A HISTORY OF ECOLOGICAL RESERVES

• 1974: Panel of scientists representing the International Biological Programme (IBP) identify 69 sites of outstanding ecological significance in Nova Scotia and urge the Province to "take immediate steps to protect" the sites occurring on Crown lands.
• 1975: The Department of Lands & Forests issues a directive to its staff requesting that "no development work be undertaken in these areas"". Somehow mineral claims and road construction are not covered, even though the Province still claims the sites ""have been protected on an administrative basis"".
• 1980-1999: Only seven ecological reserves are designated under the Nova Scotia''s Special Places Protection Act, passed in 1980. The last was in 1993.
• 1991: Nova Scotia''s Ombudsman warns the provincial government that "there is a distinct possibility that some parts of an irreplaceable natural heritage will be lost forever unless the ecological reserves program is assigned a higher priority."
• 1997: The Province''s ""Action Plan"" on protected areas promises five new ecological reserve designations by the end of 1997, but nothing happens.
• 1998: Province states that at least four new reserves will be created by the end of the 1998/99 fiscal year, but again fails to deliver.
• 1999: Province promises at least four new reserves by Spring 1999, but fails to deliver.
• 2000+: What will happen to candidate ecological reserves that desperately need legal protection, including places like:
  • WENTWORTH LAKE: Century old hardwoods and hemlocks running along a narrow ridge between Wentworth and Little Wentworth Lakes in Digby County, which could be lost in a pending land trade that Natural Resources staff recommended against.
  • SHELBURNE BARRENS: A unique mosaic of fire barrens and regenerating oak forests in the interior of southwestern Nova Scotia, currently being subjected to mineral exploration.

25 YEARS IS TOO LONG TO KEEP NATURE WAITING
Ecology Action Centre

25 years is a long time to wait. Especially for rare plants, old growth forests, fragile beach dunes, and other natural areas that could be lost forever without legal protection. In the summer of 1974, a panel of scientists representing an international effort to stem global environmental degradation produced the "International Biological Programme" (IBP) report. Their study, which prompted the beginning of Nova Scotia's ecological reserves program, urged the provincial government to act quickly to save 69 outstanding or unique natural areas that they had identified.

Sadly, as the years passed successive governments did little to safeguard these places. Some of them have disappeared forever. But if we act quickly Nova Scotia can rescue many of the sites that these and other scientists have recommended for protection.

We invite you to join the Ecology Action Centre in calling on the Premier and the provincial government to save Nova Scotia's rare plants, old growth forests, and other outstanding ecological features by resurrecting the province's ecological reserves program. The clock is still ticking. Haven't our special natural areas waited long enough?

Here's what the provincial government needs to do:

• DESIGNATE ECOLOGICAL RESERVES: Immediately designate the five ecological reserves that the Province promised in 1997.
• MAKE ECOLOGICAL RESERVES A PRIORITY. Prepare a timetable for the prompt designation of remaining candidate ecological reserves. Commit more resources to the ecological reserves program for research and monitoring.
• PROVIDE INTERIM PROTECTION. Keep current and future candidate ecological reserves on public lands intact until they are legally protected, by declaring them off limits to logging, disposals, new mineral claims and road construction.

POTTERY GLAZES OVER ECOLOGICAL JEWEL
Chris Miller

Pottery glaze: a harmless artistic accoutrement or catalyst for the ecological degradation of biological hotspots?

Conservationists in Nova Scotia may have a hard time answering this question. That's because one of the province's most outstanding natural areas, the Shelburne Barrens, is currently threatened by mineral exploration for kaolinite, a type of clay commonly used as a whitening ingredient in pottery glaze.

The Shelburne Barrens is a 5,653 ha patch of rugged upland wilderness with a wealth of biological diversity including rare coastal plain flora and a rich landscape mosaic comprised of heathlands, spring-fed lakes, and old-growth Acadian forest.

This ecological treasure was first identified as a priority for protection in 1974 through the United Nations International Biological Programme, which seeks to protect the world's most ecologically significant areas. The Nova Scotia government responded by declaring the Barrens a candidate ecological reserve, implementing interim protection, and setting up a process to officially protect the site through legislation.

25 years later, the Shelburne Barrens remains formally unprotected and its candidate reserve boundaries have recently been diminished. In November 1999, the Nova Scotia government announced the traditional boundaries of the candidate ecological reserve would be altered to allow a mineral exploration company, CAG Enterprises Limited, to search for kaolinite deposits within the ecological jewel.

This decision has angered many local environmentalists.

"We should not have to continually contest activities that threaten (the Barrens') protection", says Don Rice of the Tobeatic Wilderness Committee (who, ironically, is also a professional potter). "The integrity of the protected area ecosystems must take precedence."

The kaolinite of the Shelburne Barrens occurs as weathered bedrock in a shear zone between the granites and metamorphosed sandstones of southwestern Nova Scotia. The boundaries of the candidate ecological reserve were adjusted by the Nova Scotian government to exclude areas with the highest mineral potential.

Minister of Natural Resources, Ernest Fage, says an environmental assessment of the Shelburne Barrens determined kaolinite exploration could proceed without compromising the ecological health or natural values of the site.

A biology thesis, An Ecological Study of the Shelburne Barrens completed by Leah Hagreen at Dalhousie University says otherwise. Her assessment suggests mineral exploration and development would likely degrade the natural environment of the Shelburne Barrens and compromise its ecological integrity. "The development of a kaolinite mine across the shear zone would cut the very heart of the Shelburne Barrens," says Hagreen. "There will be heavy repercussions for the ecosystems and natural processes downstream."

This is not the first time a protected area in Nova Scotia has lost out to mineral exploration. In the fall of 1997, the provincial government terminated the protected status of the Jim Campbells Barren Wilderness Area in the Cape Breton Highlands in favour of gold exploration. Amidst overwhelming public pressure, however, the Jim Campbells Barren was reinstated as a protected area the following year.

Only seven ecological reserves in Nova Scotia are safeguarded against mineral exploration. Kermit DeGooyer of the Halifax-based Ecology Action Centre is dismayed at the slow pace at which the province's most outstanding natural areas have been protected.

"Twenty-five years is a long time to wait, especially for rare plants, old-growth forests, and other natural areas that could be lost forever without legal protection. The Shelburne Barrens decision speaks volumes of the low priority the provincial government places on these sites."