The naturalists and lawyers who won a case for endangered species in Nova Scotia. Naturalist Soren Bondrup-Nielsen, lawyer Jamie Simpson, naturalist Bob Bancroft and Ecojustice lawyers James Gunvaldsen Klaassen and Sarah McDonald. Photo by Eleanor Kure The Nova Scotia government just lost a 16-month lawsuit to a flower, moose, turtle, two birds and a tree, which, it goes without saying, has never happened before. In January 2019, the Federation of Nova Scotia Naturalists, the Blomidon Naturalists Society and the Halifax Field Naturalists joined with Juniper Law to request a “judicial review” of the province’s failure to uphold its 1998 Endangered Species Act. And quite a failure it’s been. To date, the majority of species listed under the act have yet to receive all of its guaranteed protections, such as the establishment of recovery teams, the publishing of recovery plans and the identification of core habitat. Protections for some species, such as the ram’s head lady slipper, are more than a decade overdue. Ram’s head lady slipper. Photo by Zack Metcalfe. And on May 29, Justice Christa Brothers of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia declared these failures “chronic and systemic” in her final ruling on the case. Brothers has […]
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