Owls Head has long been surrounded and shaped by the ocean. The rugged landscape reflects the legacy of the ice age, and the hardy ecosystems that developed after the ice retreated mirror the unique environment in which rare plant communities now thrive.
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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.
Office of the Premier
7th Floor, One Government Place
1700 Granville Street
Halifax, NS
B3J 1X5
March 10, 2020
Dear Premier Stephen McNeil:
Owls Head is an ecologically significant area along the Eastern Shore that is deserving of legal protection. It contains a number of rare ecosystem types, as well as important habitat for migratory birds and species-at-risk. It is a key headland within the “100 wild islands” ecosystem.
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The following is an excerpt from the Nova Scotia Wetland Conservation Policy.
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Guest Post by Karen McKendry
Wilderness Outreach Coordinator, Ecology Action Centre
February 21, 2020
Owls Head Provincial Park has been proposed for legal protection as a park for a long time and effectively used as an unmanaged park since at least the 1970s. But why was it not legally protected before? And why does that matter? And what’s this plan that it was listed in?
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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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The Honorable Tony InceMLA, Cole Harbour-Portland Valley1081 Cole Harbour Rd Unit 6Cole Harbour, NSB2V 1E8 February 7, 2020 Dear Minister Ince; I am writing to you on behalf of the Cole Harbour Rural Heritage Society to express the organization’s support of the groundswell of Nova Scotians who are seeking a Read more…
If, for 45 years, successive provincial governments and, more importantly, Nova Scotians believe and treat a piece of the province as a provincial park, can the current government negate that 45-year-history, decide the land was never a park, and sell it off for private development?
Stephen McNeil’s government believes the answer to that question is “yes,” and groups determined to protect the land are adamant that it’s “no.”
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