The Save Caribou Committee, an environmental group in Nova Scotia, is very worried at the increase in biomass harvesting for power generation at pulp mills and power plants.

Kathy Didkowsky, of the Save Caribou Committee, was stunned when hiking trail to Rocky Lake was obliterated because the forest had been clearcut. "It’s hard to even find a stump. So, everything is basically torn, ripped, shredded. I call it purposeful massacre," she said.

Ross Watson, another member, said, "There's been clearcutting in this area for a lot of years, but this is totally different. Before we were used to seeing brush, tree trunks, some debris left. As you can see here, there is virtually no brush."

Northern Pulp Nova Scotia Corp. owns the land in the Musquodoboit-Sheet Harbour area. Northern Pulp is harvesting the biomass for use as fuel for its pulp and paper mill in Abercrombie, N.S. The branches and bark of the clearcut trees have been ground up and heaped into mounds that are three to four metres high. The material will be burned at the pulp mill to reduce their energy costs.

Northern Pulp plans to cut more than 485 hectares in a lake-filled wilderness area east of Caribou Mines.

At the same time, Nova Scotia Power is looking at a new plant that would require cutting 50 per cent more wood in the province to produce more green electricity.

The Save Caribou Committee is urging the provincial government to take a stronger stand on clearcutting because the pulp mills are taking and grinding up more wood than ever to reduce their operating costs.

Ross Watson said, "I think that there has to be some guidelines in the province in regards to how much can be taken in these clearcuts. I think there has to be a certain percentage of the fibre left on the forest floor."

Source:
Enviromentalists decry clearcutting to produce biomass fuel (CBC)