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Nova Scotia provides financial support for hurricane-impacted woodlot owners

Emergency support is on the way for resource industries impacted by hurricane Fiona.

Premier Tim Houston has announced a range of financial supports for the agriculture and forestry sectors.

“In parts of our province, hurricane Fiona had a devastating impact on farm infrastructure, crops and livestock, as well as private woodlots,” said Houston. “Our resource-based sectors are critical to the health of our economy, especially in rural Nova Scotia. They need our support right now as they recover and rebuild after the storm.”

Provincial support for private woodlot owners

The Department of Natural Resources and Renewables is investing up to $4.6 million to help private woodlot owners clean up trees that were blown down or left leaning, weakened or vulnerable by hurricane Fiona and prepare for reforestation:

• $150,000 will help the department acquire satellite imagery to help assess damage
• up to $3.45 million will help with commercial tree cleanup and secure a third-party organization to oversee this financial assistance; the organization’s work will include assessing damage to determine eligibility and doing post-cleanup inspections before disbursing funding
• up to $500,000 will help with repair of washed-out access roads, culverts and bridges
• up to $500,000 will help with re-establishing boundary lines.

“Private woodlot owners make a significant economic contribution to rural communities all around the province. This funding will help ensure the downed trees they’ve spent decades growing do not go to waste on the forest floor,” said Minister of Natural Resources and Renewables Tory Rushton.

There will be a cap, yet to be determined, on the amount of money a landowner can receive.

The Department expects to have a third-party organization in place and ready to start working with woodlot owners in early November.

More eligibility and application information will be posted at novascotia.ca/hurricane-fiona-support/ as it becomes available.

There are about 30,000 private woodlot owners in Nova Scotia. In 2003, after hurricane Juan, about 200 of them were eligible for similar funding.