Old-Growth Forests of Nova Scotia

Once a primary characteristic of Nova Scotia's forested landscape, old-growth forests now only exist as remnant patches. These patches are artifacts of forests that have withstood over 300 years of natural and human disturbances.

In 1999, the Department developed the first version of our  Old Forest Policy  to address the rarity of old-growth forests in Nova Scotia. This policy aims to provide guidance for conserving the remaining old-growth forests on Crown land and to determine the best opportunities for restoring old forests into old-growth forests.

Since it's implementation, the policy has helped to conserve thousands of hectares of maturing old forests and old-growth forests across provincial Crown land. However, with increasing pressures from private land development and climate change, it is becoming increasingly more important that Nova Scotian's are aware of the important ecological role these forests play within our landscape.

To help educate and share the value in conserving our old-growth forests, please scroll through this story map to learn more about their importance for biodiversity and where you can find some of these hidden gems in Nova Scotia.

The term old-growth forest has many definitions and interpretations across the world. These multiple definitions are influenced by peoples' differing values, evolving forest science, uniqueness of local growing conditions and species, and differing management approaches and priorities. Given these challenges with multiple definitions, Nova Scotia is encouraging common language around terms involving old-growth forests, old forests, and their management.

Generally speaking, old-growth forests are structurally diverse stands of older, mainly late successional trees. Typical characteristics include a patchy, multi-layered canopy made up of trees of multiple age classes and late-successional species that dominate the overstory. In Nova Scotia, old-growth forests occur within many different forest cover types - hardwood, conifer, or mixedwoods. More specifically, Forest Groups (ex. Spruce-Hemlock) develop into old-growth forests which are further identified through their associated late-successional Vegetation Type (see  Forest Ecosystem Classification ).

Check out the video below with Dr. Peter Duinker from Dalhousie University introducing us to old growth, what makes these forests awesome, and the Old-Growth Forest Policy for Nova Scotia.

The definitions below are specific to how we define aging forests in Nova Scotia's  Old-Growth Forest Policy  (2022).

Definitions:

• Old-growth forest areas are forest stands where 20% or more of the basal area is in trees greater than 100 to 140 years depending on the forest vegetation types, and have not been recently disturbed by humans.

• Old-growth restoration opportunity areas are identified in both protected areas and on Crown land to ensure that there will be good representation of old-growth forests across all ecodistricts in the future. They are generally areas of old-growth forest vegetation types but a little younger.

• Stands are areas of generally homogeneous forest conditions, typically identified through air photo interpretation and usually are at least 1 ha in size.

• Old trees are individual trees that are older than 125 years that may exist in older or younger forest stands. Individual old trees have important biological value and should be considered for permanent retention in forest management planning (see  Biodiversity Stewardship Guide ). Individual trees are not covered under the Old-Growth Forest Policy.

Trees play an important role in the maintenance of stable ecosystems in Nova Scotia. As forests dominate the land across our province, they represent the matrix of Nova Scotia's landscape. Within our forests, the types of tree species present strongly influences the structure and ecological processes that occur across the landscape.

The types of trees in the overstory shape the distribution and abundance of other forest dwelling species by regulating available light, nutrients, and shaping microclimate conditions within the forest.

To address the various types of old-growth forest across the diverse forest regions and site conditions, government uses the provincial  Forest Ecosystem Classification  focusing on late-successional vegetation types (see Neily et al., 2013). The old-growth ages have been based on estimates of the minimum age-of-onset of old-growth attributes. Therefore, if a forest is of the vegetation types listed in Table 1, and the stand age is equal to or greater than the age for that vegetation type, the forest is considered to be old-growth.

View the latest installment of the Wandering Through Ancient Woods Video Series: New Eyes and a Fresh Perspective. The fourth episode features students from the Land Based Learning class in Nova Scotia visiting an old-growth forest at the 4-Mile Stillwater Trail near Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site.

A Dashboard is an ArcGIS Online application that can be used to view geographic information and associated data. Specifically, the Old-Growth Forest Policy Dashboard can be used to view the current status and distribution of Old-Growth Policy in the province. Additionally, it can be used to identify trends related to the Old-Growth Forest Policy layer and the 2015 EcoDistricts layer. In the Dashboard, there are multiple elements available on a single screen to provide a user-friendly and comprehensive view of high-level information. See the Dashboard Below.

With over 300 years of history in logging and agriculture in Nova Scotia, many of the forests seen today are generally young and lack valuable features of old-growth forests. Ensuring that adequate amounts of old-growth continues to exist across the province helps to maintain the elements of biodiversity that old-growth forests support.

Recognizing the critical role of old-growth forest as habitat for sustaining biodiversity, Nova Scotia introduced an Interim Old Forest Policy for Crown land in 1999, with the goal of conserving many old-growth forests across all ecodistricts on Crown lands in Nova Scotia. The province further expanded its conservation efforts with Old Forest Policy in 2012.

In response to the recommendations in the  Independent Review of Forest Practices  by Dr. William Lahey (2018), the department developed a new  Old-Growth Forest Policy  to better protect all old-growth forest areas on crown land and to work better with private land owners on old-growth conservation.

Old-growth can be found at several sites across the province.

The map below shows only a small sample of identified old forests. This map will be continuously updated as more information is made available.

How to use:

1. Hover your mouse over a tagged location to learn the name of the old forest stand location.
2. Click on any of the tagged locations to see which of these old forests is nearest to you.
3. Zoom in and out using the (+) and (-) buttons in the bottom right corner to explore other tagged locations.
4. Click the double arrow button in the top right corner to escape back to the story map.

Note: directions from Halifax are included in the descriptions of stands that are easily accessible by car.

The Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources and Renewables is committed to working with Nova Scotians to build a better future through sustainable natural resource management. Collaboration with individuals and groups is vital to ensure all Nova Scotians are benefiting from the natural health and wealth of our forests for many years to come. 

Conservation of old-growth forests on private lands across the province is actively encouraged and supported through several initiatives such as ongoing research and the development of tools to improve identification and monitoring of old-growth forests.

Old-growth forests that remain today on public land have been conserved by the help of the Government of Nova Scotia.

Thank you to our partners and private woodlot owners in helping protect and restore old-growth forests in Nova Scotia.

For more information regarding old-growth forests in Nova Scotia, please refer to the links below or visit our  website page. 

Spatial data on old forests in Nova Scotia is available for viewing in the  Provincial Landscape Viewer . The old forest layer maps the locations of stands that are protected under the Old-Growth Forest Policy (2022) on crown land and additional mature forests in other legally Protected Areas. The forests identified in the layer consist of old-growth stands, as well as mature stands set aside to restore old-growth across the province. Plocy layer data is also available to be downloaded for viewing in a GIS system at  https://nsgi.novascotia.ca/gdd/ 

 A Field Guide to Forest Biodiversity Stewardship  - This guide brings together current information from several sources including government policies and programs. Additionally, the field guide provides the reader with several stewardship actions that support forest biodiversity conservation.

 The Oldest Trees in the Maritimes  - A Stand Analysis - A study of a forest stand in western Halifax county that contained the two oldest trees (532 and 533 year old Eastern Hemlocks) in the Maritimes.

Natural Succession of Nova Scotia’s Northern Red Oak (Quercus rubra) Forest Communities - This study was conducted to determine whether red oak is a species that can maintain dominance in a forested stand in the absence of a largescale disturbance and confirm or revise the current projected successional pathways.

 Selected Nova Scotia old growth forests: Age, ecology, structure, scoring  — A study of four old-growth stands in Nova Scotia was conducted to document the ecological characteristics of these currently rare Acadian Forest ecosystems. Stands were selected to represent the two dominant climax forest community types, hemlock-red spruce-eastern white pine, and sugar maple-yellow birch-beech.

 Dendrochronologic Confirmation of Old Growth Hemlock Age from the Panuke Lake Area, Nova Scotia 

CBC Video on Oldest Tree in the Maritimes -

 Forest Ecosystem Classification for Nova Scotia - Part 1: Vegetation Types   — This report is a guide to all currently recognized forest groups and vegetation types in the province along with successional development, coarse woody debris volume, and snag density interpretations.