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.

Deep Roots

The stories of climate change and sea-level rise are written in the rocky shores and beaches of Nova Scotia’s Atlantic Coast. The eroded headlands and glacial till have created the migrating sand platforms, our beaches, and marshes. Drowned bays, coves, and inlets, cobble storm berms, rock ridges, and cliffs all stretch along the length of the Eastern and South Shores.

Owls Head has long been recognized as a “representative” coastal landscape, first as a candidate National Park component, then as a survivor of the community battles to emerge as a Provincial Natural Environment Park component of the Eastern Shore Seaside Park System.

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By Christopher Trider, ago
Lily Pond

Water

“The bogs and coastal wetlands of Owl’s Head are beautiful, complex, pristine, and undervalued. Development of the site would completely, irrevocably, and utterly destroy the natural hydrology of Owl’s Head and impact surrounding marine waters.”   

—Christopher Trider

Water. We take it for granted, but it’s important. Owl’s Head has this incredible relationship with water, both on the site and with the adjacent marine areas.

The entire headland of Owls Head acts as a water recharge area. Water is held in the sloughs between the ridges, it filters through the bogs and barrens, then finds its way into the sea at various points. The drainage patterns are a complex, uncharted maze with small ponds and pools, raised bogs, and Douglas Lake. This hydrology is just another layer, another reason to protect the natural integrity of these public lands. (more…)

By Christopher Trider, ago
Gilberts Land on Owls Head

We Fight On

We are fighting to save Owls Head Provincial Park.

We are fighting on many fronts and must remain vigilant.

The Court case—thank you Eastern Shore Forest Watch and N.S. Biologist Bob Bancroft—opens another front. It gives us oxygen, like Katie Porter’s report, the public meeting at Ship Harbour, the work of Richard Bell in the Eastern Shore Cooperator, the hundreds of people who have joined this group and share its posts, the work of Stan Frantz on the website, Sydnee Lynn’s determination to stop the sale and destruction of Owls Head, the work of the Conservation Groups: CPAWS and the EAC. The comments, the posts, the public engagement, and dialogue are all keeping us moving forward together, an army of common purpose.

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By Christopher Trider, ago