Public Lands

Endangered Spaces

News

News Archive

Issues

Take Action

The Coalition

Links

Site Map

Study recommends saving Eastern Shore Wilderness Area

May 29, 2006

The Eastern Shore Forest Watch group hopes that a new wilderness study it is releasing on the proposed Ship Harbour Long Lake Wilderness Area will help convince the Province to protect it. The proposed Wilderness Area spans 170 km² of publicly-owned forests and lakes between Musquodoboit Harbour and Moose River Gold Mines. Part of the area was proposed for a National Park in the 1970s. The Eastern Shore Forest Watch group and the Nova Scotia Public Lands Coalition -- made up 50 conservation, recreation, and tourism groups in Nova Scotia -- have been advocating for the site's protection under provincial wilderness legislation since 1999.

Key findings of the study:

• A GIS (i.e., computer) analysis of road density and remaining intact forest patches found that the Ship Harbour Long Lake area contains the largest remaining unprotected wilderness in Halifax Regional Municipality. Elsewhere, most of the forest in HRM is severely fragmented by logging roads, clearcutting and human settlement.

• A longstanding provincial commitment to complete a protected areas network that captures Nova Scotia's landscape diversity is likely unachievable unless a substantial portion of the proposed Wilderness Area is protected. This is because the area contains unique combinations of ecosystems and landforms that are no longer in a natural condition anywhere else.

• Several old red spruce, white pine, and mixed conifer-hardwood stands were identified along Ship Harbour Long Lake and the Fish River. These forests are now rare in Nova Scotia.

• Protection of Ship Harbour Long Lake would link up two existing Wilderness Areas, creating a world-class backcountry canoeing destination the same size as Kejimkujik National Park, but with three times as many lakes. It would also establish Nova Scotia's first protected canoeing corridor to link interior lakes with the ocean.

• The Province should place a moratorium on forest harvesting and road building to keep the site intact until it makes a final decision on its status.

Several of these findings confirm the conclusions of preliminary assessments for the area conducted by both HRM and the provincial environment department in 2001. It is an outstanding natural Acadian Forest area that deserves to be protected. "The future of Ship Harbour Long Lake has been up in the air for six years. This study confirms its provincial significance, and the Province now needs to get on with the designation," according to Eastern Shore Forest Watch spokesperson Barbara Markovits.

About two-thirds of the area is under a long-term logging lease with Neenah Paper, which operates a pulp mill in Pictou County. Neenah Paper has agreed not to carry out any forestry activities in the area for at least the remainder of 2006 and has agreed to have another meeting with the Eastern Shore Forest Watch group later this summer to discuss the future of the area.

Copies of the study have been delivered to the company and to the provincial Ministers of Environment and Natural Resources as well as the Premier's office.

• Click here to learn more about Ship Harbour Long Lake

Public Lands |  Endangered Spaces |  News |  Issues
Take Action |  The Coalition |  Links |  Site Map

© Nova Scotia Public Lands Coalition, Ecology Action Centre, 2006