Fall 2024/Winter & Spring 2025
Monday Sept 23, 2024 at 7:30 pm
The Nova Scotia Wild Flora Society invites you to our next members’ meeting, online on Monday Sept 23, 2024 at 7:30 pm.This is a zoom only meeting. If you are an current NSWFS member, or guest, you will receive a Zoom link to the meeting by email.
Join Rosmarie Lohnes, CEO of the award-winning Ecological Restoration company Helping Nature Heal Inc. for an insightful presentation on “Restoring Land Through Nature-Based Strategies”. With over 20 years of experience, Lohnes discusses innovative approaches to land restoration that promote the use of native species and natural methods to adapt to the changing climate. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how we can work in harmony with nature to create resilient environments for future generations.
Monday Oct 28, 2024 at 7:30 pm
The Natural and Not-so-Natural History of Sandy Lake (Bedford, NS)
Each one of the 1000 or so lakes in HRM is physically unique but they share common threats to their ongoing integrity associated with climate change and urbanization. In this presentation, NSWFS member David Patriquin will take us on a a visual tour of Sandy Lake and its associated wetlands and watercourses and describe/discuss ongoing and potential future impacts of climate change and urbanization on the recreational and ecological qualities of Sandy Lake.
Since his retirement as a Prof, of Biology at Dalhousie University in 2008, David has spent as much of his time as he can exploring his ‘Bioregion’ which he defines arbitrarily as the area within 50 km of peninsular Halifax, or more formally as the Sackville River Primary Watershed. He began looking at “Sandy Lake & Environs” in 2017, visiting the area on foot and by paddling. He conducted limnological observations with the help of volunteers from the Sandy Lake Conservation Association; since 2022 in coordination with the Halifax LakeWatchers program. In conjunction with historical data going back to 1971, the 2017-2024 observations reveal a long term trend of increasing salt content (a proxy for urban influence), and of declining and now very low deep water (hypolimnion ) oxygen during the period of peak stratification in late summer – except in 2023 when it appears that the excessive precipitation essentially flushed and re-oxygenated the entire lake.
The future trajectory of the lake will depend very much on the vagaries of climate change, and on whether or not a major development in an area of significant headwaters and wetlands is given the go-ahead.
This will be a zoom-only meeting. If you are an current NSWFS member, or guest, you will receive a Zoom link to the meeting by email.
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