33 Citizens Invest to Preserve Forests Throughout Province

April 20, 2022- Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS

New business model uses community-investment to preserve private forests and fight climate change

A new Nova Scotia company built to preserve forests and remove carbon from the atmosphere has reached an important milestone in its growth.

Built to be a solution to two problems for the planet and the Province – carbon emissions and clearcutting on private lands – Growing Forestslands Inc. (Growing Forests) has announced that they have exceeded their minimum thresholds on their current start-up investment round. With more than $440,000 committed so far from 33 local investors, Growing Forests is now launching their operations and continuing to raise investment from NS residents concerned about the climate change and the amount of clearcutting that occurs every year on private lands.

“We are a company made up of regular citizens who all want to step up, put our money where our mouth is, and preserve forests throughout the Province” says Dale Prest, CEO and Chairperson of Growing Forests. “Climate change is the challenge of our times, and nothing is better at removing carbon from the atmosphere right now than is preserving and growing more forests. That’s what we do: we grow forests.”

50,000 acres of private forest was clearcut in 2019 – 11 times the size of the Halifax Peninsula. This has a significantly negative impact on carbon storage, wildlife and sustainable rural economies for decades to come.

“Private woodlot owners often find themselves backed into a corner as they get older” says Prest. “Many require income from their forests to renovate their houses, due to an unexpected crisis or a myriad of other reasons. With few options, many are faced with selling their forests to the highest bidder who will often cut every tree they can sell. We created Growing Forests so that landowners who find themselves in this position and don’t have a clear succession plan can receive fair value for their forests while being reassured that their woodlots will be managed in a responsible manner long into the future.”

Growing Forests is raising community-investment to purchase woodlots from private owners who need to sell their forests. Structured using the Community Economic Development Investment Fund (CEDIF) program, an investment made in Growing Forests provides non-refundable provincial tax credits to eligible investors. With over $440,000 collected in investment so far, they have targeted a total raise of $1,200,000 for their start-up.

Already Growing Forests has purchased a 335-acre forest in Earltown, Colchester County. The property is a beautiful mix of Wabanaki-Acadian forest species and contains a portion of the locally-known Rogart Mountain Trail. The forest is estimated to store 21,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide in the trees: the same amount of carbon emitted by almost 1,200 NS residents in a single year. Growing Forests expects to be able to double this amount of carbon stored over the next decades years with their particular style of forest management that is customised to grow healthier, natural forests that securely capture and store carbon. With even more carbon stored in the forest’s soils, this flagship property is a keen example of how critical Growing Forest’s model of preserving local forests and the carbon that they store is.

Throughout April and May Growing Forests will be hosting a series of local outreach events around the Province to meet with local citizens interested in joining them as a shareholder. A local outreach event will be held April 23 in Truro at the Truro Firehall, and on April 24th in Halifax at the Halifax Public Library. To find out more about the location and timing of these events, readers are encouraged to visit Growing Forest’s website (www.growingforests.ca) and sign up to their Investor News.

About

Incorporated federally in September of 2020, Growing Forests grew out of a concern that multiple rural NS residents had about the prevalence of clearcut logging on recently sold private forests. Understanding that many aging landowners in need of the capital they had invested in their forests had few options to access that capital while also ensuring the ongoing sustainable management of their forest, Growing Forests was created to raise small amounts of investment from a large number of concerned citizen-investors to buy these woodlots and manage them in an ecological manner that captures and stores more carbon. Growing Forest’s current CEDIF investment round is open until June 28, 2022. Anyone interested in finding out more should visit www.growingforest.ca.

Warning for advertisements regarding Community Economic Development Investment Funds

(“CEDIFs”) THIS CEDIF OFFERING MAY BE A HIGH-RISK INVESTMENT. THIS OFFERING IS MADE THROUGH AN OFFERING DOCUMENT, WHICH CAN BE OBTAINED FROM AN AUTHORIZED SALES AGENT, (Dale Prest, dale@climateforest.ca, 902.817.1139). THIS OFFERING CONSTITUTES AN EXEMPT OFFERING OF THESE SECURITIES ONLY IN NOVA SCOTIA BY AUTHORIZED SALES AGENTS. INVESTORS SHOULD READ THE OFFERING DOCUMENT BEFORE MAKING AN INVESTMENT DECISION.

Contact Information

Dale Prest, CEO and Chairperson dale@growingforests.ca, 902.817.1139