At the HRM Budget Committee on Wednesday, March 29, 2023, the HRM Council has an opportunity to put a Coordinator in place for implementing the Halifax Green Network Plan (HGNP).
We urge supporters of the Backlands to express their support for such a position by calling your Counciilor/writing the Mayor and Council..
More background is provided in this opinion piece published on the EAC website today: Continue reading
By Martha Leary
Barred Owl, commonly sighted in the Backlands, overwinters here By Mdf – Taken by Mdf, CC BY-SA 3.0,
It’s February and time for the Great Backyard Bird Count.
Sponsored by the Audubon Society, this bird count is easy peasy. Watch in your own backyard for as little 15 minutes or take a short winter hike in your favourite part of the Backlands and send the record of your observations to birdcount.org Information from their websites tells us: “Recently, more than 300,000 participants submitted their bird observations online, creating the largest instantaneous snapshot of global bird populations ever recorded.” With bird numbers declining, your input helps us learn more about what kinds of measures help bird populations to be successful during these times of climate change.
David Patriquin and the Backlands Coalition have created a special project on iNaturalist to help us understand the natural world of birds, plants, fungi and animals in the Backlands. If you are within the Backlands and record your observations on iNaturalist, your observations will be tallied on the project Halifax Backlands for the use of all https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/halifax-ns-backlands Continue reading
In saltwire.com, Feb 2, 2023: PERSPECTIVE: Protect natural assets Nova Scotia has left
by Sheila Stevenson, co-chair of the Ferguson’s Cove Neighbourhood Association and a member of Our HRM Alliance.
She also sent the text City Clerk for distribution to the Mayor and Council who will be discussing the Green Network Plan tomorrow (Feb 7, 2023) re: Item No. 8 Halifax Regional Council February 7, 2023 SUBJECT: Green Network Plan Coordination and Resourcing
Some extracts from Sheila’s Op-ed:
Rome was burning, Nero fiddled. A similar story is playing out in Halifax Regional Municipality as natural landscapes and natural assets are obliterated before our eyes.
Click on image to go to the Halifax Green Network Plan (2018)
The objectives of “growth” and “speeding up development” espoused by the premier and his housing task force are accelerating what Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, calls “the orgy of destruction,” causing loss of biodiversity and speeding up climate change.
Halifax regional council accepted, as policies, the Halifax Green Network Plan (2018) and HalifACT, the Climate Action Plan (2020), but development practices such as filling in wetlands and wiping out plant communities continue to destroy natural systems that freely offer goods and services: clean water, nutrient cycling, water purification, climate regulation, erosion control, clean air, food, fiber, recreational spaces and wildlife corridors… Continue reading
Received from EAC:
“A Protecting Wetlands Workshop cohosted by the Ecology Action Centre, Nature Nova Scotia and Halifax Regional Municipality, [will be] taking place on World Wetlands Day (Thursday February 2) from 9:00am to 12:30pm at the Captain Spry Centre in Halifax. To register for the morning session use this link:https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=B4ytwUMUokqYQUBKkBSIlgqELyam8z9Mptu5wN-Dey9UNjVTN1ozRFhDTEM4TkFXTlZVQ1lDOFBYTi4u
“This workshop will bring together a variety of stakeholders throughout the HRM who have interests in Nova Scotia wetlands and wetland management. This exploratory and collaborative workshop will include brief presentations about different aspects of wetlands in Nova Scotia, followed by activities for participants to brainstorm and discuss ideas of visions for future wetlands management.
“Later in the day, from 6:30pm to 8:30pm, the Ecology Action Centre and Nature Nova Scotia will be hosting a similar workshop geared towards the public. During both workshops there will be an opportunity for local groups and organizations to set up a small exhibition table with posters or other educational materials for workshop participants to look at.”
Join us for this Nature NS Talk:
“The Chebucto Peninsula and Moose Habitat Connectivity”
Tues Jan 10th at 7 pm. Recorded on YouTube
UPDATE Jan 10, 2023
A few items of interest from the webinar:
– The main reasons for excluding the Chebucto Peninusla from the CORE areas for Mainland Moose are, to paraphrase, (i) the low number of moose, on the Chebucto Peninsula even in better times, and (ii) the very poor connectivity between the interior of the Chebucto Peninsula and the greater NS mainland due to development/major highways along the neck of the peninsula. The target is to bring the population up to 5000 animals province-wide and the Chebucto Peninsula will simply not play a significant role in reaching that target. K.B., a member of the Moose Recovery Team said she strongly advocated for including the Chebucto Peninusula as a CORE area, but understood the reasons that was rejected by the team as a whole and she noted that nevertheless, the moose on the Chebucto Peninsula are still protected.
The Chebucto Peninsula, courtesy of Plasma_east
– There was a lot of discussion of the need for increasing wildlife connectivity between the Chebucto Peninsula and the greater NS mainland regardless of the moose issue. Concern was expressed that the NS Government is not giving much attention to this issue, e.g. as massive new road building is announced.
– C.C. emphasized the importance of ‘building up, not out’ in urban areas so as reduce impacts on wildlife habitat in more rural areas; social equity is part of the issue as well.
– M.L. noted that a lot of the interior of Chebucto Peninsula is roadless and protected; development occurs mostly around the periphery. Significantly, the interior generally hosts very few white-tailed deer*
*Low deer numbers are very much a positive benefit for moose because of the role of deer in propagating moose brainworm.
– M.L., who knows the area well and has been looking for moose and signs of moose (especially their browse of red maple), is confident that there are at least 5 animals on the Chebucto Peninsula currently, and that there has been calving in recent years. He observed a dead moose this past December, the death apparently due to natural causes (he mentioned predation) rather than poaching. Continue reading
Wrote birder Joshua Barss Donham on New Years Day:
Happy New Year to all!
Majesty in the Backlands! Watched this magnificent Bald Eagle dry its wings and preen while perched in a pine overlooking the lower Macintosh Run this afternoon. Spryfield, 1 January 2023. #keepthebacklandswild
Click on images for larger versions.
Continue reading
Alan Ruffman, a marine geologist well known to the environmental community in the Halifax area and a regular participant in public hearings related to the Backlands, passed away on Dec 28, 2022. Some extracts from A legacy of community activism: Alan Ruffman dies at 82 by Vernon Ramesar · CBC News Dec 31, 2022: Continue reading
From Nova Scotia Nature Trust*:
“We’re excited to announce six new protected areas across the province that will be secured before the end of 2022, from Cape Breton to the south shore. On the heels of the recent COP15 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, halting biodiversity loss has never felt more urgent, with world leaders now aligned on a global target to protect 30 per cent of the planet by 2030. This announcement is a timely step toward that ambitious goal…The Nature Trust’s newest protected areas include:
This CBC item of a few years ago is a wonderful and “seasonally appropriate” introduction to the Mik’maq language.
To delve further into this truly incredible language, as a settler descendant I highly recommend The Language of this Land, Mi’kma’ki by Trudy Sable and Bernie Francis (2012 and 2018): Continue reading
Red-breasted Nuthatch, an old forest species,
in the stands of old pine near the Williams
Lake Dam in theShaw Wilderness Park where
they nest.
Backlands Birders Joshua Barss Donham and Fulton Lavender prepared presentations on the theme “Birds in the Backlands: Indicators of the Health of the Habitat” for a Backlands Ecology Workshop that we held recently.
In Forest Birds in the Backlands, Joshua looks at how many bird species characteristic of immature, regenerating, and mature (old) forest occur in the Backlands. It turns out they are all well represented, reflecting the mosaic nature of Backlands habitats.
The Common Nighthawk, a Species-at-Risk in Nova Scotia, nests on barrens in the Backlands
Fulton Lavender looks at two groups of specialist birds: Goatsuckers and Raptors, again, both, and the former uniquely, represented in the Backlands
So they give us more to celebrate about our Backlands, and incentive for us to work to ensure that the next seven generations can do the same.
Many Thanks, Joshua & Fulton.
