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Proper handling and storage of firearms
 It can happen in seconds.
A child accidentally shoots his
playmate when he finds a loaded rifle in his home. The presence of an
unlocked and loaded gun at the scene of many home shootings is often a
grim and deadly reminder of the need for better gun handling and
storage in Canada
Read more...
(Slow) progress on the aboriginal moose harvest issue
A couple of years ago Eastern Woods & Waters magazine attracted the attention of all other regional media and a whole lot of people when we ran a series exposing gross abuse of aboriginal hunting rights in the Cape Breton Highlands of Nova Scotia. (read the article here) Rumours and anecdotal complaints had been rife for several years, but we were never able to collect enough evidence to justify publishing an article before then. For an absurd $500, under this "rent an Indian" scheme, a non-aboriginal would accompany an Indian into the Highlands, illegally shoot a moose, safe in the knowledge that unless caught in the act, the aforesaid Indian would simply claim he did the shooting. We were careful to point out that a very small minority of Mi'kmaq was actually involved in this activity: that non-Mi'kmaq were equally culpable; and that most Mi'kmaq were appalled at the activity. Mi'kmaq elders and community leaders, their attendant federal and provincial bureaucrats, and true sportsman everywhere were all a-quiver at the same time. The story finally received the attention it warranted on television a, radio and newspapers. We caught on that something was severely amiss when one white person was charged with (mistakenly) fatally shooting another white person while "moose hunting" in Cape Breton in August. The mainstream media missed it-failing to ask themselves what the hell two white guys were doing "moose hunting" in Cape Breton in August in the first place. We followed up, researched it, and published the stories in a subsequent issue of the magazine. A whole lot of poop hit a whole lot of fans. The outcome was a series of high-level meetings among Mi'kmaq and bureaucrats with a view to resolving the situation. It took an incredible two years to come up with a set of guidelines that are only voluntary in the meantime. Given the time frame, that is a disappointing and less than strident measure-but it is progress, and it does appear to place Nova Scotia Mi'kmaq ahead of those in the region in terms of a formal commitment to responsible wildlife harvesting practices. The details of the guidelines can be downloaded here:
Moose GuidlinesWeb 101
Moose Guidlines FAQs
Moose Guidlines 1 Pager
The shameful slaughter of our most magnificent wildlife resource
 The Highlands of Cape Breton has abundant moose for the taking-for
now-and a maze of getaway roads. One NS DNR enforcement officer talked
to EW&W about his work in the Highlands.
"They [the moose] are getting hammered in the one area basically
[Hunter's Mountain], Park Spur Road area and Cheticamp Lake, northern…
they're getting a whack at the odd one all over but that's where they
concentrate. Farther north, mostly.
Read more...
Native Solutions: Nova Scotian Aboriginals take the first steps toward responsible moose management
 In February of 2001, a tripartite process-the "Made in Nova Scotia"
process-was initiated between government and native communities,
preparatory to dealing with a broad range of aboriginal issues; among
these is the task of sorting out the long-term ramifications of the
Marshall decision.
Read more...
Trolling BIG water
 Find the food, and the right living conditions, or water temperature, and you'll find fish and success.
When I first started fishing the big lakes many years ago, my greatest
mentor in learning the basics of the art was the legendary guide Art
Libby.
Read more...
The Shore Lunch
 An enjoyable element that is integral to the fishing ritual and a
celebration of our heritage as
hunters. Every spring it was the same: the unaccustomed warmth of an afternoon
sun on the face, song sparrows in the meadow and a heavy running brook
newly released from winter's grip. It was just plain great to be alive
and spirits soared with the reawakening.
Read more...
Of fishin’ flies and tellin’ lies as spring seizes the agenda
This spring has been a mighty cold one, so cold that our annual early
trout fishing season foray into Sonny's camp had to be postponed.
T'was damn near opening day before the ice left the deadwater in front of the camp.
A sure sign of the bunch getting long on the tooth, me dears. A few
years back we'd buck ice floes, snow squalls, and suffer the terrible
wrath of wives who had other plans, to cast fishing lines on opening
day.
Read more...
Letter to the Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources
The Honourable John MacDonell
Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Aug. 6/09
Dear sir:
Several days ago my wife and I were notified by a neighbour of a public notice, erected off a back road and barely visible, discovered only by accident. The sign theoretically (we assume to meet the letter of the law only) notifies the public of Northern Pulp's intent to spray a toxic chemical defoliant a kilometre or so from our homes in a few days.
In 2009, with all of the knowledge now possessed of the complex links and accumulative impacts of chemicals on the human body, the required public notification process seems woefully inadequate. If a corporate entity proposes to ostensibly place the health of my family and neighbours at risk, I would like to suggest that a much more meaningful process of public notification and discourse is morally warranted.
For the record-a neighbour moved the sign from its less than prominent position, barely visible from the road (see enclosed photographs-it is the bottom sign, almost totally obscured by underbrush) to a more visible location on the road. It was promptly moved back out of public view-presumably by a company representative. The sign contains a telephone number to be called for further information. When the number is dialed, the caller is placed on a dysfunctional carousel of recorded messages which culminate in an endless recording repeatedly asking the caller to punch the specified extension number. One is surely tempted to question whether there is intent here to appear to respect the law (such as it is) but to avoid actual public notification.
When finally contacted (not easily, and by means other than that provided on the public notification) a company spokesman repeated ad nauseam that Northern Pulp has a legal right to spray as intended and that the chemical trade name "Vision" is approved in Nova Scotia for such use.
I remind you that DDT was officially "approved" until discovered to be an environmental time bomb. I remind you that Fenitrothion was "approved" for forest spraying until children started dying in New Brunswick from Reyes Syndrome.
Pesticides and herbicides have been linked to many different types of cancer in humans from breast cancer (DDT) to non-Hodgkins lymphomas and soft-tissue sarcomas. ??Linkages have also been identified between home and garden pesticide use and leukemia and brain cancer in children. A National Cancer Institute study in the U.S. indicates that children are as much as six times more likely to get childhood leukemia when pesticides are used in the home and garden. ??A recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health (February, 1995) found elevated levels of cancer in children where pesticides were used in their homes and yards. Now that we have entered the (enlightened) 21st century, municipalities across Canada are busy banning lawn chemicals.
The active ingredients in Vision are glyphosate and polyethoxylated tallowamine. A credible 2007 scientific study seriously questions the safety of this herbicide in light of new scientific evidence and calls for an urgent regulatory review. This is 2009. Has your department conducted one?
Yet, with the highest cancer and asthma rates in the nation, Nova Scotia clings to a seriously outdated and woefully ineffectual policy of public notification of the spraying of potentially hazardous chemicals in close proximity to human habitation (in addition to wildlife consequences). There have simply been far too many situations in Nova Scotia where individuals were exposed to herbicide spray, and weren't even aware that it was planned for that particular day.
In the internet age, Nova Scotia's absurd circa 1950s, obscure signage, public notification process is an appalling dereliction of one of the most fundamental responsibilities of government-public safety.
Will your new government address it?
Jim Gourlay,
(Representing 14 full time (including children) and 16 part time (including children) residents of Hemlock Loop, Stewiacke East)
One Tough Assignment
 Through years of experience I've learned there are some basic rules
which govern your success or failure when fly fishing for brook trout.
And no, I don't mean the garden variety of six to 10-inch specimens found in most Maritime ponds and streams
Read more...
The Delightful Dungarvon
 I HAVE FISHED the Dungarvon River many times in the months of July and
August and have taken salmon and grilse in different conditions with
various kinds of fly-hook combinations and strategies. I have also
fished here in May with expectations of those early-run large salmon
that challenge the turbulence of the little river. I've taken trout at
this time, in the half pound class, and many smaller.
Read more...
The White Marabou Muddler
 White: symbol of purity. Well, sometimes. For as we all know,
appearance and reality are frequently divorced, and, well, meringue
often covers lemon. And so it has been in my relationship with
alabaster patterns. At times, as trout after trout was seduced, so was
I-but then, for no apparent reason, the next time I staked my fortunes
on white, it betrayed me utterly.
Read more...
A Portrait of the Conservationist as a Young Man
 Once a month, retired wildlife biologist Don Dodds heads to Rosie's
Restaurant in downtown Kentville, NS, for a get-together with friends
and former colleagues. Over a glass or two of cold beer, the men update
each other on local news, tell a few jokes, discuss conservation and,
for the sake of the other patrons, try not to get too rambunctious.
Read more...
Deep Water SMALLMOUTH
 The action had been almost non-stop since we first wet a line at pink
light. Fat bronzebacks seemed to be hitting everything, from black
top-water plugs to orange and green spinner baits to jointed J-11 and
J-13 gold and black Rapalas. In fact, every cove, freshwater inlet and
shoreline rock pile seemed to hold a hungry fish or two, and we had our
hands full trying to land them all.
Read more...
The duet: teasing your way to the strike
 Now to fly fishers who do not chase after Atlantic Salmon, the Newfoundland phrase - riffle hitch - won't mean a hill of beans. Nor will the British terms, dibbling or dapping or bob fly, ring very many bells in this neck of the universe.
Read more...
Just another bunch of useless and expensive red tape?
There's been a fair bit of press recently in Nova Scotia about people wishing to build wilderness camps-with no septic system-being obliged to go through an expensive bureaucratic process of site inspection anyway, as though they did plan to install a septic system.
Just another bunch of useless and expensive red tape? Not really. Things are actually 'way worse than that. Departments of the Environment have been charged with protecting our fresh water resources. That's a good thing-in theory. Because old, leaky septic systems were "polluting" (more on that in a minute) it is now often necessary to place a new septic field far back from any lake or riverbank, even if sewage has to be pumped uphill to the field. Now, we have to bear in mind that in many areas of Nova Scotia in particular, a little sewage leakage into fresh water would be a good thing. Acid rain has destroyed half the province's fish habitat and sewage provides nutrients that help overcome that. But, more importantly, we really have an absurd situation whereby it's illegal to risk leaking minute amounts of (potentially beneficial) domestic sewage into a water course-but it's perfectly okay to clearcut a whole damn watershed-or leak farm manure and chemicals-or leak chemicals from golf courses with the following consequences: - Heavy machinery activity tearing up the woods leads to siltation and erosion and damaged spawning gravel;
- Herbicide and insecticide spray washes into fish habitat with sometimes devastating results;
- Loss of forest cover increases the average summer temperatures in vital feeder brooks by 10 degrees F. This fact can (and often does) cause river temperatures to rise to levels lethal to fish;
- Removal of the forest also involves removal of water retention in the watershed. Rivers whose catchment areas has been clearcut are subject to unnaturally floods and droughts because runoff has been accelerated. The result is heavy erosion damage during spring ice-out that sees rivers rendered wide and shallow-almost useless as fish habitat; And extreme low and warm summer conditions that cause fish mortality through oxygen deprivation and vulnerability to predators in the clear shallow pools.
- Pesticides are applied to golf courses at higher concentrations per acre than almost any other type of land, including farmland. Runoff from improperly-designed golf courses contaminates our rivers and lakes.
- Never before in history have farms applied more chemicals on the land. Agricultural runoff (nitrates and phosphates) has devastated fish habitat in Prince Edward Island, and continues to cause damage with every rain all over the Maritimes.
We saw recent publicity that forest clearcutting, especially in Nova Scotia, is far more extensive than most people thought (and we already thought it was bad).
So: it's illegal to risk leaching a tiny amount of sewage into rivers (that might actually improve water conditions as fish habitat) but it's okay to cut the whole damn watershed and wreck the river; and it's okay to leak farm effluent for years; and heavy metal pollution from mining activity is considered a necessary evil.
That ain't progress.
Atlantic Salmon: not looking great - yet
We have been looking at very low returns so far (to end of last week July 11) in most locations. There are hopes now the full moon July 7 will get things started.
The south coast of Newfoundland was enjoying good returns after a slow start to the season, and fish have been returning in good numbers to the Exploits and Gander on the north coast (although water has been high), but the northern Peninsula and west coast rivers have been very poor to date.
Labrador rivers have also been very slow to start, although some fish were starting last week. In New Brunswick the Miramichi has been very slow, with higher than desirable water conditions. Northern New Brunswick and the Gaspé have seen near perfect water conditions and very few fish indeed.
Nova Scotia has been little better. Margaree has had low water and very few fish while the eastern shore and south shore rivers have been slow as well, in spite of good water. Things were starting to pick on St. Mary's in recent days after a huge flood last weekend.
We are hearing reports of very late ice and cold sea water off Labrador again this year (that happened two years ago making fish almost two weeks late in most locations). The next week or so should tell the tale. There are a lot of crossed fingers out there.
There was jubilation last year among Atlantic salmon fishermen watching the best returns to rivers, by far, in 20 or more years. After decades of steady decline, no-one expected it.
In Newfoundland, where some of the healthiest rivers are still to be found, some runs doubled over the previous year. In Nova Scotia, where things have gone 'way downhill in a hurry since the mid-80s, it was "almost like the old days" on some rivers.
Across the Atlantic, it was the same. The annual Review from the Association of Salmon Fishery Boards showed the total rod catch for 2008 was the third highest since consistent records began in 1952.
But before we start blowing trumpets, it's necessary to put all of this into perspective. On this side of the Atlantic, exceptions were PEI, where things remain pretty bleak: 11 of 33 rivers no longer have salmon and seven of the balance are in dire straits…
And the 33 inner Bay of Fundy rivers (10 in New Brunswick and 23 in Nova Scotia) from where 40,000 wild salmon have been missing since1987. Fundy salmon were declared endangered in 2001.
Internationally, scientists are warning that we will fail to meet even minimum conservation targets of large salmon (not grilse) between 2009 and 2011. These important salmon that contribute the majority of eggs needed to seed Canadian and American rivers have declined 82 per cent since we started keeping records. Despite the sudden improvements in runs last year, not one region of North America produced enough large salmon to meet conservation limits during 2008.
In the next two weeks, summer runs will again start returning to salmon streams all across the region and by the end of July we will know if 2008 was just a weird anomaly that no-one-not even marine biologists-understands.
There are things going on in the ocean (most of them very worrying indeed) that no-one fully understands yet. Nevertheless, we do understand that if we catch and kill thousands of salmon in commercial fisheries then those salmon will not spawn. The very damaging Greenland fishery has been bought out in recent years-but we still have three tonnes of salmon being taken each year by 43 fishermen from St. Pierre and Miquelon-a French départment (province) with no salmon streams. Those are American and Canadian fish.
With respect to this year's runs, there a lot of fingers crossed: ours among them. We'll know soon.
(But stalwart conservation groups stick with it. There is some amazing work being done by volunteer groups all over the place. Read one example below in this CBC report…)
Conservation groups look to get Atlantic salmon into Petitcodiac RiverTen conservation groups say they're going to work together to reintroduce the endangered wild Atlantic salmon back to the Petitcodiac River in New Brunswick when the gates of the Petitcodiac River's causeway in Moncton are opened in the spring of 2010.
Tom Benjamin, president of the New Brunswick Salmon Council, said restocking the river with salmon when the causeway is opened could help the local fish habitat.
"With the Petitcodiac being as large a system and a significant volume of high-quality habitat, if we're able to get fish back here this really could be the key lynchpin to turning around the population levels for wild Atlantic salmon in the inner Bay of Fundy stock," he said.
The groups will consult with scientific experts to try to figure out which stock is genetically appropriate for the area, Benjamin said.
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