Public Lands

Endangered Spaces

Blue Mountain - Birch Cove Lakes

Cumberland

East Hants

Eigg Mountain - James River

Five Bridge Lakes

Fogarty's Cove

Gully Lake

Herring Cove Backlands

Humes River

Kluscap Mountain

Lake Major - Musquodoboit

Liscomb

Nictaux River

Prospect

Sackville - Beaverbank

Shelburne Barrens

Ship Harbour Long Lake

Tobeatic (additions)

Tusket River

News

Issues

Take Action

The Coalition

Links

Site Map

Gully Lake Saved!

Click here for details

"It's as far back as you can go without coming out the other side."
-- W. Kitchener MacDonald, the "Hermit of Gully Lake", on why
he chose to live for over 50 years in the Gully Lake Woods

Size & Location

The initial proposed Gully Lake Wilderness Area consisted of roughly 4,600 hectares of Crown Land at the eastern edge of the Cobequid Mountains in central Nova Scotia. The area lies 25 kilometers northeast of Truro and straddles the watershed divide between the Northumberland Strait and the Minas Basin.

Gully Lake

Natural Description

The proposed Wilderness Area is a forested oasis found in a rugged landscape underlain primarily by granite, but also by other softer Carboniferous rocks. The hills of Gully Lake range in elevation from 400' to nearly 1,000' and are the source of many headwater streams that flow to both the north and south. Two of northern Nova Scotia's major river systems, River John and the Salmon River, begin in this wilderness. The forest canopy consists of both conifers and hardwoods, including mature sugar maple, yellow birch, and beech. The older forests provide excellent habitat for many bird species including pileated woodpecker and great-horned owl.

Outstanding Natural Features

Excellent representation of the Cobequid Mountain natural landscape, and partial representation of the Central Rolling Hills natural landscape; captures transition zone between the two regions
Headwater streams for River John, flowing to the Northumberland Strait, and the Salmon River, flowing to Minas Basin
Refuge for diverse flora and fauna, including common loon, bald eagle, great-horned owl, ragged fringed orchid, and moose; possible habitat for rare plants, including Allium tricoccum (Wild Leek), Lilium canadense (Canada Lily), and Erythronium americana (Dog's Tooth Violet)

Outstanding Recreational Features

The region's most popular backcountry recreation destination (e.g., hiking, hunting, fishing)
Significant eco-tourism potential

Threats

Gully Lake is one of the last remaining large blocks of public land in central Nova Scotia that hasn't been cut in recent decades. Like most forested areas in the province, Gully Lake was becoming increasingly attractive to the lumber and pulp and paper industry. If left unprotected it would have likely been cut in the near future. In addition, mineral interests were eager to explore the area for gold and other mineral resources.

Protecting Gully Lake has secured a wilderness representative for northern Colchester County and part of Pictou County. Previously there were no Protected Wilderness Areas in northern mainland Nova Scotia at all.

Protecting the Gully Lake hills was not a new idea. In the early 1990s over 2,300 people from northern Colchester and Pictou Counties signed a petition calling on the Province not to trade the area to Scott Paper (later Kimberly-Clark, now Neenah Paper). The Province backed down on the trade but left the area unprotected.

In the fall of 1999 Premier John Hamm received several hundred letters calling for Gully Lake to be designated under the Wilderness Areas Protection Act. Another local petition was circulated in 2000/2001 during the public consultation on the provinces' proposed IRM plan. Over 2,500 signatures were collected this time calling for protection of both Gully Lake and nearby Eigg Mountain - James River in Antigonish County. The municipalities of Pictou County, Colchester County and Truro all passed unanimous resolutions endorsing a Wilderness Area designation for Gully Lake.

The then Minister of Environment, Ron Russell announced in November 1999 that his department would undertake a preliminary review of Gully Lake to assess its merits as a protection candidate. This development was a positive first step towards designating Gully Lake under the Wilderness Areas Protection Act. Unfortunately the report was never released to the public.

Then in July 2003, after years of public outcry, the Nova Scotia Government finally committed to protecting this area as well as Eigg Mountain-James River and 5 new nature reserves in its new Green Plan. Click here for more details.

In September 2003 the newly re-elected Hamm government reinforced the Green Plan commitments to protect these two areas in its Speech From The Throne. Click here for more details.

During the summer of 2004 the government released a socio-economic study and proposed boundaries for the two new candiate Protected Areas and conducted an extensive public consultation. The public feedback was, not surprisingly, overwhelmingly in favour of protection. The boundaries put forward by government were smaller than the whole crown land blocks that had been advocated for. This was done primarily to accommodate forestry companies with road and/or silviculture investments already in place along the outer edges of the areas. Nevertheless, the proposed boundaries did capture the most important habitat and the near-pristine "hearts" of the two areas and were ultimately deemed acceptable to NSPLC member groups and the general public. In the end, there was near unanimous support for government's candidate areas. Click here for more details.

Associated Member Groups

This initiative was supported by the Pictou County Naturalists, Cobequid Salmon Association, Nova Scotia Salmon Association, and Nova Scotia Bird Society. It was also supported by Truro Municipal Council, The Municipality of Colchester County and the Municipality of Pictou County.