Bob Rosborough

Letter: Elitism & ecocide

Originally published here

Bob Rosborough’s piece attacking the opponents of an American golf venture at Owls Head is a sustained act of misdirection. Let’s leave aside that a golf course is a social and ecological catastrophe, providing ecosystem services nothing comparable to those it destroys, and only meagre, low-wage jobs: it’s too basic to merit debate. 

Let’s state facts, and underline Rosborough’s hypocrisy. Apparently, he supports the secret sale of protected land. He wants one of our few remaining pieces of public coastline in the private hands of a foreign billionaire. We who stand opposed are sheeplike “social media followers,” with no legitimate interest in our own province, influenced by “questionable, unsuccessful government employees.”

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By Save Owls Head, ago

Letter: Not Binary Choice

Bob Rosborough’s Feb. 20 opinion piece failed to address the key concerns about Owls Head Provincial Park. The question has never been whether or not golf courses should be developed on the Eastern Shore. There is no lack of private land on the Eastern Shore that would be as suitable, if not more, for such developments.

Any politicians or private interests who frame the situation as “golf vs. conservation” or “economy vs. environment” are not only misrepresenting the situation but also doing a disservice to Nova Scotians.

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By Save Owls Head, ago

Letter: Sensitive Ecosystem

In his Feb. 20 opinion piece, Bob Rosborough argues that the sale and construction of golf courses at Owls Head will help the economy of the Eastern Shore to “thrive and survive. Most certainly, people who live in the area deserve a healthy economy, but are golf courses and luxury condos the answer?

Rosborough describes the two wealthy Americans, Beckwith and Kitty Gilbert, who are behind the deal as “environmentally conscious” and, at the same time, notes that the land in question has been undisturbed for over 10,000 years “since the last ice age.”

This land was, at one point, environmentally significant enough to be designated as a park. Several scientific studies have determined that the ecology of the land is “globally rare.” It is difficult to make a valid argument that the Gilberts have any intention of caring for the natural environment when the golf courses they are proposing are decidedly man-made.

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By Save Owls Head, ago

Letter: All Nova Scotians have stake in Owls Head golf issue

Bob Rosborough’s Feb. 20 opinion piece, “Sick of critics taking swings at golf development,” leaves out a number of significant aspects of the current debate on Owls Head. These aspects are important to understanding the widespread and growing public opposition to the secret removal of the property, referred to as Owls Head Provincial Park, from the Parks and Protected Areas Plan, and offering it for sale to a private developer.

Owls Head has a long history of protection that can be traced back to the intense public discussions of the mid-1970s around the creation of a potential national park on the Eastern Shore. The large, unique coastal Crown block survived that process as a natural environment park component in the Eastern Shore Seaside Park System. It was recognized as a park by public agencies for 45 years and was included in the final 2013 plan that identified the sites to be designated for protection to meet the province’s 13 per cent target as site #694. 

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By Christopher Trider, ago

BOB ROSBOROUGH: Eastern Shore sick of critics taking swings at Owls Head golf development

So, for a bunch of ranting social media followers — speared on by several whose questionable, unsuccessful past employment within government agencies and/or parasitic commercial endeavours on government support agencies with axes to grind against Nova Scotia — to zero in on the Eastern Shore and this substantial and critically important project is deceptive and morally corrupt.

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By Save Owls Head, ago