Author: Paul Berry

Woodens River Watershed Environmental Organization (WRWEO) builder of the

Bluff Wilderness Hiking Trail

Introducing the Bluff Trail Stewardship Program
Helping the Trail We Love

Thursday March 30th, 2017 – Halifax Central Library
BMO Community Room, 2nd Floor
Doors open for registration at 5:30 PM
Meeting 6PM – 8PM

Optional WRWEO membership available at door $5
For more information contact: info@wrweo.ca

The Woodens River Watershed Environmental Organization (WRWEO) and The Bluff Wilderness Hiking Trail need your help to ensure that the Bluff Trail can continue as a favourite destination for naturalists and outdoor adventurers.

Please make a donation today.  

Donations can be made by a cheque written to: St. Margaret’s Bay Stewardship Association and mailed to WRWEO 3650 Hammonds Plains Road, Suite 14, Unit 300, Upper Tantallon, Nova Scotia B3Z 4R3 or online through the Canada Helps portal on the Heart of the Bay website (http://www.heartofthebay.ca/donate) – select: Bluff Trail as the fund you wish to support. Thank you!

The large volume of visitors to the Bluff Trail has resulted in a disturbing increase in the amount and degree of harmful human impacts on the trail, such as: increased garbage including toilet paper, illegal fire pits, cutting of live and dead trees, destruction of lichens and small plants, as well as the widening and braiding of trails.

WRWEO, with the support of Nova Scotia Environment, will collaborate with the St. Margaret’s Bay Stewardship Association to initiate The Bluff Trail Stewardship Program (BTSP). Under the direction of a Stewardship Coordinator, volunteer trail stewards will help trail users learn more about caring for and maintaining the trail and help improve their Leave No Trace (LNT) practices while on the trail.

The creation and management of The Bluff Trail Stewardship Program requires funding that is not available to WRWEO through our usual funding sources. This is why we are asking you to contribute. 

Here is a link for information on the BTSP.

 UPDATE:

WRWEO raised $535 from Dec 10, 2016 to January 25, 2017, WRWEO also had a commitment for another $1300 (through monthly $50 instalments) for a total of $1,835 of pledged donations.
On January 25th 2017, WRWEO sent a second call to our membership to donate and announced that WRWEO had been approached by an anonymous supporter who had pledged to match any new donations (up to a total of $3 000.00) received before March 1st, 2017. The friends of The Bluff Trail responded with a further $1,450 in donations that will be matched by our anonymous supporter (who provided $1500) for a sub-total of $2,950 plus the $1,835 from the initial request for donations, for a grand total of $4,785.

We had some volunteers working on The Bluff Wilderness Hiking Trail on Saturday Nov 12, 2016. We had 9 people sign up and 5 people show up but we managed to address seven areas where the trail was braiding and we also fixed 3 meters of wet area by hardening it with found stone. Thanks to our great volunteers (but we want to remind everyone that the Bluff Trail is maintained by all users).

Click image to see Google Photos Album of the work – or click here.

There could be hunting in the area around the Bluff Trail on Saturday and Sunday October 29th and 30th, 2016 as well as Saturday and Sunday Nov. 5th and 6th, 2016. Hunting season is open until the first Saturday in December (Dec. 3rd, 2016) – please wear hunter orange when using the trail.

WRWEO encourages all trail users to say “hello” to the friendly Conservation Officers you may meet on the trail.

Since August, Conservation Officers from Nova Scotia Environment (NSE) have been making extra visits to the Bluff Wilderness Hiking Trail to help ensure that we use the trail safely.

Remember: ONLY Leave No Trace (LNT) bowl fires and camp stoves (NOT traditional campfires) are permitted on the trail. Also, camping is generally discouraged and ONLY permitted at the designated LNT educational sites.

Check out WRWEO’s display entitled “Help the Trail that Heals You” on display at the Upper Tantallon Library until Friday September 23, 2016.

A set of web pages provides an overview of the landscapes of the FBLWA from a natural history perspective. This initial version is not very mobile-friendly, and should be viewed on a laptop or desktop computer. View
– David P

Halifax council will be presenting a recommendation Sept 20 on whether to approve a proposal by the Nature Conservancy of Canada to acquire almost 400 acres of land in the Williams Lake backlands and set it aside indefinitely as a wilderness preserve.

Please visit the Urban Wilderness Park Website for more about the proposal and how to support it by writing to Mayor and Councillors.

We had VERY GOOD NEWS about Blue Mt/Birch Cove Lake. Let’s repeat it… make the Chebucto Peninsula a truly significant conservation area!

Richmond Campbell, a founding member and long-time Director of the Woodens River Watershed Environmental Organization (WRWEO) received recognition from Iain Rankin, MLA, for his outstanding contribution to WRWEO and the Bluff Trail.