Five Bridge Lakes Wilderness Area (FBLWA)
The Woodens River Watershed is embedded in a larger landscape, the Chebucto Peninsula. The lands of the Chebucto Peninsula comprise a meaningful biogeographical unit by virtue of their common geology and vegetation, high density of lakes, streams and wetlands, proximity to the ocean, and their largely rural character. (The Chebucto Peninsula includes all land south of Hammonds Plains Road, and bounded on the east, south and west by the Atlantic Ocean; Halifax is sometimes considered to be a subpeninsula of the Chebucto Peninsula.) We are fortunate that there are already large areas of the Chebucto Peninsula that are protected from development in some way or another. These include
- Provincial Parks: Long Lake Provincial Park Crystal Crescent Beach Provincial Park, Lewis Lake Provincial Park, Peggy's Cove Preservation Area
- Protected Wilderness Areas: Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Lakes (declared April 21, 2009), and the Terence Bay Wilderness area
- Nova Scotia Nature Trust: Purcell's Cove Conservation Lands
- Nature Reserve: Duncan's Cove
There remain large blocks of land belonging to the Province as crown land or to HRM. The HRM lands known as the Western Commons (in the region of Ragged Lake) are currently under active consideration for a regional park with a Protected Wilderness Area by the HRM Western Common Wilderness Advisory Committee (WCWAC).
In 2001, the Five Bridges Wilderness Heritage Trust was formed with the explicit purpose "to conserve public lands in the area bounded by Highways 103 and 333 on the Chebucto Peninsula in its natural state for public use." (Click on the map at left for a larger version of the map illustrating existing and proposed protected lands, as well as wildlife corridors.)
In the spring of 2008, WRWEO and The Trust, in consort with the St. Margaret's Bay Stewardship Association, the BLT Rails to Trails Association, the Safety Minded ATV Club, the Resource Opportunities Centre, and over 35 other community organizations around the Chebucto Peninsula, formed the Chebucto Wilderness Coalition (CWC) to protect these lands - known traditionally as the Five Bridge Lake Wilderness Area (FBLWA) under the Wilderness Areas Protection Act. Their efforts have progressed quickly - see the CWC Overview and reports under CWC Reports (accessed via the menu at right).
On October 19th, 2009, the Nova Scotia government declared the Five Bridge Lake Wilderness Area a Candidate Wilderness Area. Public Consultations began in March 2010, with comments requested by April 30, 2010.
When wilderness protection is finally designated, the FBLWA will be the largest block of land protected from development on the Chebucto Peninsula. It is well established in conservation science that larger areas can support and conserve more species over time than small areas. Just as important, the FBLWA occupies a large area in the centre of the peninsula and it would be a relatively small step to construct conservation corridors connecting the different blocks of protected land on the Chebucto Peninsula. That would increase the species carrying capacity of all of those blocks of land and, collectively, it would constitute a very significant conservation area.
Amongst the Challenges: Moose Conservation & Corridor Protection
At the stage that the Public Consultations were announced, there was little or no mention in the various NSE documents of steps that might be taken to firm up wildlife corridors or of their importance in the larger and longer-term perspective. Further, reviews of the Environmental Assessment for Highway 113 revealed an apparent lack of commitment by DNR to conservation of the Chebucto group of mainland moose. In the pages following on Moose & Corridors, we discuss reasons why we think moose conservation and corridor protection should be important considerations in the delineation of the boundaries of the new Protected Area and in its management.
Residential and commercial lands can also contribute to biodiversity conservation
Of course even once the area is finally designated and corridors are (hopefully) firmed up, that is not the end of the story: a major effort will still be needed to promote sustainable and biodiversity-friendly use of commercial and residential lands on the Chebucto Peninsula.