Eight Protected Areas Recommended for New Brunswick
10/13/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Natural Resources and Energy Report recommends eight
protected areas be set aside
Source: CNB, MEDIA CONTACT: Louella Woods, communications,
Department of Natural Resources and Energy, 506- 453-2614.
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: October 13, 1999
FREDERICTON (CNB)--Interim protection for eight proposed sites
recommended in Dr.Louis LaPierre's final report on Protected Areas
Strategy for New Brunswick has been announced by Natural Resources
and Energy Minister Jeannot Volpe. In addition to the interim
protection, a socio-economic study will be conducted to determine the
impact of including the proposed sites in the final protected areas
strategy.
The report recommends the following areas be set aside to protect the
province's natural heritage: Loch Alva, Grand Lake Meadows, Mount
Carleton extension, Kennedy Lakes, Nerepis Hills, Caledonia Gorge,
Canaan Bog and Jacquet River Gorge.
The report recommends that the Mount Carleton Natural Area, together
with both Fundy and Kouchibouguac national parks, form the core of
the protected areas system, supplemented by the eight sites. No
private land is included in the recommendations. With the exception
of land owned by the University of New Brunswick and the federal
government in Nerepis Hills and Grand Lake Meadows, all of the sites
are provincially-owned Crown land.
Volpe said the government will place an immediate moratorium on
timber harvesting from six of the sites located entirely on Crown
land. The Province also plans to discuss with the federal government
and UNB the potential for extending this moratorium to their portions
of the Nerepis and Grand Lake Meadows sites.
"We have also recommended withdrawing these proposed sites from
further mineral prospecting and staking until a final decision on a
strategy is made," Volpe said. "This will not affect existing mineral
claims."
Volpe will be asking departmental representatives, senior
representatives from forest and mining industries, conservation
organizations, and aboriginal groups to form a committee to review
the report and provide government with a protected areas action plan.
The Minister will ask the committee to submit its plan to government
for approval by May 2000.
The province began developing a protected areas strategy in spring
1996.
LaPierre's report contains 50 recommendations. The Minister noted
many require further technical and scientific input. The full report
is available on the Natural Resources and Energy Web site
http://www.gov.nb.ca/dnre/ To obtain a printed version, contact the
department's communications branch at 453-2614.