The Bigger Picture
Our non-profit society is founded upon concern for the immediate bioregion, but our organizing principles were drafted in response to a number of deeply interwoven issues that are at work on a much broader scale.
Nova Scotia’s forests have been transformed by 300 years of logging and 40 years of intensive pulp industry activity. What was once a rich and diverse forest system has become fragmented, young and softwood dominated. Less than 1% of our trees in this province are 100 years old or greater.
The land we seek to acquire does not fall under the protection standards of governments or mainstream conservation groups. There are, as far as we know, no rare or threatened species; the percentage of old growth is not large enough; the land does not border a major waterway. But biodiversity cannot be maintained by these standards. The forest and waterways are essential to this region’s eco-system and no less deserving of protection.
We must create a different way of relating to the forest, one that values the forest system as much greater than the sum of its parts; one that restricts human impact to what a healthy forest can sustain.
Friends of Redtail Society has chosen the only recourse available to save this forest. Through our efforts to acquire this land, we are presenting an alternative way forward, one that relies on the will and power of the community to make change. We hope our efforts will inspire and inform other rural communities that are facing similar issues.
The tenets of Friends of Redtail Society are:
- To organize and participate in environmental projects designed to preserve and protect forest land;
- To educate and increase the public’s understanding of the environment and its importance by offering courses, seminars, conferences and meetings and by collecting and disseminating information on that topic; and
- To conduct research relating to the environment and to disseminate the results of such research.
Tenets standard to all Societies
- To acquire by way of grant, gift, purchase, bequest, devise or otherwise, real and personal property and to use and apply such property to the realization of the objects of the Society;
- To buy, own, hold, lease, mortgage, sell and convey such real and personal property as may be necessary or desirable in the carrying out of the objects of the Society.
Become a member of the Friends of Redtail Society