In August 2021,  the Nova Scotia Department of the Environment & Climate Change approved applications to spray glyphosate-based herbicides over 1,172 ha (2,895 acres) of private forested land in Colchester, Cumberland, Guysborough, Halifax and Hants Counties.   

As we face the climate and biodiversity crises, it’s obvious we must protect the health of nature if we want a healthy future for ourselves and our children and grandchildren.  Does spraying poison from helicopters on clearcuts in order to kill off natural regrowth of the Wabanaki-Acadian forest sound like something we should be doing in 2021? 

Corporations are not allowed to create toxic waste dumps on their land, just because they own it. Spraying the land with poison from the air because it is cheaper than paying workers to thin trees on the ground has to stop. This practice has no place in proper forestry. Cape Breton put a moratorium on aerial spraying of herbicides and pesticides years ago. In 2001, Quebec banned the use of glyphosate in forestry.

In 2020, the sprays approved for Annapolis, Hants and Kings counties were cancelled following the establishment of "Don’t Spray Us" camps on sites in those counties.  

And once again concerned citizens are camping out on several forested sites approved for aerial spraying, including sites near Otter Brook and Halfway Brook in Colchester County.  They are putting their bodies in the way of the government-sanctioned poisoning of forests in Mi’kma’ki. The "Don’t Spray Us" campers are asking for a halt to spraying on all approved sites this year.

It is time to end this practice once and for all. 

It is time for the Minister of Environment & Climate Change and the Premier of Nova Scotia to move Nova Scotia and planet in a healthier direction.