{"id":148601,"date":"2025-08-10T14:22:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T19:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldtribune.com\/?p=148601"},"modified":"2025-08-10T14:22:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T19:22:13","slug":"canadians-in-nova-scotia-banned-from-hiking-in-the-woods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/canadians-in-nova-scotia-banned-from-hiking-in-the-woods\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadians in Nova Scotia banned from hiking in the woods"},"content":{"rendered":"

by<\/em><\/span> WorldTribune<\/strong> Staff<\/em><\/span><\/span>, August 10, 2025 <\/em>Real World News<\/span><\/a>
\n<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, a tree falling in the woods makes a sound. But don’t ask Nova Scotians to verify that.<\/p>\n

Authorities in the Canadian province, which is 75 percent forests, have ordered people to stay out of God’s untainted creation or face fines of up to $25,000, the True North Wire reported<\/a> on Aug. 6.<\/p>\n

\"\"
According to Nova Scotia Forest Notes, about 75% of the province is covered in forest.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said authorities are “telling Nova Scotians; stay out of the woods. We are restricting travel and activities that really aren\u2019t necessary for most of us, hiking, camping, fishing and the use of vehicles in the woods are not permitted. Trail systems through woods are off limits. Camping is allowed, but only in official campgrounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

The apparent reason for the woods ban is that the government doesn’t trust that it citizens will not start forest fires.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re a smoker, for God\u2019s sakes, be mindful of where you\u2019re butting your butt out. If you don\u2019t and you cause a fire, we will hold you accountable,\u201d Houston. \u201cIf you have a home or cottage, surrounded by a wooded area, we strongly encourage you to stay out of those woods, regardless of where they are. Please don\u2019t do anything that could unnecessarily put you, your family or your neighbors at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Natural Resources Minister Tory Rushton said Nova Scotia has had to deal with 100 wildfires this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve all been very small, but our crews have been able to manage them and extinguish them quickly. But that could change in a heartbeat,\u201d Rushton said. \u201cIt\u2019s incredibly dry out there right now, and the fires we\u2019re seeing right now are burning deeper into the root system and going deep underground, and that kind of fire takes a long time to put out, which is exhausting our resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAcross the country, there are over 700 fires burning,\u201d Houston said. \u201cAs tinder dry conditions continue to persist from one end of the province to the other, the risk of wildfires increases, and the risk is very, very high right now\u2026We can take steps while we\u2019re in the middle of trying to fight fires, or we can be proactive and try to prevent them, and we have chosen to be proactive and try to prevent fires.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some civil liberties advocates are sounding the alarm, saying the move amounts to government overreach and echoes Covid lockdown-era measures.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen safety becomes a weapon, everyone loses. Nova Scotia\u2019s forest ban is overkill, and it\u2019s deja vu. It\u2019s happening now because the government got away with it last time,\u201d Christine Van Geyn, a constitutional lawyer with the Canadian Constitution Foundation, said in a post on X.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a classic example of safetyism: a mentality where risk becomes an excuse for control, not communication. Once the government sees that overreach is workable, it\u2019s replayed, every few years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Beat The Press <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by WorldTribune Staff, August 10, 2025 Real World News Yes, a tree falling in the woods makes a sound. But don’t ask Nova Scotians to verify that. Authorities in the Canadian province, which is 75 percent forests, have ordered people to stay out of God’s untainted creation or face fines of up to $25,000, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":148602,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[195,290,3,9,10,12,44,5],"tags":[363,6],"class_list":["post-148601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-americas","category-canada","category-exclusives","category-rest-of-the-best","category-top-stories","category-world-links","category-world-news","category-world-tribune","tag-canadians-in-nova-scotia-banned-from-hiking-in-the-woods","tag-worldtribune-com","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}