News release

Changes to Forest Sustainability Regulations

Natural Resources (to July 2018)

Private owners will have more choices in the way they manage their woodlots as a result of recent changes to regulations under the Forests Act.

The regulatory changes are largely technical in nature but will provide landowners with more flexibility in selecting silviculture options. Silviculture is the art of producing and tending a forest.

The changes will allow more options for uneven-aged forest management and selection treatments and will provide more focus on appropriate tree species when landowners select crop trees to manage. The changes will also help increase productivity potential in plantation management.

Other changes to the regulations will:

  • result in equitable annual silviculture activity on both small private and industrial lands with a change to the deficiency allowance provision;
  • allow competition control treatments in hardwood sites;
  • allow fill planting in uneven-aged stands;
  • reduce fill planting requirements to 300 planted trees per hectare; and
  • eliminate minimum stems to be cut requirement in spacing plantations.

Nova Scotians were invited in November 2006 to provide comments on draft changes to the regulations that had been prepared by the department's forestry division.

The regulatory changes are available on the website at www.gov.ns.ca/just/regulations/rg2/2007/jn0807.pdf .