February 5, 2020
By Sue Corser
Dear Mr. Ince;
RE: OWLS HEAD PARK RESERVE
I am writing to you as my representative in the Nova Scotia Legislative Assembly. I am gravely concerned about the actions of the McNeil Government to secretly de-list the Owls Head Park Reserve and commence a process to sell these lands to a private interest.
You no doubt know some or all of the history and efforts to identify and protect lands along the eastern shore and across Nova Scotia as part of a park and protected areas strategy. You may also be aware that these efforts have been ongoing for more than four decades and many, many citizens have participated over and over to ensure a certain future for these precious lands.
I first attended meetings on identifying and protecting Nova Scotia’s important and ecologically significant lands when I was only 10, and so began a lifetime of work, personally and professionally to study, support, engage, and act.
This process to dispose of the Owls Head’s lands must stop. You, as a member of this government, can and must act to see it stopped and be a voice toward advancing permanent legal protection of the Owls Head Park Reserve and the many other important lands identified by extensive scientific and consultative processes. If the province does not care to be the steward of these lands belonging to the citizens of Nova Scotia, then please enter into immediate discussions with the Nova Scotia Nature Trust to ensure a certain future for the intact and ecologically significant and rare lands that are Owls Head.
Our natural world is in trouble; the natural world that supports life… all life! We must increasingly preserve and protect natural lands for future generations… for future clean water, for future clean air, for future biodiversity… for our future, and that of our children and their children…
There is no money to be made in the sale of the Owls Head Park Reserve lands. Its value lies in its current state… pristine, pure, nurturing, life-supporting, and beautiful. People come to Nova Scotia for experiences like that of Owls Head. They come and they spend money, lots of money – they support local businesses, they rent kayaks, they eat, they sleep, they shop… and they come back! THIS is the only economic argument for Owls Head!
Thank you for taking the time to read my letter. I trust, as my elected representative, you will be conveying my concerns directly to Premier McNeil and the Ministers of Environment and Lands and Forests.
Sue Corser
Thank you to Sue Corser, who has given permission for her letter to be posted on this site.
