Two surveys: Sandy Lake Housing and Highway 102 West Corridor Special Planning Area

Posted on December 4, 2025 by Bob Kennedy

Member Wendy McDonald is sharing the links to two surveys regarding development proposals that are currently in the works.

All feed back is encouraged, even if you do not live in HRM. The concern for the development, #2, would be negatively impacted for the creation of the Blue Mountain Birch Cove Lakes National Urban Park serving residents and visitors. Botanically speaking, there are many interesting finds here including mountain sandwort.

Partners are at the Planning stage with Parks Canada. The development proposals suggest 18,000 units, or 45,000 people living in the wooded green space between Kearney Lake Rd and Lacewood Drive, already a traffic challenge! It would impact wildlife corridors, water quality here an downstream, biodiversity and more.

To have input on these two planned developments, please complete the below surveys. The Sandy Lake survey is open until December 3, today, and the Highway 102 survey is open until December 10.

1. SANDY LAKE

https://engagehalifax.ca/sandy-lake-special-planning-area

2. HIGHWAY 102 West Corridor SPECIAL PLANNING AREA

https://engagehalifax.ca/highway-102-special-planning-area

A Special Planning Area is different in that Halifax Regional Council does not participate in development approvals in Special Planning Areas. However, Municipal staff will conduct the review process and prepare planning policies and infrastructure upgrade recommendations as they typically would. All municipal policies and regulations and provincial laws will need to be met. Regional Council may consider cost recovery programs for infrastructure investments.

The provincial housing team will be making a recommendation on these and other SPAs so let your MLA and Councillors know how you feel that housing could be built in serviced areas, not green space!

If you have questions, check out our website .. bluemountainfriends.ca or contact me.

Thank you for your interest, every voice matters, share with friends and family.

Wendy McDonald, Board member, bluemountainfriends.ca  wendyathome27@gmail.com

PS SPA #1, Sandy Lake is adjacent to an HRM Park, with beach and scheduled swimming lessons and programming. The addition of 8000 units in a green space would change water quality, currently home to salmon and trout. Adjacent to the Hammonds Plains Rd, a traffic bottleneck, this would only add challenges. Survey deadline Dec 3.

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Members Zoom Meeting – Mon. Dec. 1: Iconic Flora of Australia Part 2 – Sheila Pugsley

Posted on November 28, 2025 by Bob Kennedy

 

Formerly Eucalyptus ptychocarpa – until creation of Genus Corymbia in 1995

Sheila Pugsley will continue her presentation on Australian Flora at 7:30 Monday Dec. 1 via Zoom.

Part 2 covers the Myrtaceae (Eucalypts), the Mimosaceae (Acacia/Wattles), Casuarinaceae (She-Oaks) families, and Grass Trees (Xanthorrhoea genus). If you missed it, please see the recording of last week’s Flora of Australia Presentation Part 1

The Zoom link will be emailed to members as before.

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Lichen Hike Confirmed for Saturday Nov. 29 10:00AM

Posted on November 28, 2025 by Bob Kennedy

The weather looks good (but cold) so we are going ahead with the lichen hike at Port L’Hebert Provincial Park. Because of the limited size of the venue, we are only accepting the people who have registered already. Registrants please see your email for details.

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Lichen Hike Postponed to Saturday Nov. 29 due to rain

Posted on November 15, 2025 by Bob Kennedy

See below.

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Members Meeting in Two Parts Mon. Nov. 24 & Mon. Dec. 1: Iconic Flora of Australia – Sheila Pugsley

Posted on November 9, 2025 by Bob Kennedy

Stand of Antarctic Beech – Nothofagus moorei

Wallum Banksia at Noosa Heads – Banksia aemula

Explore some of Australia’s most iconic plant families, whose species grow in fertile, biodiverse rainforest, the arid outback and along the dry, sandy seacoast. Discover modern day trees whose ancestors lived in the Dinosaur Age (Araucariaceae).

Discover why 80-85% of Australian plant species are endemic (grow naturally only in Australia). See beautiful flowers unlike anything you may have seen.

Learn how Australian plants have adapted to strong sunlight, fire, poor soils and dry conditions as the continent has dried out over time.  Discover western and aboriginal uses of iconic plants and how Aussie culture embraces them. Attend in person on November 24, 2025, and see and feel leaves from “living fossils”.  See, taste and smell products derived from some of Australia’s most iconic plant species.

Because it is a detailed and comprehensive presentation, Sheila has offered to do it in two parts. The first part will take place at the Museum of Natural History 1747 Summer St. starting at 7:30 Monday Nov. 24. It will also be available online via Zoom.

Part 1 will cover species in the Araucariaceae (Bunya Pine, Norfolk Pine, etc.), Nothofagaceae (Antarctic Beech) and Proteaceae (Banksia, Macadamia) families.

Part 2 will take place only on Zoom on Monday Dec 1 at 7:30. It will cover the Myrtaceae (Eucalypts), the Mimosaceae (Acacia/Wattles), Casuarinaceae (She-Oaks) families, and Grass Trees (Xanthorrhoea genus).

Sheila has spent over a year in Eastern Australia (Qld and NSW) over 5 separate visits of 2-3 months each. She participated in Land Care and Habitat Restoration Projects with local conservation groups. As well, she participated in Botany field trips and talks with the Noosa Parks Association in Queensland. She has been able to do a fairly deep dive into the most iconic and unique floral families of Australia during her time in Australia.

Sheila is a native of Nova Scotia  and has had a passion for botany all her life. This eventually led to  a BSc. in Biology (Ecology). Locally, she was awarded a HRM Volunteer Award in 2025 for her work in conservation and habitat restoration in a local HRM park over the past 6 years.

Members will be emailed the Zoom links prior to the presentation.

Grass Trees – Xanthorrhoea johnsonii

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Lichen Hike Sunday postponed to Sat. Nov. 29 – Port L’Hebert Provincial Park 10:00AM – Registrations Full

Posted on November 7, 2025 by Bob Kennedy

American Starburst Lichen – Imshaugia placorodia, Fingerleaf Foam Lichen -Stereocaulon dactylophyllum, Ladder Lichen – Cladonia verticillata

UPDATE – Due to the number of people who have registered and the limited amount of parking, we have stopped accepting registrations. If you are already registered, please consider car pooling if possible. Due to the heavy rain forecast on Sunday, we are postponing the hike to Saturday Nov. 29. A bit of wet makes the lichens look good, but too much makes it difficult to identify important features. Frances and Fiona will be making the final call on Friday Nov. 28 and it will be posted here as well as emailed to the registrants.

We are fortunate to have lichen experts Frances Anderson (co-author of Common Lichens of Northeastern North America), Fiona Brooks (lichen expert at the Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Centre) and mycologist Ben Kendrick (co-author of Edible East Coast Mushrooms) available to conduct a day long hike to explore the world of lichens. It will be in two parts, a morning session that is easygoing and for those that wish to continue, a more challenging afternoon hike. If Sunday is not good for weather, then it will be moved to Sat. Nov 29 or Sunday Nov. 30

If you have access to Frances’s book, we ask that you review the “How to use this book” section before coming so that you can fully appreciate everything our leaders will have to offer. Unfortunately it is difficult to source new, but the University of Guelph appears to still have copies.

The location for the hike will be Port L’Hebert Provincial 11183 Highway 103, south side of the road. We will meet at 10:00AM. If you have been registered and you need a ride or wish to offer a ride, please let us know at novascotiawildflora@gmail.com. If you have a pocket magnifier – bring it along, it will help with IDs.

 

Gritty British Soldier Lichen – Cladonia floerkeana, Blue Felt Lichen – Degelia plumbea, Black Foam Lichen – Anzia colpodes

 

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Rally to Support the Mi’kma’ki Communities Defense of our Lands and Waters

Posted on November 6, 2025 by Bob Kennedy

Many NSWFS members and friends are supporting this rally.

“The whole province is being invited to stand together with Mi’kmaw Land Defenders and Water Protectors to raise our voices against this government’s increasing disregard for our rights, our safety, and the health of our lands and waters.

So many people have had it with this government. This is our chance to show Houston that he is uniting the opposition.

We need at least a thousand people at this rally to have an impact. So please, forward this information to everyone you know. Ask them to join you on November 15th.

For people leaving from Annapolis County, we have a free bus going to the rally and back with pick-up points in Bear River First Nation, Annapolis Royal, Bridgetown  and Middleton. To reserve a seat fill out the form here:

https://forms.gle/2UasumX4xhMkPJFJ6″

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“ReWild: The Art & Science” Nov 1-22, 2025 in Annapolis Royal

Posted on October 30, 2025 by admin


ANNAPOLIS ROYAL, Nova Scotia (October 14, 2025) – ARTSPLACE Gallery presents “ReWild: The Art & Science” , a multidisciplinary exhibition by naturalist and artist Bev Wigney. This project chronicles a fifteen-year journey of ecological restoration and creative observation on a two-acre property beside the Round Hill River.

Bev Wigney’s “ReWild: The Art & Science” opening reception Sat. November 1, 2025, 12-2 p.m. Light refreshments served, all welcome. Artist talk November 18, 7p.m. (donation). Exhibition continues through November 22.

ARTSPLACE is a public Art Gallery that is operated by the Annapolis Region Community Arts Council, a registered charitable, community organization dedicated to encouraging and promoting the arts… ARTSPLACE Gallery is located at 396 St. George Street in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. More About It

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Member’s Zoom Meeting, Monday Oct 27, 7:30pm: Mi’kma’ki; A Living Map – Mary Macaulay

Posted on October 21, 2025 by Bob Kennedy

There will be a member’s meeting, by Zoom only, on Monday Oct. 27 at 7:30pm. Invitations including the Zoom link will be emailed to registered members beforehand.

Hunter’s Mountain, Cape Breton – Photo Mary Macaulay

Mary Macaulay is a longstanding member and researcher who will present a continuation of her Eco-Archaeological research on Nova Scotia “Crown” Lands, which are up for deforestation – as shown targeted by the online Harvest Plan Map Viewer. Mary has been doing this work since 2019 and has expanded her project area to include patterns observed throughout the region, including the South Shore.

Members who have not viewed Mary’s first two presentations on the NSWFS You-Tube site will benefit by watching those two talks before this one; Rediscovering the Sacred and Salvage Eco-Archaeology in Nova Scotia – or viewing as a refresher since it’s been a couple of years since Mary has given us an update.

This new talk will focus less on culturally modified trees and LIDAR sets and more on a selection of common native understory plants and the cultural landscape features they appear to signify.

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Hike in Wentworth Provincial Park, Sun Oct 19

Posted on October 9, 2025 by Bob Kennedy

Given the current forecast, the hike in Wentworth Provincial Park has been moved to Sunday Oct 19. But due to the constantly changing forecast, please watch this website for the latest info.

Please meet in the parking lot at the entrance to the park, just off Highway 4 at 10:00AM. We will hike along the Wallace River and nearby lowlands in the morning, break for lunch, then head over to the trail up the nearby mountain for the afternoon. The morning hike should be relativly easy, the afternoon of moderate difficulty.

Please register with novascotiawildflora@gmail.com for this so we can contact you about any changes and so we can know when everyone has arrived. If you need transportation or can offer transportation, please add whether you plan to stay for the full hike or just the morning portion.

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