23 groups oppose delisting of Owls Head
Published on Mar 10 2020
HALIFAX – A joint letter signed by 23 groups opposing the delisting of Owls Head Provincial Park Reserve was submitted to Premier McNeil today. The letter calls on the Nova Scotia government to:
- Stop the sale of publicly-owned lands at Owls Head
- Protect Owls Head as a legally-designated protected area
- Fully implement the Nova Scotia Parks and Protected Areas Plan
Owls Head is a coastal headland on the Eastern Shore that has been identified as a provincial park reserve since the 1970’s. It’s significant for conservation and contains a variety of coastal ecosystems, rare plant communities and habitat for species-at-risk.
In March 2019, the Nova Scotia government secretly delisted its protected status and signed an agreement to sell off the public lands at Owls Head to a private developer. This was done without public consultation and was only brought to the public’s attention by an investigative report from the CBC’s Michael Gorman in December 2019.
“People are very upset. It’s unacceptable for the Nova Scotia government to go behind closed doors and delist ecologically-significant lands promised for protection. This letter sends a strong message that Nova Scotians won’t stand by and allow their public parks to be put up for sale.”
Caitlin Grady, Conservation Campaigner, CPAWS-NS
“I was shocked that the NS government reversed the decision to protect Owls Head Provincial Park in secret and without any public notice, let alone public consultation. This seems bizarrely out-of-step with successive governments’ long established practice of consulting Nova Scotians when making decisions about the protections of Crown lands. Unexpected, unfair and unacceptable.”
Barbara Markovits, Eastern Shore Forest Watch Association
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Read the letter as submitted to Premier McNeil.
For further information contact:
Caitlin Grady
CPAWS Nova Scotia
cgrady@cpaws.org