Save Owls Head

Jacob Fillmore’s Speech: Save Owls Head Demonstration

Hello everyone, I’m Jacob Fillmore, and it feels great to be eating again.

Thank you all for coming to this rally to show your support for Bob Bancroft and the Eastern Shore Forest Watch Association. Today, I’d like to talk a bit about Owl’s Head Provincial Park, and why I believe it should continue to be protected.

Owl’s Head, touted by the provincial government itself as a “globally rare ecosystem,” has significant biodiversity and ecological value, and is home to the critically endangered Piping Plover. Though there are believed to be fewer than 40 mating pairs left in Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia’s Recovery Plan for the Piping Plover deems that the recovery of the species is still feasible. This is because “The primary threats (…) can be avoided or mitigated.” However, one key challenge to the recovery is habitat loss from coastal development. If we want to protect the Plovers, we cannot develop Owls Head.

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By Save Owls Head, ago

Sydnee Lynn’s Speech: Save Owls Head Demonstration

Hello everyone,

I don’t like speaking in public but since I was born and brought up right next to Owls Head Provincial Park, I thought I should say a few words.

Approximately 15-16 years ago, a stranger from the US purchased some property in Little Harbour. This property lies between my parents’ home and Owls Head Provincial Park. This was the first time that someone moved to Little Harbour, built a home and gated their property off from the rest of the community. Over the next 15-16 years, this same person purchased 21 additional properties in the community. Most of these properties are sitting vacant.

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By Save Owls Head, ago

Press Release: East Coast Environmental Law

Today, Justice Christa Brothers of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia will hear arguments in a judicial review of the Minister of Lands and Forestry’s decisions to de-list Owls Head Provincial Park from the Our Parks and Protected Areas Plan and to enter into an agreement to sell the land to a private company, Lighthouse Links, for development into a golf resort.  
 
The applicants, Robert Bancroft and the Eastern Shore Forest Watch Association, have argued that the province should have consulted the public before de-listing Owls Head. The park, while not legally designated under legislation, had long been thought to be a park. Additionally, it has been managed by the Department as a park for many years under its Parks Program. 
 
“For forty years the people of Nova Scotia have trusted successive governments which assured us that Owl’s Head was protected as a Provincial Park. Governments must be required to tell the truth about public land, and to consult the public when such a major decision is contemplated”, says Barbara Markovits, a director of the Eastern Shore Forest Watch Association.

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By Save Owls Head, ago

Court to decide the future of Owls Head

Justice Brothers has reserved her decision.

Meanwhile, Premier Iain Ranking appears not to be considering reversing the de-listing of Owls Head.

“On the plaza of the Law Courts, demonstrators have convened in support of the judicial review and they have done so with a sense of great hope,” said NDP leader Gary Burrill during Question Period yesterday.

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By Save Owls Head, ago

Information Morning: Michael Gorman

“He [Premier Rankin] has argued that he sees a way for golf courses and environmental protection to work hand in hand. That’s a bit tricky in this case. For anybody who is familiar with this land and has been out to see it, it’s hard to imagine a golf development without the land being basically carpet-bombed to make it appropriate for that type of a development.”

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By Save Owls Head, ago