News Release Archive
NATURAL RESOURCES--ADDITION TO CANDIDATE PROTECTED AREA ----------------------------------------------------------------- A large tract of timbered wilderness known as the "Tobeatic finger" is being added to the Tobeatic candidate protected area in western Nova Scotia. The 7,000 hectare "finger" is located on the northeastern border of the 99,000 hectare site, the largest wilderness area in the Maritime Provinces. Addition of the finger is part of a boundary revision that will result in a net increase of 5,500 hectares in the size of the Tobeatic candidate area. It will expand the candidate site to nearly 105,000 hectares. "Cabinet decided to revise the Tobeatic boundaries in response to public calls to add the finger to the candidate protected site and, at the same time, satisfy existing commitments to supply sawlogs to area sawmills," said Natural Resources Minister Eleanor Norrie. "Some 1,400 hectares on the western margin of the Tobeatic will be excluded from protected status in order to satisfy outstanding timber commitments." The Department of Natural Resources has contractual obligations to make Crown land timber available to the Lewis Sawmill Limited in Weymouth and to the E.M. Comeau and Sons Ltd. sawmill in Meteghan. Under the revised boundaries, all but 350 hectares of the 7,300 hectare area known locally as "the finger" will gain protected status under the proposed Parks and Protected Areas Systems plan. Mrs. Norrie credited a local citizens group, the Tobeatic Wilderness Committee, with being instrumental and effective in having the finger added to the candidate protected site. "Two of the main reasons the committee lobbied so strongly for inclusion of the finger are because it includes the headwaters for the Kejimkujik National Park watershed and it also provides a two kilometre buffer adjacent to the park," said Mrs. Norrie. A public review panel recommended in its 1995 report that the Department of Natural Resources, "should consider including the area known as the finger in the Tobeatic Protected Area." "An implementation strategy for the Parks and Protected Areas Systems Plan will soon be introduced, so it is appropriate that any changes in the boundaries or status of candidate protected sites be made now, before the strategy is put into place." said Mrs. Norrie. "The implementation strategy reaffirms our government's commitment to both the concept and the reality of protected areas." The implementation strategy will be made public within the next few weeks. -30- Contact: Blain Henshaw 902-424-5252 trp Feb. 12, 1997 - 4:58 p.m.