STORY CONTINUES BELOW THESE SALTWIRE VIDEOS
The executive director of the Nova Scotia chapter of a national parks and wilderness society has come up with 17 sound reasons to dismiss the idea of a private golf course on the West Mabou Beach provincial park property.
“We anticipated that the golf course developers would take another run at West Mabou Beach provincial park, so we pre-emptively did some field work there to document the biodiversity,” said Chris Miller, a Halifax ecologist who works with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.
“We found 17 rare species, including four that are listed under the (provincial) Endangered Species Act,” Miller said. “This is a large number of rarities for such a small geographic area and clearly demonstrates the conservation importance of this park.”
Cabot Cape Breton has been making some noise about making a request to the province to lease one-third of the 275-hectare park to develop a third 18-hole coastal golf course, some 25 kilometres south of its successful Cabot Links and Cabot Cliffs courses in the Inverness area.
Unsuccessful in pushing for a golf course at West Mabou four years ago, Cabot has revamped the idea. Former Nova Scotia premier Rodney MacDonald, a lifetime resident of the Mabou area, pitched the golf course idea to five area organizations last week, saying if the proposal were accepted, Cabot would provide $125,000 annually in direct funding support to the five development, athletic, performing arts and historical organizations and societies.
Miller said the Nova Scotia government in 2018 did a report on the West Mabou beach park.
“The government report from four years ago anticipated that there would be species at risk, our analysis identified some of those,” Miller said of the wilderness society’s work that was contracted out to Alain Belliveau of Acadia University, a species-at-risk expert.
Miller said the four species identified as at risk are all birds, including the piping plover, bank swallow, Canada warbler and olive-sided flycatcher.
The rare species found in the park include10 birds, five plants and two lichen.
“The reason why there is such a high concentration of rare species for such a small geographic area is that there is an unusual combination of ecosystem types at this location,” Miller said. “It has really extensive dune systems and behind those dune systems are a series of sinkholes and karst topography, landscapes that are not common in the broader geographic area but packed into this small place.”
Karst topography is formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite and gypsum and is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves.
“Wherever you have different ecosystems in close proximity, you are going to get a rare species and an interesting combination of species that are interacting,” Miller said.
All the ecosystems in the park, including beaches, coastal forests and peatlands are inter-connected and highly susceptible to development and other activities, Miller said.
“We’re really concerned about the golf course proposal.”
Nearly 200 comments on a recent CBFM Facebook page post show a division among people who share Miller’s concerns and others who are concerned about a lack of opportunity and jobs in the area that they think could be partially overcome by a golf course development.
“The park has a protected status, does it not?” asked one commenter. “If that is to mean anything at all then we along with the Nova Scotia government must say no to this proposal.”
Another, identifying as a lifelong resident of the area, said, “I believe this golf course would be a big asset. There have been more businesses close (my own included) in the area than open. I personally think the positive impacts outweigh the negative. Cabot has done wonders for the town of Inverness.”
Another comment was “yes for a golf course in Mabou, not on that location.”
Tory Rushton, the provincial minister of natural resources and renewables, said at Province House on Tuesday that the department and staff entertain any application that might come in for a piece of Crown land.
“We use it as a learning process,” Rushton said. “The developer has talked to the community and I know that there has been information shared around but the developer has not come to our department or government as of yet.”
Rushton wouldn’t compare the idea to the Owls Head debacle that had a previous Liberal government minister secretly delist an Eastern Shore property that was to be designated a provincial park and enter into a conditional agreement to sell that Crown property to a golf course developer
“With no application, we haven’t even had a conversation at the department level as of yet,” the minister said.
Rushton said the department is still working on getting the remaining 89 parks and protected areas from a 2013 list protected.
“I don’t want to presuppose what any of that could take place,” Rushton said of West Mabou. “If there is an application of any sort, I think it’s prudent of the government to look at any application. But it has to go through the whole process, a proper process and a transparent process.”
Miller said parks and protected areas should not be open to development.
“They are places to conserve natural habitat and allow people to appreciate nature,” he said. “The Nova Scotia government needs to firmly reject this proposal or it will be open season on all of our parks and protected areas. We’re really concerned about the potential precedent that’s created by opening up protected land for this type of development.
“Protected should mean protected.”
Miller said there are plenty of places outside of protected lands where golf courses can be developed.
“Protected lands are special.”
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