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- Draft “Future Serviced Communities (FSC) study update for Sandy Lake” released 19Apr2024
- iNaturalists events x Sandy Lake: Sunday April 21 and Saturday 27th, 2024
- Bedford West Development Plans approved by Province, significant environmental concerns remain 2Dec2023
- Councillor Morse requests staff report on plan to protect Eastern Hemlock in HRM 13Nov2023
- New legislation would give Minister of Housing “absolute power and discretion” over all planning and development in Halifax 13Oct2023
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Saturday May 28, 2022: World Fish Migration Day
Posted in Conservation, Fish, watershed
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Turtle Nesting Time again 11May2022
Writes Clarence Stevens in the Halifax Field Naturalists Nature Archive today:
It is turtle nesting time again.
This amazingly diverse area, Sandy Lake-Sackville River, houses three of Nova Scotia’s four turtle species, snapping turtles, painted turtles and wood turtles.
All are under protection as species at risk.
Sandy Lake is only one of a handful of city lakes that still has a healthy turtle population. Continue reading
Posted in Conservation
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Salmon fry spotted in Sandy Lake watershed 3 May2022
Walter Reagan, President of the Sackville Rivers Association forwarded an email he received yesterday from I.G. with some good news: Salmon fry were spotted in Sandy Lake watershed:
I saw good numbers of salmon fry between Marsh and Sandy Lake a few days ago, every shallow eddy had a dozen or so, watched them feeding for several minutes, very nice to see. Great spawning substrate; the logs and sills are working well.
That’s Good News indeed and more reason to fight hard to protect Sandy Lake!
For more about salmon in the Sackville River Watershed (the Sandy lake Watershed is its biggest sub-watershed), view Atlantic Salmon (page on this website).
Posted in Conservation, Fish
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Follow-up Earth Day with Guided Walk at Sandy Lake on Sat Apr 23
Follow-up Earth Day (Friday Apr 22nd 2022) with a guided nature walk with Clarence Stevens at Sandy Lake Park, off Smith’s Road, Bedford, on Saturday April 23rd at 2pm.
Come see first hand why this area is so important to save from a looming housing development! Last time we had an outing with Clarence we got to hold baby snapping turtles, and a Barred Own flew right over our heads on huge silent wings! Beautiful!
Register by messaging Clarence directly on his FaceBook page, or just go to the big parking lot at the end of Smith’s Road, just off exit 3 of the 102 highway, 2 pm, this Saturday April 23rd.
Be prepared for 1 ½ to 2 hours exploring spring at Sandy Lake-Sackville River Regional Park.
& Let’s Save Sandy Lake-Sackville River Regional Park!
Posted in Events
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In the News… Pressure To Develop Sandy Lake Area; Lake Monitoring 20Apr2022
Update Apr 21, 2022: The Feds think ecological corridors provided by areas such as Sandy Lake are important. See Parks Canada, Government of Canada launches new National Program for Ecological Corridors (Posted Apr 21, 2022)
Walter Regan on the Todd Veinotte Show
Interview is at the beginning, 0 to 10:45 min “Walter Regan discusses the plan to fast-track housing development in an ecologically diverse area, raising concerns for conservationists who’ve been fighting for years to protect the unspoiled land west of Halifax.” It is an impassioned and comprehensive overview of the major issues as only Walter Regan can do…
Municipality launches LakeWatchers Water Quality Monitoring Program
HRM Public Service Announcement “The municipality is launching a new Lake Water Quality Monitoring Program called LakeWatchers, which will conduct environmental monitoring in 76 lakes across the municipality. The purpose of the program is to collect data, such as pH levels, to inform future actions to maintain or improve a lake’s health. The data will be publicly available through future staff reports to Regional Council and through the municipality’s Open Data Portal. “Includes Sandy Lake.
Posted in Conservation, Water Quality, watershed
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Please be on the lookout for Hemlock Wooly Adelgid in the vicinity of Sandy Lake (Bedford NS) 25Mar2022
We learned of the arrival of this really horrible pest, the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid (HWA), aka the Hemlock Vampires, in NS (and in all of Atlantic Canada) only in Aug of 2017, which seems like ages ago now.
When first discovered, it had already spread though three counties at the southwest extremity of NS (Digby, Yarmouth and Shelburne) so likely had hopped across the gulf of Maine (or got a ride on some wood) from infected areas in the northeastern USA – see map. It is not known in N.B.
The latest update (Dec 31, 2022, below) shows it spreading progressively though the province, now many confirmed sites in Annapolis and Queens Co. and a few in each of Kings and Lunenburg Co. Continue reading
Posted in Conservation, Pests
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The Halifax Regional Plan review: Where we are and what’s left to do 8Jan2022
Delving into the current Regional Plan review can be challenging because of the voluminous materials and complex consultation and decision-making processes but how it all pans out affects all of us; accordingly, it behooves as many of us as possible delving into it, a least a bit. Continue reading
Posted in Halifax Green Network, Regional Plan
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Regional Council Motion for “optimal conceptual boundary for an expanded Sandy Lake Regional Park” passes 9Nov2021
It was item 15.5.1 by Councillor Blackburn for the November 9, 2021 Halifax Regional Council Meeting:
15.5 MEMBERS OF COUNCIL
15.5.1 Councillor Blackburn – Sandy Lake [PDF]
Motion:
That Halifax Regional Council:1. Suspend the Rules of Procedure under section 17 of Administrative Order One, the Procedures of the Council Administrative Order; and
2. Direct the Chief Administrative Officer to direct staff to retain an independent consultant to assist with expediting the preparation of a staff report and recommendation for the purpose of identifying an optimal conceptual boundary for an expanded Sandy Lake Regional Park based on environmental information about the area considering: Continue reading
SRA Thursday Nov 4, 2021: Wil Brunner on Outdoor Nature Wellness
TITLE: Outdoor Nature Wellness: how intentional time outdoors can enhance mental health.
Wil Brunner will be giving this talk this Thursday November 4 via ZOOM.
Please send an email to:
sackvillerivers@ns.sympatico.ca to obtain the ZOOM link details.
About Wil Brunner
Wil Brunner is from Port Sydney, in the Muskoka Region of Ontario, where he grew up around a lake fishing, swimming and walking through the woods.
Posted in Events
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First Lake Pollution Control Tender issued 19Oct2021
View Tender Details
Bids Opening and Closing on Tuesday, November 9, 2021
View Tender and Additional Documents (Zip File)
Contents:
– 21-418.pdf (Request for Proposal Doc)
– Bathymetric profiles of First Lake.pdf
– D_Tymstra Thesis_A Paleolimnological Record of Anthropogenic Impact on Water Quality in First Lake, Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.pdf
– HRM_Final Report Draft_Beach Water Quality.pdf
– Kinap Beach Closures 2010-2019.pdf
– RFPAppendixB-MSAforProfessionalServices2020-06-30.pdf
– SupplierQuestionnaire-2021-09-20.pdf Continue reading
Posted in Water Quality
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