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Outdoor Nova Scotia: Features ... an In-depth Look at 'The Great Outdoors' in Nova Scotia!
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Take a Walk
on the Wildside by Kevin MacDonell The spectacular highlands terrain on the northern tip of Cape Breton Island is Nova Scotia at its wildest and most rugged. Here, deeply-incised river valleys have created spectacular "canyon mazes," 300-meter cliffs meet the ocean, and yet-to-be-discovered rare plants abound. Most of the territory is inaccessible. If a current proposal is successful, however, visitors and residents will someday have access to more than 100 kilometers of wilderness trails. The proposed trail would wind along the boundaries of a 27,566-hectare area being considered for protection from development. The Pollets Cove - Aspy Fault Candidate Protected Area is one of 31 areas the government of Nova Scotia is seeking to set aside for its ecological, wildlife, and geological value.
The area has a long history of use by hikers. One trail, for years one of the
province's most popular, runs from Red River (just north of the Cape Breton Highlands
National Park) to Pollets Cove about ten kilometers up the coast, on the western shore.
Another attractive trail links three communities at the northern tip of the island - it
runs along the shore from Cape St. Lawrence to Lowland Cove, then follows an old road to
Meat Cove, and loops back to Cape St. Lawrence. At Aspy Bay, on the eastern The proposed trail system would incorporate and extend these existing local trails, connecting them to one large system. On the western side, a trail would run roughly north-south along the steep coastline, connecting the Red River/Pollets trail to the Lowlands Cove/Cape St. Lawrence/Meat Cove trail. These trails were already connected by a long trail that follows the former route of a
telegraph line, but was so far inland that it passed through mile after mile of boggy,
monotonous terrain. John LeDuc, a
Parks and Recreation Division planner in the provincial government's Department of Natural
Resources says the
proposal would move the connecting trail closer to the cliff line. View from Tenerife Mountain area, across North Harbour and North Harbour Beach, towards Aspy Bay; Community of Dingwall in upper right. "You're going to be hiking more or less along that cliff edge where you'll get all these spectacular views," he says. "That's going to make it a lot more exciting, not just from a hiking perspective, but from an interpretive perspective. You'll be able to see the ocean, see the whales going by, and you can see much more of the geology, the landforms, (as well as) eagles and hawks flying along the slopes, playing on the updrafts." On the eastern side, the trail would follow the Aspy Fault, one of northern Cape Breton Island's most striking topographical features. Here, a bold escarpment marks the edge of the vast plateau called the Cape Breton Highlands. This straight line of cliff faces rises directly out of the sea at Cape Breton's most northerly point and extends inland for 40 kilometers. Joining the east and west halves of the system would be three connections, the southernmost following the Red River Canyon, the central one following the Pollets Cove River, and the northernmost connecting Tenerife Mountain and Meat Cove. In addition, the preliminary concept includes several shorter day-use trails accessible from nearby communities. According to the 1997 draft plan, the trail system would be marketed abroad in combination with such nearby established tourist draws as the Cabot Trail and Cape Breton Highlands National Park. With wilderness recreation and eco-tourism on the rise, this world-class combination could provide significant economic benefit to an area where unemployment runs high. In the meantime, the provincial legislature must pass the bill that would create the protected areas. The Wilderness Areas Protection Act was introduced in the legislature by the Liberal government last December, but it died on the order paper when the house was dissolved for a spring election. The new Liberal government, reduced to a minority of seats in the house, has publicly committed to reintroduce the bill during its current session, which began May 21st. (There is a moratorium on development in the candidate areas until they can be protected by the new Act.) In 1990, the province began a survey of all remaining natural areas in Nova Scotia, eventually focusing on the 74 areas that are Crown (government-owned) land and larger than 2000 hectares. The list of candidates was whittled down to the current number of 31, following public consultation and an evaluation of what each area contained - wilderness travel value, representation of landscape types, and outstanding or unique features. The proposed parks and protected areas plan was released in March 1994. Depending how much contiguous (adjoining) undeveloped Crown land remains, candidate
protected areas range from the very small to the very large - Pollets-Aspy is one of the
largest. The reasons for protecting Pollets-Aspy are numerous. Four distinct Nova Scotian landscape types are represented here. To understand the importance of this, you must know that the province is divided into distinct landscape forms, each with its own ecological characteristics - different climates, soils, forest types, and so on. At Pollets Cove, looking north towards High Capes - Oliver Maass photo Among its outstanding features - the province's highest coastal mountain barrens, various interesting geologic features, and the oldest rocks in the province. To learn more about the area's complex geology, check out the home page of the federal government's Terrain Sciences Division. "There's at least 30 or 40 rare plants (species) up there, plus or minus," LeDuc says. "The thing is, it's never really been systematically botanized. (These plants) have been picked up on an incidental basis." Having four distinct landscapes means Pollets-Aspy contains a diverse mix of vegetation, from Arctic alpine plants such as dwarf birch which are more often found in a more northerly climate, to a group of rare plants found in the rich intervales in the deciduous valleys, to plants that grow in the cool shade of hardwood lands. "We would expect quite a huge list of, say, lichens which, if we ever did a botanical inventory, would show up as being rare. Just because of the environmental conditions, you can almost predict where these rare things should occur.
"Another interesting feature is that the kind of forest that's on the slopes, the deciduous forest (sugar maple, yellow birch, beech and so on), this is the most eastern occurrence of it in North America, you can't find it in Newfoundland," LeDuc says. There are as well rare species of mammals such as pine marten, lynx, and certain
species of shrew and vole. As with plants, animals in this area have not been studied
systematically. "It's always a continuous thing, just because there's so much. And
it's not really something that is easy to get money for." The typical user of the proposed trail will not see or appreciate the rare plants, nor understand the geology - but the protected area and the hiking trail are inextricably linked. The trail system depends on the existence of the protected area. In order to attract the eco-tourist, there must be a guarantee that the area is protected from encroachment. "That it will show up as a green blob on a tourism map is very significant in attracting tourists," LeDuc says. "You're talking about somebody sitting in Sydney or Halifax or beyond, in the eastern seaboard of the States, in Europe - they're picking where to hike. They don't want to hike long distances through clearcuts and forestry roads and development." If the trails depend on protection, the reverse is also true: A well-marked trail is the best tool for managing public use. "Usually if you build a good trail in the right location, 99 percent of people will use it," LeDuc says. "The areas where there are concentrations of either rare plants or more significant or sensitive ecosystems are the steep canyons and the wetlands and barrens on top of the plateau - the trail attempts to avoid most of those." Following the successful establishment of protection, a management plan for each area
will be drafted with public consultation, to guide its protection, management and use. The
trail system, however, is a community initiative, with assistance from the Department of
Natural Resources. View from Bald Mountain, overlooking Blair and Polletts Cove River Valleys. Osborne Burke, president of the North of Smokey group, has walked and hunted in the area, and as a member of Ground Search and Rescue has explored the region numerous times to find lost people. A fisherman working in the troubled groundfish fishery, he believes the trail is necessary for the new jobs it will create. He says the economic spin-offs (for example, providing meals and accommodations for visitors) would far outweigh the relatively small number of jobs directly created in construction, maintenance and interpretation. One of the most difficult tasks will be reassuring people living in northern Cape
Breton that the proposal is a good thing. Some residents fear the restrictions that might
come with being surrounded by parkland (with Pollets-Aspy in place, about 90 percent of
the land north of Cape Smokey will be protected.) They say it's the last stand adjacent to
the Highland National Park available for farming, cutting firewood, and using Natural Resources Minister, Ken McAskill has said he wants to listen to the concerns of landowners. In fact, the bill as introduced in the legislature last year makes allowance for traditional uses such as sportfishing, hunting and trapping, and snowmobiling - as long as it follows "traditional patterns" and represents no threat to property, the environment or people's health or safety, among other stipulations.
Osborne Burke says his group learned a few things about getting along with local
residents on a recent trip to British Columbia to study the West Coast Trail, managed
jointly by Parks Canada and three First Nations communities. "We wanted to go out
there because at the time that they started with the trail, there were people who were for
it and people who were against it. There was a lot of conflict in the community. We As a result, the various agencies who might fund the Pollets-Aspy project have hired a facilitator to go between the community groups and local residents. Working independently, the facilitator will canvass residents for their concerns and run public meetings. One possible result of consultation, says Burke, might be making day-use free for everyone, something residents near the West Coast Trail called for. There, fees are charged for overnight use only, which would target more visitors than residents. In the meantime, funding has been secured to begin the first two phases of the project:
Evaluating of the proposed trail route and preparing a business plan. A firm will soon be
hired to put crews in the woods, physically walking the proposed trail with the aid of GPS
navigation, looking for unforeseen problems and making an inventory of streams and other
barriers. This information will be used to design necessary The pre-site evaluation could begin as early as June, 1998, with a total cost estimate
ready by November. Construction could take three to five years. A list of links to organizations concerned with protection of wilderness lands in Nova
Scotia: www.cfn.cs.dal.ca/Environment/EnvCCN.html
Detailed descriptions of long and short hikes in northern Cape Breton: Mail to: North of Smokey Economic Development Association: noseda@nscn.ns.ca Kevin MacDonell is our 'News and Features Correspondent' in Cape Breton. Kevin is a graduate of the University of King's College, School of Journalism in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1997, Kevin was the Managing Editor of The Westcoast Fisherman, a monthly magazine published in Vancouver, British Columbia. A special thanks to Oliver Maass and Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources for their photographs and assistance in the preparation of this article.
Take a Walk on the Wildside, first published May, 1998. Designed & maintained by Outdoor Nova Scotia, Liverpool, N.S. BOT 1KO. Material protected by copyright. Last revised: April 09, 2000 |
Its sheer
size means it contains entire ecosystems and watersheds. Says LeDuc, "From an
ecological point of view, for protecting biodiversity, the bigger the better."
The Pleasant
Bay Community Development Association and the North of Smokey Economic Development
Association are working jointly on the project.
Take
me to the 
