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Sprawl

Many of our Nova Scotian cities and towns are growing; and as they grow, they are spreading out into the landscapes that surround them. This is called urban sprawl. In many cases, including that of Halifax, the largest city in the province, the surrounding landscape is in a state of relative wildness. In these numerous cases where wilderness surrounds cities and towns, urban development poses a real threat to protecting the wild heritage of the province.

In some cases Public Land is actually sold off to developers to transform it into housing subdivisions, resulting in the permanent loss of wilderness. In other cases the private land surrounding Public Land is developed, resulting in significant impacts to the adjacent Public Land. One tragic example of this is the Colpitt Lake development just outside of Halifax which has recently been approved by city council. It will see over 800 houses built on the shores of a privately owned lake which is upstream of a large tract of Public Land. A local community group has worked very hard over the last decade to restore the MacIntosh Run (which is a river flowing from Colpitt Lake) back into a river teeming with life. Sadly, one of the inevitable results of excavating for new housing developments is massive erosion which spills huge volumes of soil into water courses, clouding up rivers and lakes, and killing many of the plants and animals living in the water. In this case, the Proposed Herring Cove Backlands Wilderness Area will likely loose some of its value as part of a completed Protected Areas Network, as it becomes polluted by poor land planning in the surrounding environment.

Recreational/Rural Property Development

The rise in development of new urban development is mirrored in rural areas, as urban dwellers increasingly look to own a place where they can "get away from it all". The building of recreational properties can have all of the same impacts as urban development; siltation (clouding) of rivers and lakes, sewage runoff, increased noise pollution which inhibits wildlife from normal behaviour, and the building of roads which carve up the landscape into smaller and smaller pieces. One of the most important aspects to a functioning Protected Areas Network is a few core areas in which there is little to no human impact. Rural development throughout the province makes these relatively large unpopulated and roadless areas ever harder to find.

Agricultural/Industrial Development

Private and Public Land is also being lost in Nova Scotia to the clearing of land for industrial and agricultural sites. The growth of industrial and agricultural sites can result in similar increases in road building and noise pollution as urban and rural development. Beyond this, industrial and agricultural sites often create local pollution, which always spreads at least somewhat into surrounding landscapes. Public land can be severely affected by the herbicides and pesticides used in industrial farming which spread quickly once they get into ground and surface water. Similarly, industrial sites often create airborne and waterborne pollutants which have far reaching impacts on the environments situated nearby.

Urban Development Links