Owls Head Provincial Park Reserve
Owls Head Provincial Park Reserve is a coastal headland on the Eastern Shore that has been promised for protection since the 1970’s.
In March 2019, the Nova Scotia government secretly delisted Owls Head and signed an agreement to sell off these public lands to a private golf course developer. The delisting took place behind closed doors with ZERO public consultation. It was only brought to the public’s attention by an investigative report from the CBC Nova Scotia’s Michael Gorman in December 2019.
These public lands are of high conservation value and CPAWS-NS is at the forefront of efforts to save Owls Head.
CONSERVATION SIGNIFICANCE
- Significant wetland and coastal barren ecosystems
- Habitat for migratory birds and species-at-risk including endangered piping plover
- Globally-rare coastal broom heathland crowberry ecosystem
- Key coastal headland within the Eastern Shore Islands area
- Important site for ecological connectivity within the protected areas system
- Publicly-owned coastal headland – only 5% of Nova Scotia’s coastline is currently public and protected
THE THREAT
Owls Head Provincial Park Reserve was included in the Nova Scotia Our Parks and Protected Areas Plan, which seeks to protect the most ecologically significant areas remaining in the province. Legal protection was supposed to be put in place for Owls Head by 2015 at the latest, but the Nova Scotia government has been dragging its feet on the full implementation of the plan.
Now, the delisting of Owls Head could set a dangerous precedent. If one pending protected area can secretly be removed from the plan and sold off for development, then other existing and pending protected areas are at risk too. We must stop the Nova Scotia government from selling off the public lands at Owls Head and undermining the integrity of our provincial protected area system.
WHAT CPAWS-NS IS DOING
CPAWS-NS is actively advocating to stop the sale of the public lands at Owls Head and establish a legally-designated protected area. We are working with contacts in the federal and provincial governments, providing a conservation perspective in the media, and raising public awareness about this issue.
RESOURCES