Celebrating recent awards and scholarships to Westwood Lab members    

Congratulations to lab members Samantha Chu and Ben Collison for recently being awarded highly competitive scholarships from the federal tri-council funding agencies. 

Sam’s MES thesis proposal “Effective researcher-end-user knowledge exchange: understanding the preferences of foresters” earned her a Canada Graduate Scholarship – Masters from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) for the upcoming academic year. She also recently won the inaugural Mary Margaret Werner Graduate Scholarship from Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Science for high academic achievement. In addition to these, she also won the Neil Munro Parks and Protected Areas Award and the Colin Stewart Scholarship for Studies on Parks and Protected Areas in the Acadian Forest Region.

Ben secured a Canada Graduate Scholarship – Doctoral award from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to fund his thesis research over the next three years, entitled “Ecological forestry in practice: informing forest management approaches to mitigate impacts to freshwater fish habitat in the Wabanaki forest region.” He was also awarded a scholarship as part of Dalhousie University’s 2024 OpenThink PhD cohort of top science communicators.

Sam and Ben are current trainees as Leaders in Energy Sustainability, with new lab member Mary Legorburu joining as an undergraduate trainee for the summer. Their enrolment is funded by the NSERC Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) program.

Fining big polluters can reduce environmental damage, but only if the fines match the crimes       

Some of the country’s biggest polluters are multibillion-dollar companies. Limited fines may not be enough to stop them, but other potential solutions exist.

Read the full article by Ben Collison on The Conversation or The Narwhal

Monetary penalties for breaking environmental laws continue to rise. Yet, many companies are failing to maintain compliance and pollution continues to flow. This is especially true in the case of water.

Water pollution from natural resource extraction can hinder economic drivers like tourism and fisheries, impair Indigenous rights, harm species at risk of extinction and perpetuate environmental racism.

For many businesses, a hefty one-off fine for breaking an environmental law is an unsettling wake up call. Responsible employers reflect on this seriously and take tangible steps to reduce the chance of their operations harming the environment in the future. But for wealthy repeat offenders, fines may be treated as nothing more than the cost of doing business. This is where the problem lies, and some of Canada’s richest corporations prove it.

New studies find Canadian researchers in the environmental studies and sciences are still experiencing interference in their work        

On November 30, two new studies were published in FACETS documenting researchers’ perceptions of the prevalence of interference in science, its sources, and effects and considered whether these perceptions differ by region, career stage, research area, membership to any scientific society, and social identity.

The articles were accompanied by an op-ed in the Conversation and a blog post in the Evidence for Democracy series on scientific integrity. The lead researchers were also featured in several radio interviews on CBC’s Mainstreet NS, Info AM Saint John, and City News 95.7 in Halifax. To hear more, check out this podcast interview on Mind Full.

Lead author of one study, Manjulika Robertson, was quoted in a Canadian Press article (picked up by more than a dozen other outlets) explaining that “there’s a wide array of researchers who say their work was interfered with,” emphasizing the conditions are particularly challenging for researchers who conduct work in specifically focused on impacts of climate change and pollution. 

In addition to this, lead of the other study Samantha Chu found that researchers with marginalized identities are disproportionately experiencing interference. For example, most marginalized groups, particularly researchers who identified as LGBQ2S+ and women, experienced significantly greater fear of misrepresentation by media and (or) fear of negative career consequences due to public commentary. Racialized and disabled persons reported greater external interference in their work (e.g., from management and workplace policy).

An article in the Halifax Examiner quotes Robertson as saying “for the researchers who experience it, there’s decreased job satisfaction, in addition to the increased anxiety, stress, and uncertainty it brings.” Additionally, “when researchers can’t conduct their work, …we lose out on the scientific knowledge necessary to inform our approaches to grand challenges (e.g., combatting loss of biodiversity, protecting our ecosystems, and mitigating the effects of climate change.”

For complete details on the project, you can visit the interference in science project page. 

Dr. Alana Westwood featured in artist Kimberly Glickman’s Voices for the Wild project

Montréal-based artist Lisa Kimberly Glickman has started a new series called Voices for the Wild, which honours female land defenders and environmentalists from across Canada.

Lisa’s work highlights poets, artists, scientists, activists, and others and poses each of the women with animals from the impacted area in the landscapes they are trying to protect. Alana’s portrait places her in a black spruce forest with an olive-sided flycatcher (Contopus cooperi), a species at risk who can be found calling “quick, three beers!” from spruce tops at the edges of bogs, burns, and clearcuts in the Wabanaki forest region. Alana co-wrote the COSEWIC assessment report for this species and has studied impacts of forest harvesting on olive-sided flycatcher habitat.

Painting by Lisa Kimberly Glickman showing Dr. Alana Westwood in front of a forest with an olive-sided flycatcher atop a black spruce tree.

Alana is humbled to be included in this series alongside titans in efforts to maintain healthy environments in Canada like water defender Autumn Peltier and novelist Catherine Bush, among others.

Find out more about Lisa Kimberly Glickman’s Voices for the Wild project here, and view her artwork and upcoming showings here.

Dal professors and researchers make key recommendations to reform environmental assessment in Nova Scotia 

Several weeks ago, Nova Scotia’s Department of Environment and Climate Change offered Nova Scotians the opportunity to weigh in on their commitment to modernize the environmental assessment (EA) process as defined in the Environmental Goals and Climate Change Reduction Act. Some of Dalhousie’s leading experts in the area, including Dr. Alana Westwood, Ali MacKellar, Ben Collison, and Dr. Ian Stewart authored a letter with recommendations for modernizing EA regulations in Nova Scotia. This letter was signed by a further 10 Dal-affiliated experts with experience in EA policy and practice. 

Given that the last major update of existing regulations was in 2008, and we now have several years’ experience with the federal Impact Assessment Act (2019), it is an opportune time to align Nova Scotia’s EA regulations with global and national best practice.  

Dal Statement – Nova Scotia Environmental Assessment Reform 2023Download

Some key recommendations made by the authors in brief include:  

1. The Office of the Auditor General of Nova Scotia should investigate the history of the decision process for Class 1 EAs to ensure the timelines of the law are being appropriately interpreted by the Department of Environment and Climate Change and the Minister.  

2. Mandating GBA+ as a lens through which to assess impacts must be a mandatory part of all new assessments. 

3. A commitment on the part of the Province to uphold scientific integrity in reviews should be added, explicitly, to the EA Regulations.  

4. An overhaul of the online EA Registry to improve searchability and make all relevant documentation available to the public. 

5. Make use of S. 47 of the Environment Act to support joint assessments between the Province and Mi’kmaw communities.  

6. Develop a participant funding program in which Mi’kmaw communities and the public can apply for funds to support their participation in, and independent study of, EA processes for proposed projects.  

7. Initiate a province-wide process of collaborative regional land and water-use planning between governments, Mi’kmaw Nations, and communities at the level of watersheds or ecodistricts.  

8. Include cumulative effects as a lens for impact predictions for all Valued Components in project documents, rather than additional section at the end of documentation.  

9. Climate change should be a mandatory prediction component in all project documentation (including EA Reports, Focus Studies, etc.) and projects should not be approved without providing estimates of both climate change on the project and the project’s impact on climate change. 

A news release from the Government of Nova Scotia detailing the opportunity to weigh in is available online.  

Congratulations on graduating, Riley Scanlan!

Riley Scanlan is graduating from Dalhousie with a Master of Environmental Studies from the School for Resource and Environment Studies, in the Faculty of Science. Riley’s research focused on boreal forests in Unama’ki (Cape Breton, Nova Scotia), developing a novel, user-friendly approach to assess data quality and prioritizing areas for treeplanting to restore connectivity in parks and protected areas.

During their time as a student, Riley was an active member of the SRES Student Society and was awarded the Scotiabank Ethics in Action Award and a Neil Munro Parks and Protected Areas Award. 

You can check out Riley’s full-length thesis on DalSpace.  

Citation:  

Scanlan, R. (2023, August). USING INFORMATION ON PAST AND PRESENT FOREST COVER TO GUIDE RESTORATION EFFORTS: AN ANALYSIS OF DATA QUALITY AND LANDSCAPE CONNECTIVITY IN UNAMA’KI (CAPE BRETON, NOVA SCOTIA). [Faculty of Graduate Studies Online Theses, Dalhousie University]. Dal Space. http://hdl.handle.net/10222/82760 

Welcome to our new research coordinator, Revant Sharan

Congratulations to our new research coordinator, Revant Sharan. Revant is recent MREM grad who will be coordinating research on Maximizing Positive Outcomes for Biodiversity, Recreation and Carbon Market Valuation, through Nova Scotia’s transition to Ecological Forestry funded by the Forestry Innovation Transition Trust (FITT) grant (awarded to PI, Dr. Alana Westwood and co-applicants in May 2023). 

During the five-year project, Revant will manage the FITT grant’s logistics, track project milestones and liaise with the public and external organizations. He will be collaborating with research partners from academia, government, private industry and Indigenous-led organizations. Revant will also be filling the role of Westwood Lab manager, supporting field research and maintaining day-to-day operations. 

Battling Canadian wildfires in Nova Scotia: Preparing for the next bout

Photo from: Saltwire (2023)

Starting on May 27, Nova Scotia experienced unprecedented wildfires starting in Tantallon, NS that spread over 230 square kilometers. Thousands of individuals residing in the affected areas were forced to evacuate from their homes. No human lives were reported lost, but the impacts were devastating. 

Experts say we are far from the end of a “season” of wildfires due to advancing climate change worldwide. In a recent interview, Dr. Alana Westwood said, “This new extreme weather is going be our new normal,” and we have to prepare. 

In general, Westwood calls on provincial and municipal governments to revamp planning to expect more climate emergencies and engage in preparation and prevention rather than reaction. 

As for individual preparedness, Saltwire published a list of recommendations from Dr. Westwood on 3 things you can do right now to protect your home from wildfires in the short and long term.  

Dangerous wildfires have also broken out this past month in Alberta and in Ontario, worsening air quality for both provinces and their American neighbour states. 

In an interview with Global News, Dr. Westwood emphasized that “we need to learn how to live with fire. Other places in the world have already been doing this for generations. It’s time for us to understand how serious this is.”

For more on the wildfires, check out TVO Today’s panel discussion with experts from across Canada including Dr. Westwood asking how Canada can solve the wildfire pandemic. 

Celebrating recent awards and scholarships at the Lab    

Congratulations are in order for lab member, Riley Scanlan for winning a presenter award for her paper presentation at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association of Geographers in May 2023. Awesome job, Riley! 

Incoming MES Student, Samantha Chu also earned a Nova Scotia Graduate Scholarship for her thesis proposal investigating the knowledge exchange preferences and practices of foresters across Canada.

Looking forward to seeing that research in the Fall, Sam! 

Get with the times: old laws can’t keep up with Nova Scotia’s new gold rush

An increase in mine staking in the province needs to be met with a rigorous environmental assessment process — not the tight timelines, loopholes and lax consultation requirements of the past.

Read the full article by Alana Westwood on The Narwhal.

Nova Scotia has had three gold rushes since colonization: one in the 1800s, one at the beginning of the 1900s and, most recently, in 1942. Eighty years later, the gold market is sitting near an all-time high — but this time, things are different: we’ve moved from miners with pickaxes to open pits deeper than high-rises, their waste stored in open tailings ponds the size of multiple football fields.

Like many places since the COVID-19 pandemic, Nova Scotia has experienced sharp rises in land values putting pressure on not only would-be homeowners, but also farmers and woodlot owners. Yet, the cost for any individual or company to obtain a mineral exploration licence — staked claims to the minerals found in the ground — is just 61 cents per hectare. Visions of enormous profit combined with a low upfront prospector cost has resulted in an explosion of exploration. Most licences are intended for gold.

In 2013, our calculations show there were 158 mineral exploration licences covering approximately 1.5 per cent of Nova Scotia’s total subsurface. Ten years later that number had jumped to 2,124 licences, covering 18 per cent of the province’s land mass. Although most claims don’t turn into mines — they’re often an effort by companies to assure shareholder confidence — many will still enter into the provincial environmental assessment process with the hopes of being approved for mining. 

For more on Nova Scotia’s new gold rush, check out these interviews with Dr. Alana Westwood:

CTV News | Nova Scotia’s modern ‘gold rush’ poses huge risk to climate, expert warns

BNN Bloomberg | Nova Scotia’s mining rules are outdated