Council Matters

COUNCIL TRANSFERS LAND TO PRIVATE NON-PROFIT

AFTER THE VOTE: WHAT LAND CONSERVATION LOOKS LIKE IN QUEENS

By Denaige McDonnell

Council has approved the transfer of municipal land at Path Lake to the Nature Conservancy of Canada, placing the property under permanent conservation stewardship for a nominal price of $1. This transfer continues a long-standing pattern in Queens, where multiple ecologically significant properties have moved into conservation ownership over the past two decades. Protected sites include Port Joli, Stuart Lake, Long Lake Bog, Shingle Mill Bog, and Toby Island nature reserves, each recognized for sensitive habitats or rare species.

From an ecological perspective, these are precisely the kinds of landscapes conservation organizations exist to protect. The value of these sites is real, documented, and in some cases nationally recognized. The question, now that the Path Lake decision is made, is not whether conservation is worthwhile — but how conservation functions in practice, and what the cumulative effect of these decisions means for local governance and long-term strategy.

Conservation and Stewardship Are Not the Same Thing

A common assumption is that land transferred to a conservation organization is actively managed on an ongoing basis. In practice, stewardship varies. Some sites have formal management plans and regular monitoring; others rely primarily on legal protection through ownership, with limited on-site presence.

Doug van Hemessen, Stewardship Manager for the Nature Conservancy of Canada in Nova Scotia, confirmed that several conservation properties in Queens do not currently have a designated on-site steward. Instead, NCC relies on a volunteer-based Property Steward Program, in which trained volunteers visit assigned sites at least annually and report observations to NCC staff, who retain overall responsibility.

In context, NCC conservation lands account for approximately 6,234 acres, or just over one per cent, of the Region of Queens Municipality’s roughly 590,000 acres.

This light-touch approach to land management can be appropriate for sensitive habitats such as bogs and wetlands. At the same time, periodic monitoring shapes how conservation is experienced locally and brings practical governance considerations into focus: how issues are identified between visits, who responds to access-related impacts, and how ecological conditions are tracked over time.

As the footprint of protected land in Queens continues to grow, these considerations become central to understanding how conservation functions in practice and how responsibilities are shared.

What Changes When Land Leaves Municipal Ownership

For residents, the Path Lake transfer may look like little has changed. The land remains accessible. The landscape remains intact. Recreation continues. From a governance perspective, however, the change is significant.

Once land leaves municipal ownership, control leaves with it. Elected officials no longer have authority over how the land is managed or adapted over time. Accountability shifts from a democratic body to an external organization, even when public access is preserved.

That tradeoff is often acceptable when the goal is permanent protection. But it also reduces municipal flexibility by permanently removing land from the public asset base. Land set aside for conservation can no longer support future community, cultural, or region-led development initiatives.

The impact of that loss is magnified by the absence of a clear long-term growth strategy. Without a shared vision for how Queens wants to grow or what it hopes to attract, land decisions are made one parcel at a time rather than as part of an integrated plan.

The Strategic Question Queens Has Yet to Answer

Taken on their own, each conservation transfer in Queens is easy to support. Taken together, they raise a larger question: how do these decisions fit within a coherent long-term strategy for municipal land?

There is no publicly articulated inventory of municipal lands and their intended purpose, nor a clear framework showing how conservation transfers are weighed alongside housing needs, recreation planning, climate adaptation, or economic development. Council does not routinely assess how much land has been permanently removed from future municipal use or what that loss of flexibility means over the long term.

Without that strategic context, land decisions risk being shaped by opportunity and goodwill rather than by a deliberate vision for how the region wants to grow and what assets it needs to retain to get there.

A Legacy Worth Managing Intentionally

The Path Lake transfer is now complete. The land is protected, and that outcome will be welcomed by many. The work ahead is not to revisit the decision, but to deepen the conversation. As Queens continues to partner with conservation organizations, clearer communication about stewardship, cumulative impacts, and long-term intent would strengthen public trust and understanding.

Conservation is a legacy decision. Its value is highest when it is guided by intention, transparency, and a clear vision for the future.

Photo Ed Halverson

If the idea of walking through the woods and exploring an area of the province you may have never seen while getting your hands dirty to protect the environment sounds like your idea of fun, then mark Saturday on your calendar.

An invasive plant removal event is being held at Pleasant River.

Hosted by Treasured Wetlands of Nova Scotia, the event is a partnership between the province and Ducks Unlimited Canada.

Conservation Program Specialist with Ducks Unlimited Canada Izzy Clarke says the Pleasant River site was nominated by the Mersey Tobiatic Research Institute to help protect species at risk. Not identifying which species is at risk is best practice according to Clarke who says humans are often the biggest threat.

Clarke says that’s not the only reason they chose Pleasant River.

“It also is really special because it has these gigantic red maples,” said Clarke. “Red maples are a very common species you find them all over the place but it’s very uncommon to find ones that are as large and as old as these so it’s quite special.”

The chance to work alongside multiple agencies protecting and conserving wilderness areas also made the site an obvious choice.

“It was also a good opportunity to partner with several different organizations because the Nova Scotia Nature Trust owns part of this land so it’s a great opportunity to highlight different conservation measures that are being applied to our wetlands across the province,” said Clarke.

Anyone wishing to participate is advised to dress accordingly. Clarke suggests wearing long shirts and pants and closed toe shoes. Work gloves, tools such as shovels or pruners, and some tick spray are also good to bring along.

Clarke says after an orientation volunteers will be working to remove glossy buckthorn.

According to the Nature Conservancy of Canada, “glossy buckthorn is a non-native tree that was introduced to Canada from Eurasia approximately 100 years ago. It can grow as tall as seven metres.”

Clarke says as glossy buckthorn grows; it chokes out native plant species.

The Pleasant River invasive plant removal is the first of four such events Treasured Wetlands of Nova Scotia will be hosting this summer.

Clarke says each location has something special to offer and they hope events like these will encourage more people to learn about the diverse areas around the province.

“A lot of these wetlands are kind of like hidden treasures to everybody outside of the immediate community that that they’re in, and that’s definitely part of the intention of this program, is to draw attention to them and invite people out to them and kind of invite people to be curious about these really special and unique ecosystems,” said Clarke.

People wishing to participate in Saturday’s Pleasant River event can join either the 10am-noon or the 1:00pm to 3:00pm sessions.

Registration is not necessary, just show up at the Pleasant River Community Hall.

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Conservation area is expanding in Queens. Photo Nature Conservancy of Canada

Another 157 hectares of land has been protected by the Nature Conservancy of Canada in Port Joli.

The two sites located near Thomas Raddall Provincial Park and Kejimkujik National Park are composed of salt marshes, tidal flats, white sandy beaches and stretches of intact Wabanaki (Acadian) forest.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada’s Nova Scotia Program Director Jaimee Morozoff says adding the two sites to the surrounding protected areas will benefit wildlife.

“To kind of, create these corridors. A lot of these species, I mean, lichen isn’t moving too far but some of the rare birds, the migratory waterfowl, the mammals like the moose, they need a lot of land,” said Morozoff. “They like to roam and move and some of them are really particular about what they need for habitat. They need certain buffers or distances from disturbance.”

Morozoff says the Nature Conservancy bought one of the parcels of at a tax sale from the Region of Queens and the other was a donation by Nova Scotian author, journalist and naturalist Dirk van Loon.

Morozoff says people donating land for conservation can take advantage of the Canadian government’s Ecological Gifts Program.

Under the program, an individual’s 50 percent capital gains tax on the donation is reduced to zero and can be carried forward 10 years.

Established in 1995, the Ecological Gifts Program has protected over 211,000 hectares of land worth close to a billion dollars by offering tax incentives to donors.

Morozoff says the Nature Conservancy is grateful for the large number of donations made by residents of Queens.

“Just from my own experience there seems to be a lot of community support of people recognizing the value that his land has and really, appreciating nature and wanting it to be there in the future.”

Morozoff says having so many landowners willing to donate to Nature Conservancy is a recipe for great conservation work.

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Melissa Labrador and her father Todd look on as her daughter Nakuset performs. Photo credit: Ed Halverson

A change in protected status for two wilderness areas in Queens will come with a change in name.

The province has announced 1,257 hectares (ha) of woodlands and lakeshore at McGowan Lake, in Queens and Annapolis counties, within the Medway River watershed will be protected and renamed Katewe’katik, (pronounced GAH-du-weg-a-dig) which means “place of the eels”.

Located in the interior of Western Nova Scotia, Pu’tlaqne’katik (pronounced BOOD-lagk-neg-a-dig) protects three unconnected parcels of land in the Pleasant River watershed totalling around 3,000 hectares. It includes Shingle Lake and Pleasant River along with many waterways used by the Mi’kmaq for centuries.

Indigenous guardian Melissa Labrador who lives in the nearby Wildcat First Nation said protecting these lands is significant for the Mi’kmaq.

“The land defines who we are as Mi’kmaq people. We’re surrounded by ocean, we have the amazing, what they refer to as the Acadian forest, what I refer to as the Mi’kmaq forest, all this plays an important role on who we are as a Mi’kmaq people because it shapes us and it shaped our people through history,” said Labrador.

The government of Nova Scotia has committed to protecting 13 percent of land in the province. Those lands include Nova Scotia’s existing 74 wilderness areas, 92 nature reserves and the 11 provincial parks. This announcement brings the total protected land to 12.83 percent.

This protection was made possible with support from Environment and Climate Change Canada through the Canada Nature Fund, contributions by private landowners, the Nature Conservancy of Canada and Nova Scotia Nature Trust in consultation with the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs and the public.

Now that the protected designation is in place, Labrador is relieved the type of activities permitted to take place on the land is severely limited.

“It can’t be staked for mining. It won’t suddenly appear on a forest harvest plan. A road won’t be punched through them. Cottages won’t suddenly appear on places that may have gravesites. And obviously a golf course isn’t going to, you know like things happened in Owl’s Head. So they’re protected,”” said Labrador.

She said protecting these areas close to her home allows her to pass on and safeguard the history of her people.

“Because of the designation of protection I’m able to tell more stories about the petroglyph sites that are located there, share more about those and so on,” said Labrador. “There’s always a risk of people doing damage to the area but there are things in place now to protect that.”

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
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