow or collapsing the tunnels they use to search for food, which could affect food sources for owls, hawks, Canada lynx, foxes, and American marten – resulting in impacts up the food chain.
“Mount Carleton Provincial Park is one of our most treasured landscapes and the provincial government is supposed to protect it as a beautiful wild place for all New Brunswickers to enjoy, now and in the future. The significant gaps in the assessment report reinforce CPAWS NB’s belief that the proposed new snowmobile trail up the side of Mount Carleton should not move forward. It is difficult to see how the Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture can undertake this part of the project in a way that avoids or mitigates the potential impacts on wildlife and trail erosion. We hope the environmental assessment process gives serious consideration to all of the missing information related to this project, especially given the public expectation for higher scrutiny of development proposals in a provincial park,” Clowater noted.
The public can submit comments on or before November 21 to: lynn.white@gnb.ca or mailed to Lynn White, Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture, P.O. Box 6000, Fredericton, NB E3B 5H1.
- Posted by Caroline Lubbe-D'Arcy
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Are you concerned about pesticide spraying in our forests?
Do you want to know more about this practice in our area? A large gathering is organized by a group of citizens concerned with spraying and its impact on our health:
Friday, November 18 at 7: 00
Marché Centre-Ville
Tracadie, NB
A total of at least 14,000 signatures to Stop Spraying NB will be presented on this evening. David Coon, leader of the Green Party of New Brunswick, has agreed to accept and table the petition to the Legislative Assembly in Fredericton. He will therefore be present at the meeting.
Of these 14,000 signatures, a total of 8,000 signatures were gathered in the Acadian Peninsula alone in a 3 month period for the ongoing Stop Spraying NB petition campaign (14,000 signatures collected province-wide had already been submitted at the NB Legislature on May 18, 2016). The other 6,000 signatures have been received from all over the rest of the province by many citizens for the group Stop Spraying New Brunswick. The Acadian Peninsula is now part of the provincial movement STOP SPRAYING N.B. But in addition to the forests, the people of this part of the province are also greatly concerned about spraying in the blueberry fields . "The people of the Peninsula refuse to be poisoned," said Amédée Boucher, responsible for having collected a bulk of signatures, "but signing the petition is only the first step. It'll take your presence November 18 to leave a clear message to our politicians: enough is enough. " He invites all organizations who are concerned about our forests, nature, health and future generations, to support them. Mme. Nancy Benoit, mother of three young children, adds "cancer rates have increased dramatically in New Brunswick and every year, every family is affected by this disease and increasingly young. It is more than time we do something . " M. Eloi Benoit, for his part, believes "that we must think of future generations and if we continue like this, we're going in the wrong direction. Also, who is taking care of animals? "concludes Mr. Benoit. Please join us!
We have now submitted a total of 28,000 signatures since the campaign began in December, 2015.
For more information in English, contact Francois Couturier at 506-252-7784.
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- Hits: 7894
“This claim is about protecting our lands and waters for our children and our future generations,” said Elsipogtog Chief Arren Sock. “We cannot stand by while the government ignores us and makes decisions that threaten the traditional lands of the Mi’kmaq people. It’s time for us to exercise our rights and responsibilities to protect our territory.”
The Mi’kmaq, including Elsipogtog’s ancestors, signed treaties of peace and friendship with the British Crown in the 1760s. The treaties did not include the surrender of Mi’kmaq title to their lands. In the claim Elsipogtog asks the Court to confirm that the Mi’kmaq Nation continues to hold Aboriginal title and rights in Sikniktuk, and to order injunctions preventing the further destruction of the land, water, air and forest.
“We want to offer hope and strength to our youth by taking a stand to protect Mi’kmaq title and rights,” said Kenneth Francis, speaker for Kopit Lodge, which represents Elsipogtog on resource development matters. “The federal government has promised a renewed relationship with Indigenous peoples based on partnership and respect and which is consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Unfortunately, we still see Canada and the Province disregarding our rights and making decisions that threaten the health of our people and our lands. By filing this claim we are asking both levels of government to step up and take our rights seriously.”
The claim comes at a time when both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in New Brunswick have repeatedly raised concerns about government decisions pertaining to the lands and waters in Mi’kmaq territory.
“Elsipogtog intends to continue to work with our Indigenous neighbours and our Canadian allies to ensure the protection of the lands and waters that sustain us,” said Chief Sock. “As part of the Mi’kmaq Nation we have a responsibility to act as stewards of our territory. Reasserting our right to make decisions about our lands and waters is an essential part of safeguarding Sikniktuk for all of our long-term benefit.”
Media contacts:
Chief Arren Sock: 506-523-8705
Kenneth Francis, speaker, Kopit Lodge: 506-523-5823
Bruce McIvor, legal counsel: 604-785-0327
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 6878
While the challenge this year ended on October 21, you can still vote!
Go to the challenge page and scroll down to the challenge submissions. Voting is as simple as clicking the upward arrow (^) on the challenges you want to vote for! Voting ends November 18th.
Thank you for supporting youth and community conservation efforts!
- Posted by Nature Moncton
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 8731
Nature Moncton Workshop
Sunday, November 27, 2016. 1:00 -4:00 pm
Tankville School, 1665 Elmwood Dr., Moncton
Nelson Poirier will give a session on Bird Feeding Basics on Sunday November 27, 1:00-4:00 pm at the Tankville School, 1665 Elmwood Dr., Moncton.
Topics dealt with will include setting the best buffet that will attract the biggest variety of visitors, suggested feeder types with pros and cons, placement of feeders to best protect yet enjoy your visitors’ presence, getting to know your guests with bird guides/binoculars, the different behavior expectations of your visitors, surprise visitors, placing the "unwelcome" matt out for unwanted visitors, and suggestions on hygiene.
All are welcome, Nature Moncton member or not. $8 fee per participant to cover costs.
- Posted by Corey Robichaud
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 9311
Louise Comeau, Director of Climate Change and Energy Solutions
October 24, 2016
The Final Report of the Select Committee on Climate Change is a testament to the value of making our voices heard. Members of the eight-member, all-party committee (http://www.conservationcouncil.ca/select-committee-engages-all-nbers-in-growing-the-green-economy/) listened to New Brunswickers and have delivered a report that could lay the foundation for long-term sustainability and stable jobs while meeting our climate protection goals.
The Conservation Council is calling on the Government to adopt the Committee’s recommendations and to tell New Brunswickers in its November 2 Speech from the Throne how it intends to convert the recommendations into action.
The Select Committee’s recommendations closely align with the recommendations the Conservation Council made it in its climate action plan. Our climate action plan proposals (http://www.conservationcouncil.ca/our-programs/climate-and-energy/) included calling on Government to phase coal out of electricity production by 2030 and to move toward a zero emitting system by expanding its commitment to renewable energy. The Select Committee calls for fossil-fuel free electricity system by 2030 and an increase in the Renewable Portfolio Standard to 60% from 40%. We called for a carbon pricing regime where revenue would be used to finance investments in deep retrofits of buildings, including social housing, and to create incentives to transform transportation so it relies more on clean electricity. The Select Committee recommends the creation of a Climate Fund to do just that.
With respect to governance, the Select Committee also listened, calling as the Conservation Council did, for introduction of a Climate Change Act to set in law a provincial greenhouse gas reduction target of 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and by 80 percent below 2001 levels by 2050. The Committee also called on Government to strengthen building codes, planning legislation and guidelines, and procurement rules to require low-polluting choices. With respect to Government operations, the Select Committee calls on Government to establish a cabinet committee on climate change, chaired by the Premier, and to strengthen the capacity of the Climate Change Secretariat to get things done.
We want to thank the Committee for its hard work and for so respectfully listening to New Brunswickers. Now we wait to hear whether Government respects the Committee’s work as much as the Conservation Council does.
For more information, contact: Louise Comeau, louise.comeau@conservationcouncil.ca; 506 238 0355
- Posted by Corey Robichaud
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 10441
The Conservation Council of New Brunswick is excited announce that our upcoming holiday edition of Eco-Alert – our seasonal informative magazine enjoyed by over 10,000 English and French readers throughout the province – will be celebrating the many local NB producers that make buying local worth every penny!
Considering this, we are offering special holiday discounted pricing for advertisements in this issue and we would love to help spread the word about your organization this holiday.
Eco-Alert is a bilingual publication and reaches a wide demographic in New Brunswick and we think Eco-Alert would be a great fit for your business. Help us make buying local to be the new gift of choice this holiday!
You can view our rates here. We even have rates as low as $75 for special, smaller business card-sized ads!
Check out an online version of our latest issue of Eco-Alert here.
If you are interested in purchasing ad space, would like to receive a copy of our magazine, have any questions, or, better yet – have a story you want to share - please don't hesitate to give us a call at 458-8747.
We look forward to hearing from you,
The Conservation Council of New Brunswick
- Posted by Corey Robichaud
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 9161
Our 47th Annual General Meeting is coming up Saturday, November 5! We really hope to see you there. It is a time to discuss our year, catch up with friends, and meet our dedicated staff. Please RSVP at info@conservationcouncil.ca.
Notre 47e assemblée générale annuelle est à venir samedi, le 5 Novembre! Nous espérons vous voir. Il est un temps pour faire notre année, rattraper avec des amis et de rencontrer notre personnel dévoué. S'il vous plaît RSVP à info@conservationcouncil.ca.
Conservation Council of New Brunswick's
47th Annual General Meeting
When: Saturday, November 5 at 10am to 2pm.
Where: Moncton Press Club, 160 Assomption Blvd, Moncton
Agenda:
10:00 am - Annual General Meeting
12:00 pm - Lunch
With special guest speakers from the Petitcodiac Watershed Alliance.
All are welcome but you must be a current member to vote during the business meeting. We invite supporters, volunteers and those curious about CCNB to join us! For more information, contact or email info@conservationcouncil.ca.
I hope to see you there!
47e assemblée générale annuelle
du Conseil de Conservation du Nouveau-Brunswick
Quand : samedi le 5 novembre de 10h00 à 14h00.
Où : Moncton Press Club, 160 Assomption Blvd, Moncton
Agenda :
10h00 – Assemblée générale
12h00 – Diner
Avec les orateurs spéciales de l'Alliance du Bassin Versant Petitcodiac.
Tous sont les bienvenus, mais seulement les membres sont invités à voter durant l’assemblée. Nous invitons nos bénévoles, partisans et tous ceux qui veulent s’informer de CCNB à se joindre à nous. Pour plus d’information, veuillez contacter 506-458-8747 ou envoyez un courriel àinfo@conservationcouncil.ca.
J’espère vous voir là !
Liane Thibodeau
President / présidente
- Posted by Teri McCready
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 9317
Tickets are limited and must be purchased in advance in person at The Corn Crib (337 Mountain road) or online on Eventbrite by following the link below:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/100-mile-dinner-tickets-27824167835
- Posted by Corey Robichaud
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 9622
Attention News Editors: Lois Corbett, Executive Director of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, issued the following statement about the Department of Environment and Local Government’s report, Working Together to Build a Water Strategy for New Brunswick - Summary of Comments, released today. She is available for comment.
The Summary of Comments report documents the feedback from public information sessions, stakeholder sessions held across the province, and online and written submissions to the Department of Environment in response to the March 1, 2016, Discussion Paper, Working Together to Build a Water Strategy for New Brunswick.
The Minister also announced that the Department is establishing a technical working group to provide recommendations on water classification.
“The report has fairly captured the importance of protecting New Brunswick's precious water. The advice from the public, and the wealth of first-hand experience included in its pages from those working on the front lines provides a clear call to work together to produce a modern, effective and efficient water protection strategy,” said Corbett.
The Conservation Council knows that a comprehensive water protection strategy for New Brunswick will:
- be science-based, involving baseline data, cumulative impacts, e-flows (the minimum amount of water required to sustain aquatic life in rivers and streams), and be tailored to meet the needs of each of the 13 watersheds in N.B.;
- set goals for water quality objectives;
- protect both surface waters (lakes, streams, rivers) and groundwater as well as our marine coastal areas;
- be enforceable with a modern legal framework, including water classification for the province's rivers;
- be transparent, involving consultations with First Nations, businesses, farmers, municipal officials and citizens; and,
- be accountable, involving monitoring and regular reporting to the public on the progress of goals and objectives outlined in the water protection strategy.
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Read the report, Working Together to Build a Water Strategy for New Brunswick: Summary of Comments, here.
Read the original March 1, 2016, Discussion Paper, Working Together to Build a Water Strategy for New Brunswick, here.
To arrange an interview, contact:
Emily McPhee, Communications
Office: 458-8747
Cell: (639) 571-3388
Email: emily.mcphee@conservationcouncil.ca
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 8961
Do you ever stumble across a blue “protected natural area” sign when you are hiking in the woods? I do. And I always wonder what protected area I’m in. And whether I’m entering it, or leaving it.
So, what on earth is a protected area? Protected areas are preserves for nature and wildlife habitat. People can use them for recreation, like hiking, and, in most protected areas in NB, for fishing and hunting too. Industrial activities like forestry and mining are not allowed.
In New Brunswick, 4.7% of the land is currently protected areas. 4.7% sounds pretty good - until you take into account the fact that Canada has signed the international Convention on Biological Diversity and is committed to protecting 17% by 2020. Hmmm, that’s only 3 years away. And how do we stack up against the other provinces? Well, we are second to last, with only PEI trailing behind us.
To learn some tips from other provinces, three were invited to a workshop last February. Of the three, Alberta is in the lead with an impressive 14.4% of its land protected, Nova Scotia next with 12.16% and Quebec has 9.16%. New Brunswick is similar to Nova Scotia, about the same size and about half of the province is Crown land. Surely with all this Crown land in NB we can do our fair share to preserve nature and wildlife habitat for future generations. If they can do it Nova Scotia, we can too!
At the protected areas workshop, participants from conservation groups, universities, First Nations, government, municipalities and business generated new ideas to get New Brunswick to the international benchmark. Read the report of the workshop to find out more! Tell us what you think!
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- Posted by Raissa Marks
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 8534
Read the full article on NBASGA's website, here.
- Posted by Nature Moncton
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 8595
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2016
MEET AT 10:00 AM
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ZOOS HAS CHANGED CONSIDERABLY OVER THE YEARS. NOW VERY FEW ANIMALS IN ZOOS ARE TAKEN
FROM THE WILD, BUT INSTEAD THEY ARE BRED IN CAPTVITY, AND MANY SPECIES ENDANGERED IN THE WILD AND BRED
THIS WAY ARE RELEASED BACK INTO THEIR NATURAL HABITAT TO BOLSTER NUMBERS.
ON SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, NATURE MONCTON MEMBERS WILL BE GIVEN A SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY TO SEE THE
ANIMALS AT THE ZOO AND SOME BEHIND-THE-SCENES ACTVITES IN ACTVE PROGRESS. THIS TRIP WILL BE LED BY BRUCE
DOUGAN, GENERAL MANAGER OF THE MAGNETC HILL ZOO.
MANY OF US MAY NOT BE AWARE THAT THE MAGNETC HILL ZOO, HERE ON OUR DOORSTEPS, IS ONE OF THE MORE
RECOGNIZED ZOOS IN CANADA FOR ITS PROGRAMS AND DISPLAYS.
MEET AT 10 AM AT THE MAGNETC HILL ZOO PARKING LOT ON SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15. FAMILY AND FRIENDS ARE
WELCOME.
ADULT (18+) $11
SENIOR/YOUTH (12-17) (60+) $10
CHILD (4-11) $8
- Posted by Corey Robichaud
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 8772
PRESS RELEASE
Fredericton, N.B. – A national assessment by the Pembina Institute of provincial progress on climate action commitments finds New Brunswick at the back of the pack on climate action.The Race to the Front: Tracking Pan-Canadian Climate Progress and Where We Go from Here report, released in collaboration with the Conservation Council, sets the context for an all-important meeting of Environment Ministers Monday, October 3 in Montreal.
The meeting of the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) is expected to approve options developed by four federal-provincial working groups to meet commitments made in Paris at the United Nations Climate Conference in December 2015. CCME recommendations will go to Premiers and the Prime Minister to support final negotiations leading to a meeting of First Ministers (FMM) in November. The FMM is expected to finalize a framework where each province would be required to meet certain basic climate action requirements such as putting in place carbon pricing regime meeting similar price and coverage benchmarks across Canada. Provinces failing to do so by a certain date would have a carbon charge imposed by the federal government (the backstop). The federal Government is also expected to accelerate regulations to phase coal out of electricity production. The Pembina Institute report assesses where provinces currently are with respect to climate action and highlights additional actions required by provinces and the federal Government.
The Conservation Council has published a provincial climate action plan detailing recommendations for doing our fair share to cut carbon pollution. Proposed actions could improve energy efficiency and increase the supply of renewable energy in buildings, industry and transportation, and create jobs at home.
“New Brunswick shows weak progress on climate action, but we believe the province can make a positive contribution to Canada’s pollution reduction goals. To reduce emissions in the near term, New Brunswick must implement an economy-wide carbon price with funds raised invested in greenhouse gas reductions, and it needs to agree to phase coal out of electricity production no later than 2030,” says Louise Comeau, Director of Climate Change and Energy Solutions.
The Conservation Council of New Brunswick is committed to doing its part to help New Brunswick move to a 100% renewable energy future by creating awareness and advancing practical solutions through research, education and policy development.As a local environmental organization, CCNB supports the transition to clean energy in New Brunswick and what’s being done to reach renewable goals.
For more information, contact: Dr. Louise Comeau, Director of Climate Change and Energy Solutions, CCNB, Tel. (506)238-0355
Download the Pembina Report here:
- Posted by Jean Louis Deveau
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 8876
New Brunswickers are invited to read the Environmental Impact Assessment document for the snowmobile grooming hub project and to please make their comments/concerns known to both the Department of Tourism and Department of Environment. A pdf of this report may be found on the web at: http://www2.gnb.ca/content/dam/gnb/Departments/env/pdf/EIA-EIE/Registrations-Engegistrements/documents/EIARegistration1444.pdf
Jean Louis Deveau
- Posted by Caroline Lubbe-D'Arcy
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 10596
http://www.acadienouvelle.com/actualites/2016/08/24/glyphosate-occupation-pacifique-contre-larrosage-restigouche-video/?pgnc=1
http://ici.radio-canada.ca/regions/atlantique/2016/08/24/015-acadie-nouveau-brunswick-epandage-herbicide-kedgwick.shtml
MEDIA RELEASE: AUGUST 23, 2016
COMMUNIQUE DE PRESSE URGENT 23 AOUT, 2016
Les joyeux campeurs protegent notre avenir et nos forets
(ENGLISH TEXT FOLLOWS)
Dans le Restigouche ouest, un groupe communautaire avait depuis trois mois l'intention d'occuper une clearcutting qui devait être arrosé cette année avec l'herbicide glyphosate. « Nous devons cesser d'empoisonner nos forêts, protéger la faune et la flore, et sauver l'environnement pour les générations à venir », a déclaré Francine Levesque, membre du groupe EcoVie, situé dans la région de Kedgwick-Saint-Quentin.
Plus tôt cette semaine , un site a été choisi pour établir un campement pour protéger l'environnement . « Le plan original était de garder l'action en silence, » a déclaré Jean MacDonald, un autre membre de EcoVie. « Mais vous savez que nous sommes dans une petite communauté. Il est devenu difficile de garder tout cela en silence, étant donné l'intérêt des gens pour arrêter l'arrosage. Quelqu'un passe près de notre camp et a pris des photos et a été le partage sur Facebook.»
« Maintenant, nous recevons plusieurs offres de support », a déclaré Francine . « Nous ne sommes seulement un petit groupe de personnes . Nous aurions souhaite que le plan d'action soit dévoilé lors de la réunion mensuelle du groupe de la Paix et de l'Amitié (Peace & Friendship Alliance) le samedi 27 Août à Kedgwick River. L'Alliance comprend acadienne , autochtone et anglophone du Nouveau-Brunswick qui sont fortement opposés à l'arrosage. Mais presentement le chat est sorti du sac " .
Les “Joyeux campeurs” sont maintenant situés sur le Chemin de la Shop a Savon, un peu en dehors de la route 17 , près de l'ancienne église de White’s Brook. Un code très sévère de l'éthique et de la non-violence sont mis en application sur le site.
(English next page)
Happy Campers Protecting our Future and our Forest
In Restigouche West, a community group has had plans for three months to occupy clearcuts scheduled to be sprayed with Glyphosate herbicide. “We need to stop this poisoning of the woods, to bring back the wildlife, and protect the environment for future generations,” said Francine Levesque, a member of EcoVie, which is centred in the Kedgwick and Saint Quentin communities.
Earlier this week, a site was chosen to make this stand for the environment. “The original plan was to keep the action under wraps,” said Jean MacDonald, another member of EcoVie. “But you know how it is in a small community. Someone went by and took photos of the camp we are setting up, and put them on FaceBook. We could not keep it quiet because so many people around here oppose the spraying.”
“Now we are getting many offers of support,” says Francine. “We are just a few people. We had hoped to wait to announce to the media until this Saturday, August 27, when the provincial Peace & Friendship Alliance network will be having its monthly meeting in Kedgwick River. The Alliance is made up of Indigenous, Acadian, and Anglophone New Brunswickers who are very opposed to the spraying. But I guess the cat is out of the bag.”
The “Happy Campers” site is located on Chemin de la Shop a Savon, just off Highway 17. Travel in White's Brook Road by the old church about 4.5 km, and then turn right when you come to a “T” in the road. A very tight code of ethics and non-violence is being enforced at the site.
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 10065
How far is it from your home to the nearest clearcut? And is that clearcut on the list to be sprayed this year? You can check out the online map and zero in on this piece of information if you want. But, let me warn you, you really don’t want to know. For me, the spray planes will be about 2 km away. And the runoff from the sprayed area will go downhill into the brook that runs right by me and hey, guess what else, water from the brook irrigates my vegetable garden. Hmmm…..yum. Not to mention any aerial drift that makes it my way.
One of the more amazing things about this whole scenario is that we pay for the spray with our tax dollars. The Auditor-General, in her 2015 report, criticized the government for losing $53.67 million in the last 5 years on its forest operations due to silviculture costs, including spraying. She didn’t have anything good to say about clearcuts and recommended that we do less, not more. She noted that selective and partial cutting methods are recognized as the best management practices and they also protect water, wildlife habitat and preserve biodiversity.
What is the connection between clearcuts and spray? Clearcuts are sprayed with herbicides and then they are planted in softwood trees. In NB, the natural forest includes both hardwood and softwood trees. After a cut, both types of trees will grow back on their own from the seeds and seedlings that are in the area naturally. Herbicides kill hardwoods, but not softwoods. Softwoods make better lumber so the goal of spraying is to kill the hardwoods - dead in their tracks.
And what happens in other places? According to the government’s report, glyphosate use here is different from everywhere else. Worldwide, 90% of glyphosate is used in agriculture. In NB, 61% is used in forestry, 27% industrial (think NB Power and DTI), and 11% is agriculture. The report found that 40% of the forest land cut in NB in 2014 was sprayed with glyphosate. The Canadian average is 11%. And Quebec, which cut almost 3 times more woods than NB, did not spray at all!
More info
Link to the GeoNB online spraying map (When you get into GeoNB, click the okay button on the bottom right. If you click on the hyperlink, you get a forest company perspective video. Once you are on the map, to see the planned spray areas you will need to zoom in and wait a bit.)
Link to government report on glyphosate and responses from environmental organizations
Link to November 2015 Statement from groups calling for a new Crown Lands and Forests Act
Link to Stop Spraying NB
Link to Conservation Council of NB
Stop Spraying New Brunswick calls for human health, wildlife health studies and immediate moratorium
- Posted by Terry Wishart
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 9837
New Brunswick’s acting Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr. Jennifer Russell has concluded that there is no need to stop glyphosate forest spraying at this time in NB. After review of the Glyphosate report released by the Chief Medical Officer of New Brunswick on July 26, 2016, Stop Spraying New Brunswick group calls for an immediate moratorium on forest spraying and the start of human and wildlife health studies.
“What I saw was a report that acknowledged that the use of Glyphosate is contentious,” says Peter Gilbert, co-organizer of Stop Spraying New Brunswick. ”Some say it’s okay and some say it’s not. There are provinces, states, countries and scientific authorities on both sides of this debate. That in itself is enough reason to press pause on the use of this controversial herbicide.“
“The extent of forest spraying in this province and the dramatic drop in the deer population are two compelling reasons to launch a major health study immediately in NB including humans and large forest animals”, says Dr. Caroline Lubbe-D’Arcy, co-organizer of stop Spraying New Brunswick.
New Brunswick is seeing an increase in forest spraying as a result of the 2014 Forest Management Strategy, which allows for more Crown forest clearcuts than before with resulting plantations that are managed by herbicide spraying. 40% of cut forest was sprayed in 2014, a much higher percentage than any other province in Canada.
“Canadian Environmental Protection Law recognizes that the protection of the environment is essential to the well-being of Canadians,” says Francine Levesque from Écovie, Kedgwick River. “It includes a precautionary principle that says that "lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation" and "The application of this principle is a legitimate and distinct decision-making approach within risk management". This principle should be used in NB at this moment with glyphosate since we have the second-highest cancer rate In Canada (Statistics 2015).”
Clearly something is wrong as we are witnessing with large mammals (other than humans) living in our forests. One only has to look at the significant drop and change in distribution of New Brunswick’s deer population. Our deer population is now a quarter of what it was 30 years ago (New Brunswick’s deer population has plummeted from 270,000 to 74,000 over the past 3 decades). Data comparing New Brunswick, Maine and Québec show that the deer harvest numbers in New Brunswick have decreased to 15% of 1985 LEVELS, whereas numbers are up 300% in Québec and have remained stable in Maine. Québec has had a ban on forest spraying since 2001.
It should be noted that it has been reported that deer will not eat sprayed vegetation and that they will migrate to find food in unsprayed areas, but their supply of food is diminishing due to increased clearcuts and herbicide spraying. Moose however, will eat sprayed vegetation so the health of these large mammals should be studied. If there is no risk this needs to be proven and not assumed. A study would help answer several important questions since a large percentage of our population hunts moose and fishes for food. Is their meat and organ tissue tested for the presence of this chemical?
“New Brunswick’s wildlife such as deer and moose are our canaries in the coal mine with respect to forest spraying," says Dr. Caroline Lubbe-D'Arcy. “Stop Spraying New Brunswick (SSNB) is asking for an immediate health study to be launched on humans and large mammals in New Brunswick as well as an immediate moratorium or outright ban on forest spraying. Our acting CMO should be applying the precautionary principle and not use the New Brunswick rural population as guinea pigs."
- Posted by Corey Robichaud
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 8977
The report confirms what we have long feared — that the forest industry uses more glyphosate in NB operations than any other province in Canada.
The report found that 40% of the forest land cut in NB in 2014 was sprayed with glyphosate compared to 28% in Ontario, 21% in Alberta, 18% in Manitoba and only 11% in Nova Scotia.
While 205,859 hectares were cut in Québec in the same year, no forest lands there were sprayed with glyphosate.
The analysis puts the key public policy question squarely back into the government’s hands. Namely, why, of all places in Canada, is NB spending so much taxpayer money on our companies’ spray programs when other jurisdictions, like Vermont and Québec, get on fine without it.
The report did discuss the human health risk associated with glyphosate. While it recognizes that there are many outstanding questions that need to be examined by Health Canada and its Pesticide Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) in its long overdue re-evaluation of the chemical, the report says human health risks can be reduced if its label restrictions are properly followed.
The OCMOH points out that public health agencies in Canada and elsewhere have adopted a “wait and see” approach. The PMRA is currently reassessing glyphosate. The review of glyphosate, not expected until 2017, was delayed due to what the OCMOH called “rapidly-evolving new information.”
Beyond the scope of the OCMOH’s report are other concerns related to glyphosate use in forestry that weigh heavily on the minds of New Brunswickers. These concerns need to be addressed by our provincial government and include the environmental impacts of the use of glyphosate on deer, moose and aquatic species, and on water quality.
The report points out the uncertainty surrounding glyphosate use world-wide. Some European countries, like France, Sweden, Italy and the Netherlands, are arguing for a complete ban of its use in both agriculture and forestry. We believe that this supports our recommendation that a prudent action would be to stop using it in forestry operations, especially since more responsible alternatives are available and their use, in fact, would create more jobs.
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Additional Information
- NB farmers use less glyphosate than those in other provinces, primarily due to the fact that NB grows fewer bushels of genetically modified corn and soybeans.
- Québec banned herbicide use in its forests in 2001 due to public concern over human health impacts of spraying. Vermont, which has a similar forest type to New Brunswick, also stopped using herbicides in their forests, almost two decades ago, in 1997.
- NB’s Auditor General recommended in her 2015 report that public forests should be managed for economic, environmental and social values, and highlighted that the province has lost money from the management of public forests for at least the last five years.
- To see where NB forest will be sprayed this summer, click here.
- Posted by Terry Wishart
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 10149
Opponents push alternative to Mt. Carleton gas bar and snowmobile trail on mountain
Fredericton - A perfectly good alternative to developments being proposed for within Mt. Carleton Park exists outside the wilderness park, say people dead-set against an enlarged snowmobile circuit and gas bar being promoted by the Province.
Jean Louis Deveau is spokesman for a group of citizens concerned about the expanding presence of snow machines in the Park and their impact on wildlife. The group is advancing alternative locations to keep the park free of new infrastructure and what they view as incompatible use by motorized vehicles in New Brunswick’s only designated wilderness park.
Governor's Lodge at Popple Depot, located east of the park, is one such alternative and is at the centre of a proposed snowmobile ‘hub.’ “From my understanding, Governor’s Lodge has the space for sled gatherings and it also sells gas,” Deveau, a former manager at Mt. Carleton said Tuesday.
“Why build new infrastructure to enable sleds to gas up in a wilderness park when there are already private establishments in the area offering the services they want?” Deveau asks. Taxpayers would pay for the gas dispensary being proposed for the park, whereas the gas dispensary at Popple Depot was paid for by the private sector.
“By putting a new gas bar in the park, the Province may well disadvantage or even handicap Governor’s Lodge and other privately owned gas distributors in the area. Won’t that defeat the Province’s goals of trying to create new jobs with this project?” Deveau said.
Park advocates including Deveau have launched a legal challenge to force the government to abandon the scheme to infringe on the Park, and to follow its own legislation. A crowdfunding campaign on gofundme.com was launched in June to help cover legal fees. The court is scheduled to hear the case on September 2nd in Woodstock.
The Parks Act (2014) stipulates a management plan based on a zoning system must be completed prior to any development in Provincial Parks. Mt. Carleton has been zoned but doesn’t have a management plan.
- Posted by Corey Robichaud
- Category: News - Nouvelles
- Hits: 10312
A Bold, Made-in-New Brunswick Plan to Address Climate Change
Conservation Council of New Brunswick releases policy options to spur climate change conversation
July 13, 2016
Fredericton, N.B. –A new report from the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, released today, offers provincial politicians, environmental policy makers, and citizens a bold vision for New Brunswick. The three-part plan covers electricity, provincial investments, and government policies required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while keeping bills low and creating jobs for New Brunswickers.
New Brunswick’s greenhouse gas emissions mostly come from using fossil fuel energy: coal, oil and natural gas to make electricity to heat and cool our homes, and power our appliances and industry, as well as gasoline and diesel to run our vehicles and trucks to move people and goods.
The Conservation Council’s“Climate Action Plan for NewBrunswick”proposes to reduce these emissions through investments to retrofit our buildings, starting with social and low-income housing; expanding efforts to install renewable energy like solar and wind; and accelerating installation of the Energy Internet (Smart Grid telecommunications) to manage a more distributed electricity load. These investments would help NB Power phase coal out of electricity production over the next 15 years. The Conservation Council’s plan also proposes creating incentives to help New Brunswickers buy electric and energy efficient vehicles and trucks as Ontario and Quebec have done, and modernizing industry and manufacturing to cut waste and pollution.
Blue-Green Canada, an alliance of labour and environmental groups calculates that for every $1 million invested in the fossil fuel sector two jobs are created, while 15 jobs are created for the same amount in the clean energy sector. Using those figures, New Brunswick could create up to 7,500 jobs a year by investing its climate action dollars in clean energy and energy efficiency retrofits which, in turn, would keep energy bills low for New Brunswickers.
QUOTES:
“There is strong scientific consensus that the climate is becoming unbalanced mostly because of human activity (95% - 100% certainty).” – Dr. Louise Comeau, Director of Climate Change and Energy Policy.
“Post-tropical storm Arthur opened New Brunswickers’ eyes to the reality of climate change. We now know and accept that climate change is a reality. The Conservation Council wants to start a serious conversation about adapting to, and mitigating, the damage to our communities as a result of a rapidly changing climate.” – Dr. Louise Comeau, Director of Climate Change and Energy Policy.
“We need a comprehensive climate action plan that helps New Brunswick do its fair share so others will too. We need to work together because we can’t protect the people and communities we care about from extreme changes to the climate without partnering to drastically cut greenhouse gas pollution.” - Dr. Louise Comeau, Director of Climate Change and Energy Policy.
“New Brunswick needs to implement policies and programs that are fair and cut waste by making polluters use clean energy and practice more sustainable agriculture and forestry.” – Dr. Louise Comeau, Director of Climate Change and Energy Policy.
“If we act together, we can limit the risks to our health and communities from a more extreme climate.” – Dr. Louise Comeau, Director of Climate Change and Energy Policy.
Key Facts:
• New Brunswick is the second most electricity-dependent economy in Canada behind Québec. As a regional energy hub, New Brunswick is well positioned to become a clean energy leader by investing heavily in NB Power’s Smart Grid technology to give the electricity system the capacity it needs to significantly increase the supply of renewable energy, phase out coal-fired generating stations, and provide load balancing services to Nova Scotia, PEI, and New England.
• Global investments in clean energy are increasing, spurring increased employment in the sector while the costs of clean energy have decreased significantly. Canada hasn’t kept pace, investing only $4 billion CND in 2015 while global investments in clean energy reached $325 billion USD, according to Clean Energy Canada’s Tracking the Energy Revolution 2016 report.
• In 2015, the Atlantic Premiers and New England Governors agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions 35% to 45% below 1990 levels by 2030. New Brunswick’s contribution to meeting that goal is to eliminate 6.5 million tonnes from our carbon budget. Almost 40% of those reductions can be achieved by phasing out coal to generate electricity, as Ontario has already done and Alberta will do by 2030.
The Conservation Council of New Brunswick (conservationcouncil.ca) has been at the forefront of environmental protection in New Brunswick since 1969.We are a non-profit organization that creates awareness of environmental problems and advances practical solutions through research, education and interventions.
Contact: Mike Girard
Office: 506-458-8747
E-mail: mike.girard@conservationcouncil.ca
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So, what’s the hold up? Why aren’t environmentalists falling all over themselves on this? Why hasn’t someone launched a big public campaign? It’s almost like it is too big! It seems like even long-time environmental activists feel like they don’t know enough. After all, climate change is not most people’s expertise. That being said, everyone knows its potential impacts on the area that they do work on – water, forests, air, endangered species, health.
Climate change is the backdrop issue lurking in every environmentalist’s mind. Whatever issue is your passion climate change plays a role. If you work to improve the environment by direct action such as restoring a river or protecting precious habitat, that good work could fall from the climate wrecking ball. If advocating for protecting human health from chemical exposure or changing forestry practices is your thing, climate change scenarios make the doom and gloom situations much gloomier. Plus, if you start to think about your grandchildren, it is hard to maintain any sense of optimism whatsoever.
Right now we are all invited to raise our voices. Let’s raise them together and show that dealing with climate change is as important as it gets!
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