The Nova Scotia government is picking up 3,242 hectares of forestry land in western Nova Scotia in ex- change for debts owed the province by family-owned lumber company Freeman and Son of Greenfield, according to the Chronicle Herald Thursday.
The land, in 19 blocks scattered across Kings, Lunenburg, Shelburne, Queens, and Annapolis counties, is owned by the long-time Queens County sawmiller.
Collectively, the parcels include about 12.5 kilometres of lake waterfront. About 55 per cent of them have not been logged.
Of the 5.3 million hectares of land in Nova Scotia, about one-third is owned by the province. In other provinces, the Crown owns half to 90 per cent.
The province did not say whether the sale covers all of the debt owed.
According to a paper submitted to the province to help form a new Natural Resources Strategy, Freeman and Son is among the oldest family businesses in Nova Scotia, having operated sawmills in Greenfield, Queens County since 1832.
The company owns more than 10,000 hectares of woodland, and is the county’s second largest employer, with 120 year-round direct employees and significant economic benefits in Halifax and Western Nova Scotia.
The paper estimated the company produces 65 million board feet of lumber and value-added lumber products annually.