08/25/2026
You can tell very quickly that Medway Community Forest Co-operative really cares about this land. They’re doing the hands-on work of figuring out and implementing what the forest needs, stand by stand and tree by tree.
Medway is a member-led co-operative managing more than 15,000 hectares of Crown land in Annapolis County. Walking through the forest with their team, that number felt almost misleadingly large. Their attention is minute. They notice which trees are growing, which species are missing, what’s regenerating, and what the forest might need decades from now. It felt as though every tree was known.
The care, work and love poured into this project are impossible to miss. Its mission is to support local communities through sustainable and ecologically-based forest management, recognizing that a forest can sustain ecological, economic, and social value all at once. Medway isn’t just making the argument that forestry on public land could be more ecological or community-led. They’re demonstrating that new way of doing things in real life and making it a working model that we can all learn from.
If you’d like to support their work and experience some of that magic yourself, Medway has just opened a new campground near Stave Lake. Its five walk-in sites are tucked into mature mixedwood forest, many overlooking Lower Stave Lake. You get the feeling of backcountry camping only 400 metres from your car, and one site is fully accessible.
Go spend a night inside a different vision for Nova Scotia’s forests.
For more people and projects proving that a different forest future is possible, visit our website through the link in our bio.
