During the Save Our Old Forests campaign launch, forest ecologist Donna Crossland was one of the excellent speakers. This episode features a slightly shortened version of her heart-felt and informative talk, along with a brief overview of this inspiring campaign, which launched in the spring of 2023 in Bridgetown in Nova Scotia (within Mi'kma'ki).

Donna Crossland's primary focus is on protecting healthy Wabanaki-Acadian forest. As a National Park Warden early in her Parks Canada career, protecting ecological integrity ofwoodlands and waters instilled an unrelenting desire to conserve what remains of our natural heritage. She retired from a career as a biologist at Parks Canada and now leads protection of old growth hemlock groves, working to conserve this majestic conifer tree against attack from an invasive insect, Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA). She was the ‘HWA Project Coordinator’ at Kejimkujik, and now holds the same title through the Medway Community Forest Coop. 

Donna has provided key direction on two provincial forestry strategies.

She is the daughter of the last horse logger in her natal community of East Dalhousie.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

Save Our Old Forests website , Facebook and Instagram hashtag #saveouroldforests

Suzanne Simard's book Finding the Mother Tree

Global Forest Watch interactive forest and tree cover change data

Provincial landscape viewer

Sion Sound Studio