Author: Paul Berry

Five Bridges Trust Annual General Meeting, Sunday, March 20,2016

The AGM fot the Five Bridges Wilderness Heritage Trust (FBWHT) will be held from 2-4 p.m. on Sunday, March 20, 2016 at the Estabrooks Centre, 4408 St .Margaret’s Bay Road, Lewis Lake. Board members will be reporting on activities in 2015 and will share plans for projects in 2016 and beyond.

Kent Martin will give a short film presentation featuring some of his work in creating a film about the Five Bridge Lakes Wilderness Area and environs.

The title of our Guest Speaker’s presentation is “FBWHT at a Crossroads”
Founding President Tom Musial will review the past 15 years of FBWHT activities and put the question to the membership, “Where do we go from here?” The Trust invites you to join them for discussion as they plan their way forward.

The doors will be open at 1:30 p.m. for those who wish to become members of the Trust or to renew their memberships for 2016, membership is $10.00 a year for a single membership, $15.00 for a Family membership and $100 for a Lifetime membership.

All are Welcome!!

A petition: “Premier Stephen McNeil: Stop destroying Nova Scotia’s forest for biomass power generation” was posted a few days ago. The petition already has the support of almost 500 people. The more support there is, the more the policy makers will listen. You can read more and, as you wish, sign the petition here:

https://www.change.org/p/premier-stephen-mcneil-stop-destroying-nova-scotia-s-forest-for-biomass-power-generation?recruiter=110029095&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=share_email_responsive

We thank St. Margaret’s Bay resident and Bluff Trail user Helga Guderley for starting the petition.

Bluff Trail hikers would not have missed the magnificent new murals on the highway 103 overpass as you approach the trailhead for The Bluff Trail. From the BLT newsletter Winter 2016:

“Some of you may have noticed something new on the trail ­ a beautiful new mural on the highway 103 overpass. How did this project come about? ” Continue reading “New Murals on BLT overpass”

All across the world people are coming together to hit the streets on November 29th — hours before the most important climate summit this decade, taking place in Paris (COP21)…The Halifax march will begin at 1pm. We’ll start at Victoria Park… Read More in Halifax Media Co-op

The important message to councillors “we need to have people telling their Councillors and provincial MLAs that HRM ought to get on with building cell 7 and stop the deception about a need to build the landfill higher.” For WRWEO comments on the Otter lake Landfill, see Link

Deer hunting season began Friday October 30th. The season always begins on the last Friday of October and goes to the first Saturday of December, inclusive, excluding Sundays Except the first two (new for 2016), i.e. Nov 1 and Nov 8. Wear hunter orange when you are out on The Bluff Trail and put an orange vest on your dog. Deer hunting is permitted on protected land and that includes the area of The Bluff Trail. Both hikers and hunters should use extra caution during this season. Other types of hunting are permitted for specific periods that extend outside of the deer season. Check in with the NS department of natural resources to see what applies to you.

On Saturday, October 24, the public is invited to come to the first ever Open Forest Day for a free, fun, and informative visit to a beautiful wilderness area that is located just outside the Halifax core. The target audience for the event, which has been organized by the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources, is anyone and everyone – young and old, landowners, new Canadians, outdoor enthusiasts, and “couch potatoes.” Read more

This first Interim Report on the Green Network Plan will be discussed at a meeting of the COMMUNITY PLANNING & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STANDING COMMITTEE on Thursday Oct 15 in the Council Chamber, City Hall, viewable online. The full interim report is available in sections at http://www.halifax.ca/HalifaxGreenNetwork/Themes.php. View Agenda for the Thursday meeting. View Item 8.3.2 Halifax Green Network Plan which includes highlights of the Interim Report. The full Interim Report bears close reading. There are 52 maps.

You won’t make a bouquet out of them, but flowers of witch-hazel do provide some colour and interest though the fall. Witch-hazel is a common understory shrub in the oak woods of The Bluff Trail. More

It’s prime huckleberry season right now. Sometimes I have reached for what looks like a really delicious-looking cluster of huckleberries, throw them in my mouth and spit ’em out quickly. Then I look at the leaves and realize I had picked black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa), not black huckleberry (Gaylussacia buccata). They often grow together and the berries are not readily distinguished. The leaves are superficially similar, but on inspection can be readily distinguished. Click on these pics to enlarge them and see how the leaves differ – those of chokeberry have distinct “teeth” on the margins while huckleberry has smooth margins. – David P.