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Proposed Lake Major To Musquodoboit Valley Wilderness Corridor

Size & Location

Lake Major: Provincial and municipal lands on the west and north side of Lake Major - Water supply for the city of Dartmouth
Soldier Lake: All Crown lands linking Soldier Lake with Waverley - Salmon River Long Lake Wilderness Area
Porters Lake fingers: Two narrow strips of Crown land linking the Waverley - Salmon River Long Lake Wilderness Area to Porters Lake and Myra Road.
Lands surrounding Clattenburgh Brook Wilderness Area: This area is bounded by a gas pipeline and private lands to the north, Waverley - Salmon River Long Lake Wilderness Area to the west, private lands to the south, and Dollar Lake Provincial Park and private lands to the east. Protecting this portion effectively transforms three small and disconnected protected areas into a single large swath of protected wilderness.

Lake Major - Musquodoboit

Natural Description

The urban fringe of Halifax/Dartmouth and the pastoral landscape of the Musquodoboit Valley in the interior of central Nova Scotia are separated by thirty kilometres of forests and lakes. In this space lie three protected sites: Waverley-Salmon River Long Lake Wilderness Area (9,278 hectares), Clattenburgh Brook Wilderness Area (1,840 hectares) and Dollar Lake Provincial Park (989 hectares).

This Proposed Wilderness Area aims to connect these islands of protected habitat by protecting public lands between them, creating an unbroken corridor of wild forests and undeveloped lakes linking the city and the valley.

You can't put nature in a box! Connecting protected areas allows plants and animals to migrate and reduces the threat of ecological stresses and edge effects from potential adjacent land uses like clearcutting. Many species confined to small islands of protected habitat surrounded by development are doomed to extinction. The proposed Lake Major to Musquodoboit Valley wilderness corridor would give nature (and people) room to roam.

Outstanding Natural Features

A 30 kilometre corridor of wild forests and undeveloped lakes linking metro Halifax with the Musquodoboit Valley
Greater protection for much of the Lake Major water supply watershed for Dartmouth
Improved representation of Nova Scotia's "Central Quartzite Hills and Plains" and "Eastern Shore Granite Ridge" natural regions
Lots of Lakes! O'Brien Lake, Bell Lake, MacKay Lake, Little Camp Lake, Camp Lake, Lake No Good, Horseshoe Lake, Dark Pond, Clump Lake, Rocky Lake, Ledwidge Lake, McCullough Lake, Otter Lake, Cousins Lake, Christopher Lake

Recreational Opportunities

The current isolation of existing protected areas in the area north of Halifax/Dartmouth limits their ability to provide high quality outdoor recreation. Who really wants to experience woods that are carved up by logging roads, paved highways, and clearcuts? Instead, we should seek to preserve and maintain this area for its outstanding recreational features including:

Traditional hunting and fishing destinations including the Fish Hawk Nest River
Hiking opportunities on existing and proposed trails
Wilderness canoeing minutes from dowtown Dartmouth

Threats

A proposal to extend Myra Road through the corridor area in the early 1980s first sparked interest in safeguarding this wilderness. When the Province identified Waverley - Salmon River Long Lake and Clatteburgh Brook as Wilderness Area candidates in the early 1990s, many local residents were surprised and disappointed that a narrow unprotected corridor was left between the two sites. The Halifax Wildlife Association wrote,

"We cannot stress enough to the government, the utter futility of proposing the preservation of these sites on the one hand, then purposely leaving a corridor between them to allow the passage of a highway on the other. We urge you to recommend that (the sites) be joined and made one"

In addition, urban sprawl creeps ever closer and forestry threatens to consume the best of what's left.

In 1995, the Parks Division at the Department of Natural Resources assessed the gap between the two sites for protection in 1995. Parks Division recommended that the gap be protected. In 1998 the Ecology Action Centre recommended to the Province that additional lands be protected to complete a longer wilderness corridor, from metro Halifax to the Musquodoboit Valley. So far nothing has been done.

Take action to help save this important wilderness area!