“The biggest White Pine I’ve ever seen” viewed at Sandy Lake” Aug 25, 2024

Wrote Ed G recently:

Click on image for larger version. Photo by Ed G.

@SandyLake_Park we discovered “The biggest White Pine I’ve ever seen ” this weekend.

The same Sandy Lake forest my grandfather took me on walks through and the reason I chose to become a forester.

It measured 345 cms girth and 109 cm diameter.

So important to protect these areas!

Indeed. It’s been added to the iNaturalist records for Sandy Lake.

Also view a related post on Sandy Lake Conservation Association Facebook Page.

Thx for observing and reporting on it Ed G! Continue reading

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HRM holding Public Meetings on Sackville and Little Sackville River Floodplains on Aug 21 & 28, 2004 – Proposed Land Development Regulations

From HRM News Release:

The Halifax Regional Municipality is inviting residents to provide their feedback on new proposed land development regulations for the Sackville River and Little Sackville River Floodplains.

The proposed regulations have been developed to carry out the recommendations for development control as outlined in the 2017 Sackville Rivers Floodplain Study – Phase II report. The mapping produced under this study was recently updated to account for changes that have taken place within the floodplains since 2017.

Residents are invited to attend these meetings to learn more about the proposed land development regulations and provide their input.

Continue reading

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Risk Advisory issued for Sandy Lake Beach (Bedford, NS) 14Aug2024

Sandy Lake Beach, rrom the description of on HRM website

UPDATE – Just checked HRM website. Sandy Lake Beach is Open Today (Aug 23, 2024)

So read a report by Dan Ahlstrand in The Coast, Aug 14, 2024:

Three beaches closed to swimming due to water quality
Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) issued recreational water quality advisory on Wednesday for Oakfield Park beach in Oakfield, Penhorn beach in Dartmouth and Sandy Lake beach in Bedford until further notice due to high bacteria levels in the water.

HRM’s website shows “Risk Advisory in Effect” for 5 of 19 supervised beaches in HRM; these include Albro Lake Beach and Kidston Lake Beach in addition to the three cited above. As well  Cunard Pond Beach by Williams Lake in Halifax is cited as closed due to  Blue Green algae Continue reading

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Radon, Bird Friendly Halifax, Municipal Watershed Management Framework, Coastal Management all topics of the HRM Environment & Sustainability Standing Committee Aug 1, 2024

There was a lot packed in to the August 1, 2024 meeting of the  Environment and Sustainability Standing Committee.

View:
Proceedings on YouTube
-The Agenda PDF  It includes Links to related documents, amongst them:

Radon Awareness, PDF of slide presentation by Lacie Sutherland
Existing and Planned Measures for Coastal Management: Staff Report
Bird Friendly Halifax PDF of slide presentation Jess Lewis
Municipal Watershed Management Framework [PDF]
& a Presentation by Elizabeth Montgomery [PDF]

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Salmon Parr spotted at the top of Peverills Brook June 24, 2024

Update July 29, 2024: View the DFO’s Draft Atlantic Salmon Strategy; opportunity to comment open June 27, 2024-July 30, 2024. Apologies, I just became aware of it on July 29th, unfort. not the only one! – dp


Salmon Parr spotted in upper Peverill’s Brook, June 14, 2024 “Toward the end of their first year, young salmon develop characteristic dark bars along their side with red spots distributed in between them and are referred to as parr. These markings help fish blend into their environment to avoid predators”- Source: Atlantic salmon… a remarkable life cycle (Fisheries and Oceans Canada). Photo extracted from GoPro Video taken by Karen Mckendry.
Click on images for larger versions

Sandy Lake enthusiast and EAC’s Wilderness Outreach Coordinator Karen McKendry was curious about the state of upper Peverills Brook where it begins at the bottom of Sandy Lake, and in particular, whether she could she any evidence of Atlantic Salmon there.

Comments Karen” I was concerned that statements made in the recent Land Suitability Analysis for the Sandy Lake area downplay the fact that there are currently salmon coming into Sandy Lake from the Sackville River – not just historically.  The Sandy Lake – Sackville River Regional Park Coalition has multiple instances in recent years where reliable sources have observed salmon in the lake or Peverill’s Brook. ”

Map showing location (red bubble) of the observations. PB= Peverill’s Brook.

Paddling into upper Peverills Brook on June 14th of this year, Karen spotted some small fish in the shallows and put her G0-Pro camera into the water, capturing a short video and a still photo of a small fish with distinct vertical bars.

Karen showed her footage to Walter Regan, who has led efforts to re-establish salmon in the Sackville River Watershed. “Yup, that’s a one-year old” he said. “It developed from eggs laid by an adult which then moved into Sandy Lake where it could reside in the cooler, deeper waters during the hot days of summer.” Continue reading

Posted in Conservation, Sackvile River Watershed, Sandy Lake, Water Quality, watershed | Comments Off on Salmon Parr spotted at the top of Peverills Brook June 24, 2024

Sandy Lake – Sackville River Regional Park Coalition News comments on Draft LSA 5Jun2024

In abbreviated form, the SL-SRRP Coalition comments that “Some of the ways in which the draft report is currently lacking, but may be addressed in the final report, are:

1. The LSA does not deal with the entire Sandy Lake sub-watershed (see the RFP). This is the relevant scale to examine potential flooding, stormwater impacts, and water quality… Continue reading

Posted in Community, Conservation, Regional Plan, Sackvile River Watershed, Water Quality, watershed | Leave a comment

On the Draft Landscape Suitabilty Analysis for the Sandy Lake Study Area 23May2024

Yesterday I submitted some comments on the Draft LSA (Landscape Suitability Analysis) for the “Sandy Lake Study Area” released Apr 18, 2024. To view that document, see HRM Future Service Communities webpage, link to Draft SandyLake LSA Apr18_2024.pdf (38.5 MB) (pdf)

My comments are restricted to aspects of the Draft LSA that address Watercourses, Wetlands and Water Quality.

I expressed concern that the Consultant’s selection of variables to assess Water Quality lacks any reference to oxygen and the related limnological measurements I conducted on Sandy Lake 2017 to 2023 and ongoing, nor to a set of limnological observations conducted entirely independently by Dalhousie graduate student Casey Doucet in 2021. Continue reading

Posted in climate Warming, Conservation, Sandy Lake, Water Quality, watershed | Leave a comment

From Sandy Lake-Sackville River Regional Park Coalition 15May2024

Click on image to go to Coalition Website

1. DRAFT Land Suitability Analyses out for review
We call these Stantec studies “pre-development studies” because that is their focus – what areas can be developed and how. We are assured that the outcome could be that no areas can be developed, but we will see from the final study. This study was paid for by, and is being overseen by, the Province’s Housing Task Force, which has a stated goal of having ‘shovels in the ground’ at Sandy Lake Special Planning Area in 2024. The final report is expected to have more about water quality. We want to know why there is no mention of Salmon having returned to Sandy Lake in recent years, and also a thorough study is needed of potential impacts of development on the Sackville River floodplain Continue reading

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City Nature Challenge begins Apr 26 (today) & runs to Mon Apr 29, 2024

Photo from Canadian Wildlife Federation page on the City Nature Challenge

Halifax is participating in the iNaturalist-based City Nature Challenge again, this year over the days Friday Apr 26 to Monday Apr 29

It’s pretty simple to contribute to Halifax’s effort to document our natural world and illustrate citizen’s love of that world.

Participants photograph a nature observation of a “species” (e.g.a robin, or a flower) within the boundaries of HRM within the Apr 28-May 1 timeframe and upload it to iNaturalist. (HRM refers to Halifax Regional Municipality, now just called Halifax. It encompasses all of Halifax County.) Cape Breton Regional Municipality is the other NS participant. Continue reading

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Draft “Future Serviced Communities (FSC) study update for Sandy Lake” released 19Apr2024

Just Posted on the publicly accessible webpage for Halifax Future Services Communities: a link to “Draft Sandy Lake LSA Apr18_2024.pdf (38.5 MB) (pdf)” (bottom right of the page under Reports).

The first page provides a lengthy “Grant of Access and Use & Disclaimer” Statement. From that page: Continue reading

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