2024-01-10

Emerging stewardship group works to conserve properties

COOKVILLE - An emerging Lunenburg County-based pro-biodiversity and habitat restoration group is working to acquire and protect a privately-owned West Dublin island.

The LaHave Coastal Conservation Association, a registered Canadian charity, secured $100,000 toward buying East Spectacle Island, a 19-hectare property. Robert Frederic Fogelman is the listed owner of the island, online property records show.

"We have an agreement with the sellers," Jim Sunderland, the associations president, said during a presentation to civic politicians with the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg. "We're looking for some more support and, obviously, we're looking at various levels of government to get it."

The purchase is valued at $565,000. The island has market value assessment of $314,000, online property records show. No one lives on the island.

"The opportunity for us is it's a continuous piece of land, so we can re-establish an ecosystem on there and it wouldn't be disturbed by external" pressures, Sunderland told MODL's policy and strategy committee. "It has potentially a number of ecosystems on it and, possibly, endangered species."

Audio of council meeting proceedings and council committees is available online.

Association members, like Sunderland and Andrew Kimball, also present for the presentation, organized out of "concern about development" and established the charity in 2021 with a focus on animal and plant life stewardship and public education in reference to same.

The communities of interest to the association, which boasts dozens of members and equally as many hectares of land under management, includes LaHave, Dublin Shore, West Dublin, Petite Riviere, Pleasantville, Conquerall Bank, Conquerall Mills, Crescent Beach and the LaHave Islands.

To learn more about the group, go to https://www.lahavecoastal.ca.

Given the small geographic coverage area, the association's effort is a long-term one, Sunderland indicated.

In the community of LaHave Islands, for example, the association has land holdings where it began a tree-planting project, Kimball told MODL councillors.

"Based on our initial work with forestry advisors, LaHave Coastal began planting trees of native species that have been slow to re-seed," reads the organization's charity information posted on the Canada Revenue Agency's website. "We planted or guided the planting of more than 100 trees on lands that (we) are protecting. We also conducted ongoing plant species surveys on lands under management."

It's been researching land boundaries in pursuit of obtaining more land management accords, donations and property purchases.

In response to a question from the committee, Sunderland said the association is in contact with other stewardship groups, such as the Nova Scotia Nature Trust and Mahone Islands Conservation Association.

"We're not territorial," he said.