By BILL SPURR and LAURA FRASER Staff Reporters
Sun. Jul 19 - 4:46 AM

Nova Scotia has to radically speed up work to conserve its natural areas, according to a national wilderness protection group.

The annual report of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society also criticizes the province for its failure to designate the Chignecto Game Sanctuary as a protected wilderness area, saying the area "remains vulnerable to clear cutting, mining, road building, and seismic testing."

The game sanctuary contains some of the largest tracts of old growth Acadian forest left in Nova Scotia and it is home to one of the province’s largest remaining populations of endangered mainland moose.

In addition, the report laments the fact that part of the Scatarie Island Wilderness Area has been opened to commercial seal harvest and that the province’s Wilderness Areas Protection Act contains a loophole allowing ministerial discretion on ATV use in parks.

The previous Conservative government promised to protect 12 per cent of the public land in Nova Scotia by 2015, but CPAWS says that can’t happen unless the new NDP government makes legislative changes to quickly beef up the number of protected areas in the province.

"If we continue at the same pace, it will take 40 years before we achieve the 12 per cent protected area commitment that the provincial government has made. So what we need is faster action, so that we still have these places remaining to protect," said Chris Miller of CPAWS.

He suggested that converting game sanctuaries into protected land would be a huge step forward.

"It may come as a surprise (that) game sanctuaries in Nova Scotia aren’t really protected," he said. "But this (is a change) that the public has been asking for, for a long time, and it’s something that the provincial government continues to drop the ball on.

"We’re hoping that the new government will take this issue of nature conservation very seriously and make progress towards the targets that are already established. And we’re confident that the government will make progress."

Environment Minister Sterling Belliveau said he places a high priority on protecting public lands from inappropriate uses.

"We’re committed to meeting the goals of protecting 12 per cent of Nova Scotia’s land by 2015, and we are evaluating crown land in the area of the Chignecto Game Sanctuary as part of a broader plan to meet that goal," the minister said. "The key thing is to consult with the public, and we’re going to include the public as we examine a number of these sites."

Nova Scotia expanded its protected area network by 51 square kilometres this year and created two new protected wilderness areas: the Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Lakes Wilderness Area, which conserves green space outside Halifax and helps protect a network of a dozen inter-connected lakes, and the Shelburne River Wilderness Area, described as a nationally significant wilderness area that includes the largest stand of hemlock trees in the Maritimes.

The CPAWS report says most parks in the province are "well managed," though some protected areas are still open to commercial activity.

Miller acknowledged that the province has made some small gains this year.

"But there really needs to be progress on multiple fronts," he said. "There are larger tracts of land that are for sale by forest companies (that the province can buy)," he said. "For example, the J.D. Irving lands for sale in southwestern Nova Scotia. There is a fantastic opportunity there for the government to acquire those lands for conservation. Half of it could be protected and half of it can be (used for) public access and natural resources use."