Critical park/wilderness budget debate Wed Jan 29, 2020

Posted on January 27, 2020 by admin

Halifax regional Council Council will be debating the Park budget on Wednesday, January 29 at 9:30 am. Members of the public can speak for 5 minutes. Also, letters etc would be helpful.

The Green Network Plan was unanimously supported and brought communities together with a shared vision. While we we wait to act on this plan, we lose rich natural spaces, essential and important corridors, and opportunities for Haligonians to experience the benefits of nature, large areas of Sandy Lake & Environs amongst them. HRM’s Draft Capital Plan commits $500 thousand, with the same estimated in the following year to parks/wilderness land acquisition. This is less than in previous years and is clearly not enough to address the needs identified through the Green Network Plan.

Please attend this meeting and/or contact your councilor to express support for increasing the budget for parks/wilderness land acquisition.

The Budget Committee meeting starts at 9:30AM this Wednesday (29th). It will be in Council Chamber, 3rd floor, at City Hall (1841 Argyle).

For writing a letter or calling: you can contact the councillor representing your home address as well as any councillors representing the site of your projects. Make sure to Cc. the clerk’s office (clerks@halifax.ca/902.490.4210)

The agenda can be seen here. Public participation is the first major agenda item and should commence soon after the meeting is called to order.

Posted in Halifax Green Network | Leave a comment

A species to watch: freshwater mussel

Posted on January 2, 2020 by admin

 

Empty mussels are common on shore and
in shallows amongst aquatic plants
Click on photo for larger version

The freshwater mussel Pyganodon cataracta occurs in abundance at Sandy Lake.

I have viewed many living specimens while snorkelling in the shallows (down to 2-3 m) and discarded shells are common amongst emergent wetland plants around the fringes of the lake. The latter could be the remains of river otter luncheons.

Living mussel

It was thus with some interest that I caught this title: A freshwater mussel apocalypse is underway—and no one knows why by Carrie Arnold on www.nationalgeographic.com, Dec 16, 2019. From that article:

Throughout the U.S. and Europe, staggering numbers of freshwater mussels are dying. To make the matter worse, no one knows why, prompting investigations into everything from infectious diseases to climate change to water pollution…

…mussels are crucial to their ecosystems, both by cleaning water of impurities and creating shelter for other species via their shells (after their decades-long lifespans are over)…Tony Goldberg, a wildlife disease expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, puts mussels’ importance more bluntly. Without them, he says, “the freshwater ecosystem will change forever.”

So together with the turtles and frogs and salmon and trout and other valued species we still find in Sandy Lake, the mussels are one to keep an eye on.

Posted in natural history | Leave a comment

The NW Pinch Point

Posted on November 11, 2019 by admin

“Pinch-points (also known as bottlenecks or choke-points) are areas where animal and plant movement is funneled through narrow linkages. Pinch-point modeling methods are based on current flow models from electrical circuit theory. Locations where current is very strong indicates constrictions where linkages are most vulnerable to being severed… Pinch-points can be the result of both natural and human-made landscape features. Pinch-points may be conservation priorities as they are locations where loss of a small area could disproportionately compromise connectivity because alternative movement routes are unavailable. Loss of these areas may sever migration routes or impact other important movement needs.”*
___________________
*Source (with minor modifications) Washington Wildlife Habitat Connectivity Working Group—>Columbia Plateau Ecoregion Addendum: Habitat Connectivity Centrality, Pinch-Points, and Barriers/Restoration Analyses

One such pinch point in the proposed Sandy Lake-Sackville River Regional Park lies at its NW corner where there is only a narrow band of undeveloped or minimally developed land bordering the Sackville River.

Read More

Posted in HRM Greenbelt | Leave a comment

The Marsh Lake Dyke

Posted on October 16, 2019 by admin

Views of the dyke

I had viewed Marsh Lake from south of the lake  in 2017, but it wasn’t until Oct 9, 2019 that I walked some of the northern shore. I did so with a friend, Bob K.,  from the NS Wild Flora Society.

We got there via a powerline to the north, passing through hemlock dominated forest as we proceeded south down the slope of a large drumlin.

As we approached the lake, we entered into some low lying damp forest and then, just before we reached the marsh that borders the lake, we encountered what seemed to a be a dyke or levee.

It is 2-3 m wide;  on the marsh side it rises up about 2 meters from the wet marsh, on the forest side about a meter from the forest floor and supports some very big white pine and hemlock… Read more

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Forest north of Marsh Lake

Posted on October 4, 2019 by admin

Glimpses of forest north Marsh Lake in 2017
from the area where Perverill’s Brook
enters Marsh Lake.
Click on images for larger versions

Forests north of Marsh Lake were on my bucket list to investigate from the time I caught my first glimpses of them in 2017 (photos at right). They looked to be magnificent mixed Acadian forest.

On Sep 20 and 22, 2019, I walked a few routes into forest on a large drumlin just south of the Sackville River, accessed via a powerline.

I chose those particular areas because, as well as having ‘the area north of Marsh Lake’ on my bucket list,  I wanted to check out a report that there were/are ‘some magnificent ash trees’ in that area, or words to that effect.

I was hardly disappointed. I found some of those magnificent ash trees – and a lot of magnificent specimens of other species including many of eastern hemlock, red maple, sugar maple, yellow birch, and red spruce that qualify as “Big Trees” (trees 20”, or 0.5 m, diameter at breast height and greater).

Read more…

Posted in Acadian forest | Leave a comment

A salmon jumped right out of the water in Sandy Lake!

Posted on September 26, 2019 by admin

Modified Sep 27, 2019

About 10 days ago, a salmon was sighted in a “classic pose” jumping right out of the water at Sandy Lake.

As I was told the story 2nd or 3rd hand and reported initially, I understood that the fish observed jumping was an older salmon, but that stands corrected. I contacted the observer who told me:

I’m certain it was a grilse—not an adult salmon. It jumped clear of the water and I happened to be looking in that direction and saw it in perfect profile. After having fished the diminishing stocks of NS rivers for years I’ve spent a lot of time scanning the water for signs of these fish and a with a clear, clean leap it’s easy to recognize the species.

The same observer told me that he had “caught and returned 9 smolt in the last 2 years”, those caught while fishing for smallmouth bass.

Peverill’s Brook close to where it flows into
Marsh Lake. The “digger log’ was installed by
the Sackville Rivers Association in 2012.
Pic on Aug 17, 2017.
Click on image for larger version.

It’s all  good news, and reflects the efforts of the Sackville River Association to re-establish salmon in the Sackville River system. Those efforts have included placing digger logs on Peverill’s Brook.

It also says something good about the habitat and water quality of Sandy Lake.

Welcome Home, Atlantic Salmon!

 

Posted in Fish, Sandy Lake | Leave a comment

Tues Sep 24 2019 at 6PM at Halifax City Hall: Important Public Hearing on Green Network Plan – re Wildlife Corridors

Posted on September 22, 2019 by admin

UPDATE Wed Sep 25, 2019: The Amendment “to the Regional Plan’s conservation design development agreement policies to specifically reference the Important and Essential Corridors shown on Map 5)”  received unanimous approval at yesterdays meeting of Halifax Regional Council!!!!   Walter Regan (Sackville Rivers Association), Karen Robinson (Sandy Lake Conservation Association),  David Patriquin (Sandy Lake-Sackville Regional Park Alliance/NS Wild Flora Society)  and Kathleen Hall (Backlands Coalition/Williams Lake Conservation Co,) spoke at the Public Hearing. View DocsSep24_2019toRegionalCouncil (submissions by David P & SLSRPCoalition)

—————–

Map 5 in the Halifax Green Network Plan
Click on image for larger version and legend

Halifax (HRM) is blessed with phenomenal natural assets. In June of 2018, Regional Council tabled the Final Draft of the The Halifax Green Network Plan  which “provides land management and community design direction to:
– maintain ecologically and culturally important land and aquatic systems;
– promote the sustainable use of natural resources and economically important open spaces; and
– identify, define and plan land suited for parks and corridors”
Continue reading →

Posted in Halifax Green Network | Leave a comment

Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019: Public engagement on the Bedford-Sackville Greenway Corridor

Posted on September 14, 2019 by admin

From HRM:

Join us in the first round of public engagement to let us know about your experience using the Bedford-Sackville Greenway Corridor!

Information on facility usage, user experience and priorities will be collected to aid in the development of route alignment concepts for the extensions of the greenway facility and to inform on how the existing sections of the corridor can be improved.

Location: Sunnyside Mall, Unit 158

Date: Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019 Time: 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.

If you cannot attend and would still like to provide your feedback, please complete the survey at: shapeyourcityhalifax.ca/Bedford-Sackville-greenway-corridor

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Water quality issue at Sandy Lake Bedford has subsided (Aug 9, 2019)

Posted on August 9, 2019 by admin

Friday a.m. at Sandy Lake Beach

Whatever it was, “it” has largely subsided.

“It” appeared at Sandy Lake Beach quite suddenly on Tuesday a.m. Aug 6, 2019

On Wed a.m., Aug 7, HRM took water samples and put up a No Swimming sign; a Risk Advisory was issued later in the day.

At 1:54 p.m.on Thursday Aug 8., the Risk advisory for Sandy Lake was lifted

I looked at the beach area this a.m. (Friday Aug 9, 2019), and indeed there was no longer the bubbly scum where the water meets the shore, and no wafts of suspended material drifting in as observed on Tuesday.

There was still some debris around and walking through the water still left a trail of bubbles, but not as pronounced as it had been on Wednesday. So “it” has subsided.

It’s still not completely clear what caused “it”, it being, apparently or possibly, a bloom of diatoms – that’s according to info forwarded by Councillor Tim Outhit, received from Cemeron Deacoff (Water Resources Specialist, Planning and Decelopment, HRM) on Thurs, Aug. 8:

We received the lab results late yesterday afternoon that the specimens identified in the lab were principally diatoms (a form of algae), with trace amounts of one species of cyanobacteria that does not produce any toxins. Correspondingly, staff (i.e., P&D Acting Director Eric Lucic) has approved lifting the PSA. Corporate Communications is now drafting that PSA…

‘Very grateful for HRM’s quick attention to “it”!

Posted in Water Quality | Leave a comment

Advisory issued for Sandy Lake due to possible blue-green algae bloom Aug 7, 2019

Posted on August 7, 2019 by admin

UPDATE 2:35 pm, Thurs Aug 8, 2019: Risk advisory for Sandy Lake lifted

“When an algae bloom is observed, a risk advisory is issued and initial testing is done to determine whether the algae bloom is toxin producing. If the algae bloom is not toxin producing, the risk advisory will be lifted and no further testing is required.

“If the algae bloom is toxin producing, further testing will be carried out and the risk advisory will remain in effect until blooms have disappeared and post-bloom test results indicate water is within safe limits.”

and earlier, from info forwarded by Councillor Tim Outhit, received from Cemeron Deacoff (Water Resources Specialist, Planning and Decelopment, HRM):

We received the lab results late yesterday afternoon that the specimens identified in the lab were principally diatoms (a form of algae), with trace amounts of one species of cyanobacteria that does not produce any toxins. Correspondingly, staff (i.e., P&D Acting Director Eric Lucic) has approved lifting the PSA. Corporate Communications is now drafting that PSA…

———–

Original post (Aug 6, 2019)

Received this afternoon:

Public Service Announcement
Risk advisory in effect for Sandy Lake due to possible blue-green algae bloom

Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2019 (Halifax, NS) – The Halifax Regional Municipality is advising residents that due to the presence of a possible blue-green algae bloom, a risk advisory is in effect for Sandy Lake in Bedford. Residents are encouraged to avoid swimming in the lake until further notice.

Sandy Lake Beach, which is a supervised beach, will also be closed to swimming until further notice.

Blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) is naturally occurring in freshwater environments and may become visible when weather conditions are calm. These organisms can multiply rapidly during the summer, leading to extensive growth called a bloom. Some types of blue-green algae produce toxins during blooms and when these blooms decay, the toxins may be released into the water, posing a risk to people and pets.

Continue reading →

Posted in watershed | Leave a comment