On December 20, 2019, Premier Stephen McNeil confirmed that the commitment made to Pictou Landing First Nation will be upheld. Northern Pulp will need to stop pumping effluent into Boat Harbour as of January 31, 2020, to allow work to begin on the clean-up of half a century of toxic mess.
Changes were announced to the proposed Biodiversity Act (Bill 4) on March 23, 2021. The changes remove sections that received the most backlash recently, fuelled by a province-wide misinformation and fear-mongering campaign against the Act, spearheaded by Forests Nova Scotia, the forestry industry lobby group.
The Ecology Action Centre's Wilderness Team works to save the terrestrial biodiversity of Nova Scotia by protecting core natural areas and connected landscapes.
Herbicides are used in Nova Scotia’s forests to encourage softwood trees to grow in clearcuts by killing or retarding the growth of hardwood trees and shrubs, some softwood tree species and other plants. On average in recent years, nearly 4,500 hectares per year of Nova Scotia’s clearcut forest have been aerially sprayed with the herbicide VisionMax, the active ingredient of which is glyphosate.