Mary Jane Rodger, Mhari Lamarque, and the Medway Community Forest Coop

The Just Good Business Podcast

The Medway Community Forest Co-op (MCFC) is located in Annapolis County near the communities of Annapolis Royal, Bear River, South Milford, Springfield, New Germany, and Caledonia. The 15,000 ha area was determined through careful analysis of the landscape. The resulting area is the best possible fit of considerations such as roads and access, forest type and volume, watersheds, current parcel boundaries, conservation and biodiversity values, recreation potential, and archaeological knowledge.

The community forest land lies entirely within the UNESCO Southwest Nova Biosphere Reserve, and is also directly adjacent to Kejimkujik National Park and Historic Site, the Tobeatic Wilderness Area, the recently established Medway Lakes Wilderness Area, and multiple Nature Reserves. The land also encloses a system of lakes and rivers that provide significant recreation values. The area also represented a core cluster of high conservation values (HCVs) that were identified in the former Bowater Mersey management plan.

To learn more about MCFC, visit https://www.medwaycommunityforest.com/

Mary Jane has worked with the MCFC since 2015, minus a small term with the federal government in 2022-2023. She is happy to be back at the MCFC and managing several innovative projects to steward and restore Wabanaki forests on both Crown and private lands. Mary Jane has been involved with many facets of Nova Scotia’s shift to ecological forestry, playing an influential role the Lahey Forest Practices Review and serving on the Department of Natural Resources initial Minister’s Advisory Committee.

To connect with MJ, reach out on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-jane-rodger-521801a2/?originalSubdomain=ca

Mhari learned to love the outdoors young, camping and exploring Nova Scotia. In 2016, she completed her Master’s in Resource and Environmental Management at Dalhousie University and proceeded to dive into agricultural biodiversity conservation work. She is a farmer and woodlot owner herself, growing vegetables and flowers on a small holding on the South Shore of Nova Scotia.

To connect with Mhari, reach out on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mhari-lamarque-18a350274/

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