There has been a lot of information made public about how proposed clear cutting in the Ingram River Watershed (the Province calls it high production forestry) will probably put an end to the remaining Mainland Moose population.
Proponents of the clear cutting actually argue that this is fine because there are hardly any moose left anymore (arguably because of past clear cutting practices back when we didn’t know any better). That argument sounds somewhat disingenuous when you look at it that way, especially when now we do know better.
Moose aside (where they have apparently been cast by the Houston government) there remains a much larger issue that has not made it into the public domain.
The Ingram River, like all the rivers on the South Shore, was once a highly populated salmon river. People came from afar to fish it. A good friend of mine is here in Canada because his grandfather emigrated from Scotland to be a salmon guide in Nova Scotia and he settled at the mouth of the Ingram so he could fish and guide.
But like all the rivers on the South Shore, increasing acidity in the rain, presumably from the northeast American industrial base, combined with our own logging (using the rivers to float logs to the ocean and cutting the trees that held the topsoil in place), and hydroelectric dam construction, has almost eliminated native Atlantic Salmon from our part of the world.
Unlike most of these rivers, the Ingram was never appropriated for hydroelectric power generation. Part of the watershed was diverted to flow north to feed a generating station in the Valley, but otherwise there were no dams built that represented barriers to fish passage.
My father, who many people around the bay would remember, grew up on the Mersey River. He helped build dams on many of the rivers that NS Power harnessed, including some of those on the Indian River, a once world class salmon river that is now the St Margaret’s Bay hydro system. In his retirement he learned how his life’s work had also led to the erosion of his favourite pastime - fly fishing for salmon. He switched to barbless hooks and catch and release fishing, and joined the NS Salmon Federation. He wasn’t going to be able to correct the damage he’d helped cause, but he would do what he could.
Dad fished for trout in a lot of the “Mersey Lands”. And he also took occasional trips to the Margaree, and to Labrador, where there were still fish to catch. But he also fished the Ingram, quietly catching salmon and releasing them for years, until he could no longer physically get to where he knew they were.
The salmon have always been there. Despite years of essentially unmanaged clear cutting, at least one major forest fire, and the construction and subsequent twinning of the 103 Highway to Hubbards.
Here is the interesting part. Scientists at Dalhousie University now measure stream populations of different species by sampling for DNA at the outlet. Whereas all the rivers on the South Shore show a steady decline in Atlantic Salmon, the Ingram appears to be recovering. This is amazing.
The recent events surrounding the Province’s acquisition of all the former Bowater lands has made it possible to control the land use in this watershed to allow research into the relationships between land use and development activity within the watershed, and to learn how to preserve and even create good salmon habitat. If you care about salmon and want to have them around for future generations, then it’s very clear that this watershed needs to be protected at least until we know why it has survived. It may be the last stand for the species here in NS.
We have an incredible opportunity to study this watershed so that we might learn why it is still healthy, and how to create or encourage a similar renaissance in other once important Atlantic Salmon rivers.
Since 2016, the Saint Margarets Bay Stewardship Association has actively been pursuing the restoration of the Indian and Ingram River systems. The Ingram, with its lack of hydro dams and invasive species of fish, made sense to focus on. The organization has spent a decade of efforts and over $300,000 working to restore these systems, the vast majority of that funding going to pay young, local, scientists and technicians for seasonal jobs. And they have seen an almost 170% improvement in water quality, and confirmation of a breeding population of Atlantic Salmon in 2025. Yet just as we begin to see the fruits of this labour, the Province is allowing the land to be altered by clear cutting, a proven source of harm to fish habitat.
One might assume that a responsible government, one run by a Chartered Accountant, would appreciate the golden economic opportunity that this tourism and recreational resource represents. There are millions of acres of other lands that are not in such critical places that are available to be be harvested by our important wood fibre and lumber industries. And it isn’t as if this takes a significant amount of fibre from the forest industry - the Ingram River watershed is currently well below average for protected area compared to other rivers with dwindling salmon populations.
You would assume that someone in our Government has the wherewithal to recognize the opportunity here. Yet we have instead an apparently rapacious effort underway to cut the trees in this watershed before they can be protected, driven by people who apparently only see fibre when they look at a forest. They don’t see the soil stabilization, the cooling, the flood control, and the peace, silence, and tranquillity of a forest. They are acting as if they only care for their own bottom line, regardless of whether it means the end of species like moose and salmon.
It seems obvious that a total moratorium on cutting within the Ingram River watershed is more than warranted until we better understand why this river is still supporting salmon in the successful manner it is. After all, the land isn’t owned by the forest industry anymore. Taxpayers paid for it. It belongs to all of us equally, and it is basic common sense that we put a hold on the ongoing and proposed pillage of the real long term natural resources here until we know how necessary it is to preserve. This watershed represents an incredible learning opportune city for our children, our scientists, and our forest industry.
We only need to take the cue from WestFor’s own website (the company who want to cut this watershed).
"The best classroom and the richest cupboard are roofed only by the sky." - Margaret McMillan
The classroom is right in front of us. Until it isn’t.
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