Owls Head Provincial Park has been a candidate for legal protection since the 1970s. It was a key component of the Eastern Shore Seaside Park System, Our Parks and Protected Areas Plan, and more. Let’s take a look at the park’s history and the extraordinary campaign to save it.
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Courtesy of Sarah de Coutere and friends. You can click to enlarge.
(more…)There’s a saying, “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” which refers to the synergy that is created when the pieces all complete each other and contribute to a greater experience.
Owls Head was not appraised by the secret real estate deal guys as the integral part of the whole Eastern Shore Islands that it represents.
The public lands of Owls Head, 700 acres of pristine coastal heathlands, represent an invaluable connection between the Wild Islands project and the Eastern Shore Seaside Park System. They are a classic, representative landscape of parallel quartzite ridges, bogs and coastal spruce forests with a globally rare plant community.
“While Owls Head is making headlines as Nova Scotia’s ‘newest’ provincial park, it’s actually a park 47 years in the making,” said Lindsay Lee, Secretary of Eastern Shore Forest Watch Association. “After nearly five decades of public consultations, government plans and scientific studies, Owls Head Provincial Park is finally getting the legal protection it needs and deserves.”
To understand just how significant that is, it’s important to understand where we started.
(more…)“The evidence on this Motion clearly establishes that Owl’s Head was portrayed to the public as a Provincial Park. Government documentation and maps, going back as far as 1978, refer to the area as “Owl’s Head Provincial Park”. Further, it was managed by Lands and Forestry to maintain its reserve status. The public had every reason to assume Owl’s Head was a Provincial Park and, therefore, attracted protections not available on Crown lands.”
NS Supreme Court Justice Kevin Coady, Interlocutory Decision, Page 3 (Emphasis is Ours)