Conservation Groups Urge Province to Accelerate Protection of Nova Scotia Lands

Organizers argued that while the province has made ambitious commitments, action on the ground has stalled.

“We're also very concerned about recent public comments that the Premier and his government have made to the effect that they are open to private development proposals for any of our provincial parks and protected areas,” Plourde said. “The idea of unprotecting already protected land for private development undermines years of work and is simply unacceptable.”

Protecting More Than Just A Landscape

Throughout the event, speakers emphasized that protected areas are about more than preserving scenery. They argued that intact forests are critical for biodiversity, clean water, climate resilience and public health.

Representing the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, Dr. Lorette Geldenhuys told attendees that access to nature should be viewed as a public health issue. 

“One of the mandates of CAPE is to promote the fourth pillar of health, spending time in nature,” Geldenhuys said. 

She noted that research has linked time spent in nature to improved physical and mental health outcomes and argued that “equitable access to green space for all Nova Scotians is essential to their health.”

Others focused on the role forests and protected areas play in supporting healthy watersheds and wildlife populations.

Speaking on behalf of the Nova Scotia Salmon Association, Amy Weston said protecting land is inseparable from protecting rivers.

“Forests, wetlands, headwaters, and intact riparian areas are not separate from our rivers,” Weston said. “They are what keep water cold, clean, connected, and resilient.”

She pointed to the extreme weather conditions experienced across the province in recent years as evidence of why protecting intact ecosystems matters.

“The summer of 2025 tested our rivers,” Weston said. “Extended heat, low flows, and growing environmental pressures reminded us how vulnerable freshwater systems can be. That is why protected land matters.”

Conservation groups also argued that the province risks losing critical wildlife habitat if proposed protected areas continue to languish without formal review.

Speaking on behalf of Save Our Old Forest, Nina Newington described years of volunteer research undertaken to document the ecological value of the proposed Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area.

“Our group of volunteers has gathered so much evidence for the conservation value of Goldsmith that it's getting ridiculous,” she said.

She pointed to 178 species-at-risk occurrences, old-growth forest stands and endangered Atlantic salmon habitat that have been identified within the proposed wilderness area. Despite that work, she said the province has not committed to formally evaluating the site for protection.

Gomez noted that forests generate economic value in many ways beyond timber harvesting, including supporting tourism and recreation, protecting drinking water supplies, storing carbon, reducing climate-related costs and providing habitat that sustains biodiversity.

“The conversation shouldn't be forests or jobs,” Gomez said. “Healthy forests are part of a healthy economy. When we protect the right places, we're investing in benefits that last for generations instead of benefits that disappear after a single harvest cycle.”

Her comments echoed a broader theme heard throughout the event: that protecting ecologically important landscapes does not mean ending all resource development, but rather ensuring that conservation commitments are met alongside responsible economic activity.

“We can have protected areas that benefit all, and we can have some resource extraction,” said Crossland. “We can have both, but we need to move on protected areas now, today, for the greater good.”

The interactive map of community-proposed protected areas is now publicly available and can be explored at www.nspubliclands.ca.