In December 2020, the Nova Scotia Nature Trust successfully completed the purchase of the Blue Mountain Wilderness Connector, at the heart of the beloved Blue Mountain - Birch Cove lakes. This purchase ensures that more than 2,023 hectares (5,000 acres) of undeveloped wildlands remain unbroken, securing the future of one of the largest expanses of urban wilderness in North America.
The success of the campaign to Save the Wild Blue is a major milestone in the Nature Trust's goal of doubling its protected lands across Nova Scotia by 2023. Through the Twice the Wild campaign, all donations - including donations made to Save the Wild Blue - are matched four to one, meaning that each dollar donated generates four additional dollars from government and other funding partners to save nature.
Just 20 minutes from Atlantic Canada's largest urban centre is a wilderness paradise of pristine forest, sparkling lakes, and rocky barrens.
The Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Lakes is a vast expanse of undeveloped wildlands between Hammonds Plains, Timberlea, and Halifax.
The lands encompass a mosaic of extensive forests, bogs and wetlands rich in biodiversity, rocky barrens and hills, sparkling rivers and three pristine headwater lakes.
While final boundaries and type of protected area are still to be determined for the broader Blue Mountain – Birch Cove Lakes area, the Nature Trust, community groups, the Municipality and the Province all share a common vision of a large protected urban wildland. In 2009 and 2015, the Province designated two large Crown land blocks as Wilderness Area , protecting 1767 hectares (4366 acres). Then in 2018 and 2019, the Municipality purchased and added 210 hectares (519 acres) of private lands.
Those lands were not contiguous, however, and citizens were growing increasingly concerned about threats to this highly strategic and significant property. Since neither the Province nor the Municipality was actively pursuing the “Wild Blue” connector, the Nature Trust stepped in .
First image: The location of the Blue Mountain Wilderness Connector, shown in red. Second image: Essential Landscape Connectivity Corridors, from the Halifax Green Network Plan.
Mainland moose. Photo credit: Jason Dain.
One of the Nature Trust’s conservation priorities is protecting corridors of interconnected habitat. Many mammals, in particular, require large tracts of undisturbed land to thrive.
The newly protected connector property bridges the large gap between these previously protected sections of wildlands, creating a contiguous 12-kilometer corridor important for wildlife, including the endangered Mainland moose. This corridor was identified as a priority greenspace to provide landscape connectivity in the City of Halifax’s Green Network Plan .
Recognizing the value
The protection of this critical link would not have been possible without the enthusiastic support of the landowners : Robin Wilber and M. William (Bill) Fenton. They recognized the unique and irreplaceable conservation value of these particular lands and agreed to forgo potential development, instead selling their land to the Nature Trust and generously agreeing to donate a sizable part of the land’s value as a charitable gift. It was donated to the Nova Scotia Nature Trust under the Government of Canada’s Ecological Gifts Program , which provides enhanced tax incentives for individuals or corporations who donate ecologically significant land.
It’s a fantastic thing today - but it will be an absolutely astounding thing in thirty, fifty, a hundred years. As the surrounding area continues to develop over the next decades, the value of having such a large and wild green space within a major city will be more and more deeply appreciated. People will look back at what the Nature Trust did in 2020 and say, Look what we have today because of that. ~Robin Wilber
Major Partnerships for a Major Milestone
The City of Halifax contributed from its Park Reserve Fund toward the purchase, in support of its Municipal economic development strategies focused on promoting Halifax as a green and inspiring place to live, work and do business.
When we talk about building a strong, successful and happy Halifax, that includes the important preservation of its still-wild places where we can connect with the natural world. I am proud of our Council for supporting this purchase and grateful to the Nova Scotia Nature Trust for presenting us with this opportunity for an additional acquisition in the Blue Mountain - Birch Cove area. ~Mayor Mike Savage
This project was made possible by the Land Trust Conservation Fund, an initiative of the Canada Nature Fund’s Natural Heritage Conservation Program, generously supported by the Government of Canada.
“I’m delighted that this large central link in the Blue Mountain Birch Cove Lakes wilderness will be preserved and protected for generations to come. And I’m so pleased that the federal government’s Canada Nature Fund was able to help fund this key land purchase." ~The Honourable Geoff Regan, Member of Parliament for Halifax West
The Nova Scotia Crown Share Land Legacy Trust made a significant contribution to the project, in support of its mission to secure and protect ecologically significant, threatened and irreplaceable natural areas on private lands in Nova Scotia.
Finally, broad community support pushed the campaign over the finish line. Special thanks to the Nova Scotia Habitat Conservation Fund (Contributions from Hunters and Trappers) and the Five Bridges Wilderness Heritage Trust for their contributions.
Photo credit: Adam Cornick
We also greatly appreciate and thank the Ecology Action Centre, the Friends of Blue Mountain Birch Cove Lakes, the Canadian Association of Retired Persons, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and the many other organizations and individuals who have been working for decades to protect the area and who have been so supportive of the Nature Trust’s efforts.
This Wild Blue success is a major milestone in our campaign to double the lands we protect across Nova Scotia by 2023.
Through the Twice the Wild campaign, all donations – including donations made to Save the Wild Blue – are matched four to one, meaning that each dollar donated generates four additional dollars from government and other funding partners to save nature.
Nature gives us so much, from physical and mental health, to habitat for wildlife, to adventures with our families. Saving land like the Wild Blue is a gift that we can give back to nature. And best of all, it’s a gift that we will all get to enjoy, for generations to come.
