Speak Your Piece

We welcome submissions from anyone who wants to explain in their own words why the sale of Owls Head must be stopped. Anyone who has an articulate and valuable opinion to add to the cause of protecting this special place may submit articles to be published here.

Thank You Letter to the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson

Dear Minister Wilkinson,

The Save Little Harbour/Owls Head Facebook group is a grassroots movement of over 3000 concerned citizens and scientists, passionate about saving the ecologically significant property known as Owls Head Provincial Park.

We are writing to thank you for your role in transferring the federal parcel of land (PID: 00555284) adjacent to Owls Head Provincial Park, Little Harbour, Nova Scotia, to Environment and Climate Change Canada. We appreciate your commitment to honour the best and highest use of these lands.

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By Save Owls Head, ago
Halifax Green Network Plan Map Showing Essential Corridors

Timeline of Promised Protections

Owls Head Provincial Park: A Recognized Candidate for Protection for Nearly 50 Years

“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.

“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)
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By Save Owls Head, ago
Rally 2/20/2020 - photo Peter Barss

JAMIE SIMPSON: Up to citizens to challenge government when laws not followed

Contributed by Jamie Simpson
The Chronicle Herald
June 3, 2020

Thank you for the thoughtful editorial in Wednesday’s paper (“EDITORIAL: Judge to province: Listen to the Lorax,” June 3), and for drawing attention to Justice Brothers’ decision regarding the Department of Lands and Forestry’s systemic and chronic failure to fulfill its legal obligations under Nova Scotia’s Endangered Species Act. Combined with the recommendations of the Lahey Report, which stressed the need to adopt an ecological approach to forestry, the department has an opportunity to reinvent itself and let go of the outdated (and reckless) “clearcut, plant and spray” ideology. 

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By Save Owls Head, ago
Nina Newington at Rally, photo Peter Barss

Letter: No Respect by Peter Barss

This province wholeheartedly endorses open-pen fish farming that contaminates our bays with chemicals and fecal waste. It is engaged in a deal to sell off Crown land at Owls Head so a rich American can build three golf courses. It sees no problem with waterways polluted by gold mining. And it clearcuts large tracts of forest, including old growth stands.

Bob Bancroft, the Federation of Nova Scotia Naturalists and the Blomidon Naturalists Society had to spend the money and time to win a recent court case (“Nova Scotia broke endangered species law, judge rules,” May 30) that forces the province to obey its own laws designed to protect endangered species.

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By Save Owls Head, ago
Valuation Report

Valuation Report of Owls Head Provincial Park

Update: In November of 2019, Lands and Forestry had to file additional documents in the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, in response to the applicant’s request for a judicial review. As a result, we learned that the (previously redacted) price for this unique coastal ecosystem would be $306/acre. This means that 704 acres would only cost the developer $216,000, far below the asking price of nearby parcels. The appraiser (Turner and Drake) had determined the price based on the land being undevelopable, yet Lighthouse Links does plan to develop it.

The valuation report that assessed the market value of the public park lands was commissioned directly by Lighthouse Links Development Company.

It is worth noting that the effective date of valuation is August 21, 2018, over 6 months before Owls Head Provincial Park was secretly delisted on March 13, 2019.

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By Lindsay Lee, ago

Golfing in Pea Soup

The coastal location of Owls Head Provincial Park makes it unsuitable for a golf course for many reasons, including:

  • The need to protect the adjacent marine environment
  • Nova Scotians’ limited public access to the coast (roughly 5% is publicly owned)
  • Coastal erosion
  • The storm surges that are intensified by global warming
  • The incompatible climate of the site

Due to the weather along parts of the Eastern Shore, locals have been sceptical of the plan to establish golf courses at Owls Head Provincial Park.

“It is definitely colder and a lot foggier than in other places. Starts in April. When it is foggy, sometimes we can’t even see across the street to the neighours.”

Carol Ann MacPhee
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By Lindsay Lee, ago