Chris’s Corner

Christopher Trider worked for the Department of Natural Resources (now DNRR) for 21 years. As a provincial park planner, Christopher specialized in acquiring and protecting coastal properties. He designed well-loved coastal parks including MacCormacks Beach Provincial Park, Rainbow Haven Beach Provincial Park, Lawrencetown Beach Provincial Park, Pomquet Beach Provincial Park, and many more.

“I know how hard these coastal properties are to find, how hard they are to come by, how important they are for the long-term public good,” he says.

Information Morning: Christopher Trider on Owls Head Becoming Our Next Provincial Park

Christopher Trider talks to Portia Clark of CBC’s Information Morning about the government’s recent announcement about legally protecting Owls Head Provincial Park.

Christopher Trider worked for the Department of Natural Resources (now DNRR) for 21 years. As a provincial park planner, Christopher specialized in acquiring and protecting coastal properties. He designed well-loved coastal parks including MacCormacks Beach Provincial Park, Rainbow Haven Beach Provincial Park, Lawrencetown Beach Provincial Park, Pomquet Beach Provincial Park, and many more.

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By Save Owls Head, ago

The Canadian Press: Groups that fought to preserve Owls Head hail Nova Scotia’s pledge to protect it

The Nova Scotia government’s decision to protect a section of rugged Crown land along the province’s Eastern Shore from development is being hailed as proof that public mobilization can make a difference.

Chris Miller, executive director of the Nova Scotia chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, described the new park designation as the “best possible outcome” for Owls Head.

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By Lindsay Lee, ago

Thinking Bigger

Acquiring land to expand parks and protected areas is an important investment for future generations. Linking natural areas helps to protect biodiversity, provides corridors for wildlife, and improves the carrying capacity of natural systems. Carrying capacity is important in that it determines the extent to which human activity can occur in these areas without negatively impacting the ecosystems.

We should be looking at acquiring more public land at Owls Head provincial park to include in the designated area now that it will not be sold and destroyed.

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By Save Owls Head, ago

Now We Can

This reversal by the developer in the face of overwhelming public opposition presents us with the opportunity to realize a vision for the Eastern Shore as a globally significant ecotourism destination. We have said from the beginning that the Owls Head Park property is an integral, important, natural environment park Read more…

By Christopher Trider, ago

Seriously Disconnected

As I watch the climate change debate unfold in Glasgow at COP 26, I find myself wondering about how a seriously disconnected proposal like the destruction of the park lands at Owls Head to build golf courses ever got as far as it did. I can understand how a developer could have put a plan like this forward for private coastal lands that remain largely unregulated despite the growth in our understanding of the importance of natural areas. However, the large undisturbed coastal barrens, wetlands, bogs and beaches of Owls Head are public land and need to be viewed through the lens of climate change, the global loss of biodiversity, and the importance of protecting the remaining, large undisturbed coastal habitats for all species.

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By Christopher Trider, ago

Letter: Thinly Veiled Greenwash

My question is: Why not be honest and transparent about the intent of the article to greenwash the project and help set the table for the private developer? I believe the article does a disservice to Mr. Simmons, to Nova Scotians, and most importantly to the truth. […] We can say a definitive no to the sale of the park lands at Owls Head and the development of private golf courses and luxury real estate that will destroy, irreversibly, important biodiversity and significant ecological areas.

A definitive no is both warranted and essential.

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By Christopher Trider, ago

Owls Head advocate ‘cautiously optimistic’ with new N.S. premier

Tim Houston hasn’t outright said he’d stop the golf course development plans, but an advocate for the Eastern Shore land believes the premier will protect the coastal land

“There’s no question that this is an important public resource that needs to be protected and kept in public ownership,” Trider said. “We’re very confident in any sort of fair and transparent hearing that we will be victorious. And we were never offered that, we were never afforded that possibility with the Rankin government.”

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By Christopher Trider, ago