Everybody
Loves Mary
Excerpts from an NSNT article Written by Amy Web
The St. Mary’s River Association teams up with the Nova
Scotia Nature Trust to promote an innovative Watershed
Protection Project.
 There is a new player joining in the goal of watershed
protection for the St. Mary’s River in Guysborough
County, on Nova Scotia’s Eastern Shore. The Nova Scotia
Nature Trust recently launched its St. Mary’s River
Conservation Legacy Project, which will focus on private
land protection through donations, easements, and
stewardship.
Dale Archibald, president of the St. Mary’s River
Association, welcomes the Nature Trust’s involvement.
“This is a very positive development for the river,”
says Archibald.
The St. Mary’s River Association, St. Francis Xavier
University, government agencies and others have been
moving ahead on the St. Mary’s Watershed Project—a
community management and long-range planning initiative,
with all stakeholders involved. It’s a “big idea” that
is becoming a reality.
“Part of the dream was to create a land trust to
preserve donated properties in the watershed,” Archibald
says. But he points out there is a great deal that would
need to go into developing and maintaining such an
organization, and it was really beyond the means of the
local community members. When the NS Nature Trust
expressed interest in the area, it was a natural fit.
Bonnie Sutherland, Executive Director of the NS Nature
Trust, is excited about the opportunity to be part of
this broad-scale conservation effort, and she sees this
as having all the makings of a model project.
“It’s a perfect blending of academic and scientific
interests, along with community involvement,” says
Sutherland. The NS Nature Trust will look after private
land protection, complementing the conservation work of
others, in particular the St Mary’s River Association.
NSNT first became interested in the St. Mary’s forests,
recognizing that some of the province’s last remnants of
old-growth hemlock grace the river’s shores. As well,
Nova Scotia’s largest and least disturbed examples of
the original Acadian floodplain forest are found along
the St. Mary’s. Most of these woodland ecosystems have
been lost elsewhere in the province as river shorelines
are modified by development, logging, and agriculture.
“Our mission is to save the last of these best areas,” says Sutherland. Those remaining examples of healthy habitat serve as a scientific classroom, affording opportunities to study and understand ecological functions and also to undertake forest restoration. As Sutherland observes, “It is easier to spread out from an intact tract of forest than to try to grow a forest from scratch.”
Forest conservation, particularly on flood plains, is
directly linked to aquatic habitat protection.
 The St. Mary’s River is also home to the largest
population of Wood Turtles (Glyptemys insculpta) in
Atlantic Canada, and possibly in North America. The Wood
Turtle has been listed both nationally and provincially
as a “species of concern,” and is a conservation
priority in Nova Scotia. And of course, the river is one
of the last on Nova Scotia’s Eastern Shore to support
significant populations of Atlantic salmon.
With start-up funds from both EXXON and the NS
Conservation Habitat Fund, the Trust will be able to put
someone in the field to do assessment work, and foster
stewardship interests among local volunteers.
More: Bird Watching |
Fly Fishing |
Saving
Wood Turtles |
Life on the
River
| 
