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Ship Harbour Long Lake Wilderness Area

SAVED on September 17, 2009! Please click here for details

Size & Location

The proposed Ship Harbour Long Lake Wilderness Area encompasses roughly 17,000 hectares of public land between White Lake Wilderness Area and Tangier Grand Lake Wilderness Area. It includes portions of the lower Musquodoboit River and Salmon River watersheds, a large roadless plateau between Salmon River Lake and Ship Harbour Long Lake, and the Fish River corridor from the head of Lake Charlotte east to Scraggy Lake. The majority of this area was proposed to become a National Park by Parks Canada in the 1970's.

Natural Description

The Ship Harbour Long Lake Wilderness Area spans four natural landscapes, with roughly 85% of the site lying in the "Central Quartzite Hills and Plains (Fish River)" landscape. The rugged western portion, bordering White Lake Wilderness Area, is characterized by granite cliffs, thin rocky soils, numerous lakes, and softwood dominated forests.

Moving eastward, the site becomes underlain by 500 million year old Meguma Group rocks. Lakes are less common, giving way to bogs and other wetlands. Miles from the nearest road, the vegetation is dominated by dense Acadian mixed forest. Old stands of red spruce, white pine, and yellow birch line the slopes of Ship Harbour Long Lake, and can be followed to the mouth of the Fish River at the head of Lake Charlotte. More old forests line the erratic corners of the Fish River as it zigzags upstream towards the jagged and windswept shores of Scraggy Lake.

Outstanding Natural Features

Excellent representation of the "Central Quartzite Hills and Plains (Fish River)" natural landscape; partial representation of three other landscapes
Wilderness corridor between Whites Lake Wilderness Area, Lake Charlotte North Provincial Park Reserve and Tangier-Grand Lake Wilderness Area
Includes one of the largest remaining roadless areas in Halifax County
Over fifty interconnected and undeveloped lakes; ten kilometres of undeveloped shoreline on Ship Harbour Long Lake
Added protection for the Musquodoboit River, one of the last strongholds for Atlantic Salmon on the Eastern Shore
Numerous old forests, including several concentrations of old red spruce, white pine and yellow birch along Ship Harbour Long Lake and Fish River; many old forest dependent bird species
Wilderness corridor along Salmon River canoe route between White Lake Wilderness Area and Jeddore Harbour would form Nova Scotia's first protected corridor linking interior lakes with the ocean
Only Crown land block on west side of Lake Charlotte

Outstanding Recreational Features

Excellent backcountry canoeing and camping, including at Scraggy Lake and Ship Harbour Long Lake
Traditional hunting and fishing destinations on Fish River system
Accessible from the Trans Canada Trail along the abandoned Musquodoboit Railway
Outstanding ecotourism potential

Threats

Nova Scotia's Eastern Shore has always ranked among the wildest regions in the Maritimes: vast forests of spruce and pine dotted with hardwood hills and pristine lakes, woven together by a web of wild rivers flowing to deep harbours on the Atlantic Ocean. The fishing was always good, the forest never far away.

This wild legacy is slipping away. Each year the Province of Nova Scotia approves cutting plans from Kimberly Clark, StoraEnso, and a handful of sawmills that result in over a thousand acres of publicly-owned Eastern Shore wilderness being destroyed by new clearcuts and logging roads. Time is running out for the few remaining large blocks of unprotected Crown forest.

Protecting this site will help retain and restore native forests on the Eastern Shore. The Wilderness Area links existing protected forests by keeping the wilderness corridor between them intact. Keeping industrial development out of the corridor will also save many popular backcountry recreation destinations for future generations to explore and enjoy. Most of the corridor was leased to Scott Paper (now Kimberly Clark) in 1965.

In July, 2000 Halifax Regional Municipal Council passed a resolution asking the provincial Department of the Environment to commence a feasibility study on protecting Ship Harbour Long Lake "as soon as possible".

In July 2001 the Ecology Action Centre obtained a copy of Kimberly-Clark's harvesting plans for the Ship Harbour Long Lake area through a Freedom of Information Act request. The plans, approved by the Department of Natural Resources, called for over 122.5 hectares of new clearcuts and the construction of a new 6.3 km logging road into the heart of the wilderness east of Ship Harbour Long Lake. The company's plans triggered protests from the Nova Scotia Public Lands Coalition and residents of the Eastern Shore, including Eastern Shore MLA Bill Dooks.

Associated Member Groups

This initiative is supported by the Eastern Shore Forest Watch (ESFW), Canoe Nova Scotia, Musquodoboit Trailways Association, Nova Scotia Salmon Association, and the Musquodoboit Harbour Ratepayers Association.