Tom's Post on J.D. Irving Lands

An Added Thought: Water Security Issue? I wonder if this foreign sale of a
third of Digby County is a threat to our sovereign Canadian water rights, i.e.
whether a foreign buyer might attempt to bulk export the water from his newly
"purchased" lakes and river watersheds....
Tom
EM Atlantic Canada Network

From: deleted
To: deleted
Subject: Fw: RE; Crisis in Our Woodland
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:24:26 -0400

----- Original Message -----
From: Bernadette MacDonald

To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 1:56 PM
Subject: RE; Crisis in Our Woodland


Hi:
There is a new crisis in our woodlands and waterways that threatens our
long-term economy and health here in South West Nova.

J.D. Irving is
selling 170,000 acres of timberlands and lakes in Digby, Yarmouth and Shelburne
Counties through an American real estate broker. Bidding closes April 2,
2009.

This is a vast amount of land. Basically one third of Digby County
is up on the auction block. It includes the watersheds of the Bear River,
Sissiboo River, Tusket River, Silver River, and Carleton River. It includes over
250 km of lake frontage on 69 undeveloped lakes.

Allowing this huge swath
of wilderness to fall into private, foreign ownership will be devastating for
us, and even more so for our children and future generations.

This has
all happened very quickly and there is too much information to put into an
email, but you can find out much more by going to www.buybacknovascotia.ca

I'm
sure you'll all share in the shock and outrage that this has been allowed to
happen.

A coalition of groups and organizations are working together to
keep these lands. It's called BUY BACK NOVA SCOTIA.

We
are four things from you:.

1) Take a few minutes to look at the
website to get a sense of what's going on. www.buybacknovascotia.ca

2)
If you belong to an association/ group add your name to the list of
supporters on the Buy Back Nova Scotia website.

3) Attend the rally on Sunday, March 8th, at 2:00 at the Community Collage
Burridge Campus - Yarmouth (and bring as many folks as you can with
you).

4) Send this message to others and tell all the other groups,
organizations, friends, churches etc. that you're a part of. Forward the website
to them www.buybacknovascotia.ca
so they can become informed and get involved.

4) Phone, fax or email our
local MLA, Richard Hurlburt
Richard Hurlburt, MLA for Yarmouth 742-8120
Chris d'Entremont, MLA for
Argyle 648-2020
Premier Rodney MacDonald 1-800-267-1993 or
424-6600

Thanks for taking the time to do this. We have so little
time to pressure government into not forcing us to loose so much of our
heritage. This is our one chance. Hopefully by working quickly and working
together we can prevent this tragedy from happening.
Bernadette

Bernadette MacDonald
Tri County Women's
Centre
238 Main Street, Yarmouth, N.S. B5A 1C9
742-0085 1-
877-742-0085
Fax - 742- 6068
bernadette@tricountywomenscentre.org
www.tricountywomenscentre.org