Higgins family fights for ‘green gold’

Mining company wants to expropriate part of Moose River Christmas tree farm; ‘If they can do it to us, they can do it to anyone,’ say woodlot owners

 

 

Forrest Higgins’ son Frankie leans on a gate in front of his grandfather's old homestead in Moose River last month. Australian mining company DDV Gold has requested the province expropriate the land for development of a mining property. The Higgins family, a major producer of Christmas trees, does not want to give up the land they have owned for 120 years. (PETER PARSONS / Staff)

 

TRURO — As they wait to learn if the province will expropriate part of their family’s Christmas tree farm for a gold mine, Forrest and Cleve Higgins had a message for other woodlot owners: “If they can do it to us, they can do it to anyone.”

The father and son delivered that warning here Saturday during the Federation of Nova Scotia Woodlot Owners annual general meeting.

DDV Gold Ltd., a subsidiary of Australia's Atlantic Gold, has applied to the province to expropriate the Higgins’s land through a vesting order.

The company says the property, owned by the Higgins family for 120 years, is vital to its proposed open-pit mining operation in Moose River, which could create up to 100 jobs in the area.

But the Higginses said on Saturday that there’s no guarantee the mine will even be successful. And given the implications of open-pit mining, they can’t stand the idea of seeing their land “permanently destroyed.”

There’s also the point that the Higgins family, all the way back to Forrest’s father, have been clear that the land isn’t for sale.

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