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.
I have been a Liberal voter all my life. Not a passive bystander, I have worked on six Liberal campaigns, both federal and provincial, in Ontario, P.E.I., and here in Nova Scotia. Much of my faith in the candidates whom I have supported has been rooted in the same ideology that has driven me in my career and my day-to-day life: fairness, transparency, logic, and compassion.
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Richard Bell
Eastern Shore Cooperator
February 18, 2020
The controversy over Owls Head Provincial Park began on December 18, 2019, when CBC reporter Michael Gorman reported the province had secretly decided on March 13, 2019 to sell Owls Head Provincial Park to a wealthy American who planned to build three golf courses on the site (Lighthouse Links). The decision put in jeopardy hundreds of other parcels of Crown land that the public had previously believed were protected lands that could not be removed from protection without a public hearing.
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Dr. Karen Beazley
Dalhousie Institute for Resource and Environmental Studies
Honourable Stephen McNeil, Premier,
Please do not sell public land. NS has very little public land. It should not be sold to or for private interests. The Nova Scotia Nature Trust and the Nature Conservancy of Canada are working hard to purchase and secure ecologically significant lands in NS, with substantial (several millions of dollars of) funding being provided by both private and public individuals and organizations in support of their efforts. They are focusing on connected ecological systems along the eastern shore and elsewhere to complement Provincial conservation efforts. There is strong public support of their efforts, providing solid evidence of public economic and ethical valuation of public and private land conservation in NS.
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Picture this: the ocean breeze is blowing through your hair. Imagine the sand underneath your feet. Think back to days spent at a quiet beach or walking along a rocky shore. You are building sandcastles, watching the seals following the fishing boats, looking for sea glass, digging clams, or collecting shells. Can you imagine life in Nova Scotia without these things? No, neither can I.
When we open our eyes, we see that our coasts are being taken away. More and more of us are losing our access to the shore, as land that the public has enjoyed for generations is being sold to the highest bidder. Each time the government sells the public’s coastal lands, they are also selling a crucial aspect of life in Nova Scotia.
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February 12, 2020
Dear Premier Stephen McNeil,
I am absolutely completely opposed to your government’s attempt to sell off public lands at Owls Head. This is wrong and anyone with decency, respect for the Earth, and or any kind of intelligence knows this!
These lands are important for conservation and have long been promised for legal protection as a provincial park going back decades. This LAND MUST CONTINUE to be PROTECTED AS IT IS! NO golf course or any other project / development that in any way changes this land should ever take place at Owl’s Head.
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A short but beautiful video and article from WWF-Canada explains the value of carbon sinks, and protecting sites like Owls Head, Nova Scotia.
World Wildlife Federation – Canada
Just as we need housing, wildlife need somewhere to live. Half of Canada’s monitored species are in decline, by a staggering 83 per cent, and even wildlife protected under Canada’s Species at Risk Act are failing to recover. Wildlife simply can’t survive with increasingly degraded or destroyed habitats. They need to find food, mate, migrate and raise their young. Climate change only makes matters worse.
(more…)Eastern Shore resident Susan Vickery sent us this video footage of eider ducks at Owls Head Provincial Park. Susan points out that salt marshes, including at Owls Head Provincial Park, are “unique and vital habitats for millions of migrating birds. They are a protective feeding and rest area for many shorebirds and seabirds.”
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