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Jon Stone's avatar

This is a very accurate summary of the obstacles to bear rehab in N.S. we are the only province in Canada without a protocol. For bear rescue and rehab. I have been both a hands-on wildlife rehabilitator and part of the federal regulatory framework for rehab. To put it bluntly, Nova Scotia has always been anti-rehab based on totally false reasoning. In Canada, well regulated wildlife rehab is seen as an important part of public education into natural resources management. Except in Nova Scotia. I once had a DNRR director describe wildlife rehab as just trying to make pets out of wild animals. The blatant ignorance of that remark has been the guiding principle here in Nova Scotia since day one. There are three classifications of wildlife here in N.S.: huntable; trapable; and nuisance.

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John Wesley Chisholm's avatar

I think you are right. Of course. I'll repeat this here.

I grew up next to a Lands and Forest depot in Waverley and I couldn't think of anything more awesome. A mandate to increase the fish and game in our woods and waters meant a very sympathetic understanding of the forest. And a mission that was simpatico with all our current values about ecology.

Wilf Creighton, the father of Nova Scotia's Lands and Forest movement often visited my Mason's Lodge until he was about 100. He had such a great perspective on things but also a broken heart that after 50 years of work he, and everyone like him, was pushed out as the new notion of commoditizing and selling our forest came into vogue.

In that new ideology the forest became a product to be harvested, and the wildlife just a nuisance in the way of production.

If you have an opportunity his book on his life and the Lands and Forests is a fascinating story of global forest stewardship, philosophy, and practice.

https://foresthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Dr.-G.W.I.-Creighton.pdf

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Jon Stone's avatar

Wild is of course a legend. Bits of his legacy remain but as you so eloquently described the commodification of our forests and everything that lives in them has detracted from true sustainability and conservation.

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Melanie's avatar

Bears should be rehabbed and released in spite of government retardation and laziness. Enough people would protest if government stooges were sent to remove the animals.

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