The National Forestry Database has lots of historical data about forest harvest in Nova Scotia.
There is a miniscule amount of federal harvest, and about 80% of the harvest is done on private land.
In 25 years 1.2 million hectares was harvested. That's about 4633 square miles, or 22% of Nova Scotia's landmass (20,441 sq. mi).
Generally, the harvest is declining since the 1990s, as is the proportion that is clearcut.
Something over 80% is softwood
Google Earth Engine is a nifty portal into decades of Landsat and Sentinel-2 data. It can be configured to examine particular bands or to compare images from different dates. The Hansen et al. (2013) Global Forest Change dataset in Earth Engine represents forest change, at 30 meters resolution, globally, between 2000 and 2017.
It's highly accurate - about 98% over 16 years:
Here is the 2017 Hansen map for Nova Scotia:
Yellow - Gain
Red - Loss
One can't help noticing the patterns of especially heavy harvest in the Cape Breton Highlands, Colchester, Pictou, Queens, Kings and Annapolis. I don't know the precise methodology Hansen uses, but it works. It can be tricky to classify the 30m pixels - season, cloud cover and other variables introduce some uncertainty. But assuming Hansen did diligent science, the ratio of gain to loss is only about 8%, reflecting sow growth. Not sustainable!
Here is a color image of an area on the Eastern Shore:And a close up of the Hansen classifications for 2017, showing pretty good but imperfect correspondence.
