To the Editor,
I have had concerns about the recent move to designate the area of the Chignecto Game Sanctuary a wilderness area. My family came to Nova Scotia from Yorkshire in 1774.
The Harrison family had settled in the Yorkshire area of England aroun 800 AD, when that area was wilderness and had seen that by the 1600s, the forest there had been destroyed.
When they settled in Nova Scotia, the Harrisons were concerned about maintaining the forest areas. By 1930, Fred Harrison, who was working as the deputy minister of forestry for the province, struggled to get a forest plan set up where the province started to plant different species of forest trees. Beaver and fishers were also considered to be part of that forest management plan.
Any forest area where trees have been planted or any forest area where anything has been done to enhance or establish the forest and/or establish wood roads or running of property lines is classified as a "Controlled Environment."
Any government that tries to change these to a "wilderness area" will be changing the meaning of a "controlled Eenvironment."
A "wilderness area" is one in which there is little to no human activity, where there are no roads, and where there are old growth forests.
It does not include the managed forests which are a part of Cumberland County. It is not logical and I feel could result in court cases and untold expenses for land owners to change the forests of Cumberland County from controlled forest management areas to wilderness areas without taking into account the history of the county forests, the owners who have managed them and paid taxes on their land and the real definition of what a wilderness area is.
Norman Harrison, MacDonald Road
