Just to let you know,

The Hepatica and Eastern Leatherwood are in bloom now. Beavers are swimming and bats are in flight. All is well on the AP.

Keep it Karsty,

Matt

A new hiking trail is now open in the Lady Slipper Capital of the Maritimes. Avon Peninsula Watershed Preservation Society (APWPS) director Matthew Smith says the Avondale Community Trail winds through some of the most picturesque land in the province, and beyond… READ MORE | How to get there

Earlier this year, USG Corp. of Chicago announced it was idling the mine, which has been producing gypsum since 1934 for export to wallboard plants in the United States. The $3-billion building materials giant announced Monday [Nov 14, 2011] that the shutdown was permanent, putting the skeleton crew of less than 10 still working there on the unemployment lines.

He [Robert Williams, USG's senior director of corporate communications] thinks finding a buyer will be hard. "The main use for gypsum is gypsum wallboard," he said. "It is unlikely that anyone else would have an appetite for it." Dauphinee, the warden, agrees. "If that was the case, we would have heard by now," he said If so, it's a sad ending to an enterprise that once employed hundreds of people.

The county would like to buy some of Fundy GypsumÕs land to build an industrial park, he said.

• Now what happens to remediation of the old mine?
• The closure was predictable: Mega-quarry in sensitive area: It's time for hard questions [2007 op ed]
• There ARE sustainable alternatives: examples

CGC Inc. - Fundy Gypsum has received approval for the project subject to conditions to protect the environment, including limiting the size of the extension to about 105 hectares. The company had proposed to develop 347 hectares.

The decision also includes conditions such as:
-- extensive monitoring of surface and groundwater
-- developing a wetland compensation plan
-- establishing a community liaison committee
-- legally protecting a 46-hectare conservation area within four years
-- creating a program to monitor rare plants in the conservation area
-- developing a plan to reclaim the land affected by the mining operation
-- creating a protection plan to protect plant species
-- studying the area to gather information on local bats
-- creating a plan to fully protect places in the area where bats may go

The minister's decision and the conditions of the environmental assessment approval are on the Department of Environment's website at www.gov.ns.ca/nse/ea/millers.creek.gypsum.mine.asp"

A decision is due by Feb. 5, 2010. View the impressive documentation by local residents and their supporters in response to the mine proposal on the APWPS website.

Gypsum Co. submits Focus Report
(Fall 2009)

Fundy Gypsum submitted its Focus Report (a revised environmental assessment) for a proposed strip mine on the Avon Peninsula to the N.S. government on October 16, 2009. The documents are available on the NSE website. (The Avon Peninsula is bounded to the west by the Avon River, to the south by the St. Croix River, to the north by the Kennetcook River; it lies across the Avon river from Windsor.)

Public comments on the Focus Report will be accepted until November 23, 2009.

The Minister of Environment/N.S. government will then make a decision on whether to

• allow the mine (subject to specified terms and conditions and any other approvals required by statute or regulation);
• require an environmental-assessment report;
• not allow the mine,

The proposed mine is situated in the centre of a forested, upland "watershed commons" on karst landscape which, to date, has protected the water supply for rich farmland, residents and small industries on the Avon Peninsula. It also supports an unusual diverse flora, small wetlands with rich amphibian and reptile populations and at least one bat hibernaculum.

The flora includes ram's head lady's-slipper (red listed and legally protected under the N.S. Endangered Species Act. ), round-lobed hepatica (red-listed) black ash (yellow-listed) eastern leatherwood ( red listed), yellow lady's-slipper (yellow listed ), thimbleweed (yellow-listed). Canada buffalo-berry (yellow-listed ) and three rare lichens (Solorina saccata, Collema cristatum var. cristatum and Leptogium lichenoides).

The area has long been of special interest to naturalists in Nova Scotia. Earlier this year, the Halifax Field Naturalists. the Nova Scotia Wild Flora Society and botanists Sean Blaney and Ruth Newell endorsed citation of the Avon Peninsula as the Lady Slipper Capital of the Maritimes. That title will hardly be tenable if the mine goes ahead. For some background and perspectives on the area and the proposed mine, see

• Avon Peninsula Watershed Preservation Society
  See 2009 Focus Report Comments This site is not currently availale (June 2013). But you can View this Video in which Raymond Parker, Avon Peninsula Watershed Preservation Society, explains the devastating impacts of a second gypsum mine on the watershed.
  
• Letter of comment on biodiversity aspects in the Focus Report (Nov. 2009, PDF document)
• Letter of comment on biodiversity aspects in the Registration Document (Mar. 2008)
• Surface Waters and Other Features of the Forest Commons/Sustainable Multiple Use (Aug, 2007)
• Mega-quarry in sensitive area: It's time for hard questions (April 2007) Document Not currently available (June 2013)