06/30/2026
Last week, 10 families and the staff of Nova Scotia Working Woodlands Trust gathered to celebrate an extraordinary milestone: the signing of official community easement agreements that will protect working woodlands for generations to come.
This celebration marked a significant achievement for the Nova Scotia Working Woodlands Trust (NSWWT). It represented the culmination of two years of dedicated work and the largest working forest protection initiative in the province's history. Together, the easements protect more than 2,800 acres (1,150 hectares) of working woodland across seven Nova Scotia counties from subdivision, clear-cutting, and development under the Community Easements Act.
Every person who gathered that day was united by the same vision—a future where Nova Scotia's forests remain healthy, resilient, and thriving, providing lasting ecological, economic, and cultural benefits for generations to come.
For the land stewards, the signing represented years—sometimes generations—of dedication to caring for their woodlands. The easements ensure that these forests will remain intact, safeguarding both the land and the stewardship values they hope to pass on to their children and grandchildren.
Many of the participating land stewards, now retired or approaching their golden years, spoke of the reassurance they felt knowing that NSWWT staff would continue the work of protecting the forests they had spent their lives caring for. In turn, the staff expressed deep admiration for the knowledge, commitment, and generosity of the land stewards, describing the experience as a symbolic passing of the stewardship baton from one generation to the next.
As families left with signed agreements in hand, they carried with them the confidence that the woodlands they have cared for over decades—and in some cases, generations—will continue to be cared for long into the future.
To read the full blog post about this event, check out the link in our bio.
