Important Notice to All
Nova Scotia Wild Blueberry Producers and Custom Harvest Operators, Please
Share This Notice Widely With Producers Who May Not Be On Our Email List.
The Nova Scotia Government, through the Department of
Natural Resources, has restricted access to woodlands and backcountry areas due
to the current extreme forest fire hazard index, with numerous wildfires
currently burning out of control in the province.
With wild blueberry harvesting operations now underway in
southwest Nova and expected to begin next week in central areas, DNR has issued
a single travel permit to WBPANS for our members to “travel on forest lands
for the purpose of commercial harvesting of blueberries and activities
associated with management of blueberry production”.
Several conditions apply:
1. Harvest operations must have basic fire suppression
equipment on site at all times. Equipment to
include at least one shovel, bucket and a minimum of 5
gallons of water.
2. No fires, including no smoking.
3. The association maintain a list of current harvest
operations and locations that can be made available
to DNR if required.
These conditions apply to hand raking and machine
harvesting crews.
To comply with requirement #3, above, the WBPANS office
will be keeping a daily log of wild blueberry harvesting operations while the
emergency travel restriction order is in force. To help us keep this log up to
date, we need you to notify the office of where you are harvesting and
update it when you move to a new location. A simple email to peter@nswildblueberries.com
is the best way to do this. For example: “XYZ Wild Blueberries,
harvesting until further notice on Base Line Rd, Folly Mountain, west of the
Bailey bridge near civic address #____” The log will not be shared or
publicized in any way except on request by DNR as a condition of our permit.