EXPLORING THE FUTURE SACKVILLE RIVER – LEWIS LAKE PROTECTED AREA

by Caitlin Grady 

Hi Everyone!

My name is Caitlin Grady and I’m the newest member of the CPAWS-NS team. I’m very excited to be working with Chris and the rest of the conservation network to protect valuable wilderness areas in Nova Scotia. Over my first few weeks, I’ve learned about many important areas across the province still waiting for protection, including the proposed Sackville River – Lewis Lake Nature Reserve. I had the chance to visit this site recently on my first field trip and decided to use my inaugural blog post to talk about the significance of this pending protected area and share some highlights from our day spent exploring it.

The pending Sackville River – Lewis Lake Nature Reserve is located in Upper Sackville about a 30-minute drive from downtown Halifax (see map below). This new protected area would cover nearly 1,600 acres of forest and wetland tracts and provide important landscape representation of the unique Sackville Drumlins. The new protected area includes river frontage on the Sackville River and provides important ecosystem services like groundwater recharge which helps ensure healthy river habitat for spawning Atlantic salmon.

The Nova Scotia government first committed to protecting the Sackville River – Lewis Lake back in 2013. It is included in the “Our Parks and Protected Areas Plan”, but unfortunately, has not yet received the required legal designation to make everything official. The Sackville Rivers Association and the wider Sackville community have been champions of this pending protected area for many years and are calling on the provincial government to finish the job by completing the designation. In support of these community efforts, CPAWS-NS will be undertaking fieldwork at this site over the coming months.

Because the Sackville River – Lewis Lake Nature Reserve occurs in an area with lots of old logging roads and rail lines, my first trip to this pending protected area was by mountain bike. We covered lots of ground around the perimeter of the site by bike, and then hiked on foot to several key spots within the protected area. It was nice to explore this area first-hand. There are lots of important reasons why it should be protected, not least of which because it is important to the local community and is used for all sorts of outdoor activities, like hiking, camping, hunting, and fishing. Even though it’s quite late in the year, we did see a bit of wildlife, including a garter snake, and a small flock of blackpoll warblers taking a break on their migration south.

One of my favorite parts of the day was the moment we emerged from the dense woods to an old railway track bordering the nature reserve. As we got off our bikes and placed our tires on a track to push along beside us, I took a second to absorb the vibrancy of the fall foliage and its lovely contrast to the clear blue sky. We stopped to take some photos of a pond off the edge of the railroad and spotted a painted turtle on a distant rock. It’s moments like these, surrounded by beautiful colors and wildlife in a natural space, that make me appreciate Nova Scotian wilderness and remind me just how important it is to protect places like these.

We have lots more fieldwork planned over the coming months. Looking forward to getting back on the land at Sackville River – Lewis Lake and keeping everyone up-to-speed on our work.

Caitlin