A side note as I work on Part 2 of "The Atlantic Whitefish Whitewash"

Apr 22, 2022

I’m swamped (but not quite quaking), trying to juggle finishing this series and travelling for a family wedding, but since there is a deadline looming, I don’t want to wait for Part 2 of the series to mention this. According to the DNRR, the public comment period for the proposed logging in the Petite Riviere watershed will remain open until April 23, 2022. That’s tomorrow. The department says the next step will be that “resource management professionals (foresters, biologists, surveyors, technicians) must complete an Integrated Resource Management (IRM) review of the proposed harvest plan to determine if the plan and meets all requirements for operating on Crown lands. The IRM team considers adjacency to protected areas, wildlife habitat, municipal water supply areas and other values before a harvest approval is granted.”

So you still have time to comment on this if you’re moved to do so. Just go to the Harvest Plans Map Viewer :

From Harvest Plans Map Viewer.

Zoom in on the area adjacent to Minamkeak Lake (near Bridgewater), click on the yellow envelope icon on the left side of the screen and then on the “polygon” you want to comment on. A “user comments” box should appear that you can fill in with your comments.

I’m still waiting on responses to outstanding questions and will report these in Part 2, once I receive them. This series is a work in progress… I don’t know the outcome yet, but I’m determined to find out why water quality science as it relates to logging was cleansed from the second version of the Recovery Strategy for Atlantic Whitefish.

In the meantime, take some time today — it is Earth Day after all — to sit outside and absorb the sounds and beauty of this incredibly wondrous planet. I’ll leave you with these fine words by Rainer Maria Rilke: