Who we are
WRWEO respectfully acknowledges that we are located in Mi'kma'ki, the unceded and unsurrendered ancestral land of the Mi'kmaq (L'nu). We are all treaty people.
We work in the Woodens River watershed: nineteen connected lakes running roughly 20 km across the Chebucto Peninsula, covering about 65 km² of close-to-pristine wilderness alongside recent and older settlement. The watershed page has the full picture.
The organization formed in 1995, after a PCB spill into Five Island Lake, the threat of further development through a swap of Crown land, and a series of studies indicating that nutrient levels in Sheldrake Lake were some five times the natural levels of nearby undeveloped lakes in the upper watershed. Our community-based watershed management approach has meant:
- Sponsoring public events highlighting conservation issues in the watershed
- Negotiating with developers and government
- Constructing and maintaining a set of wilderness hiking trails, 32 km in total
- Studying and contributing to scientific information about the area
- Remedial work on damaged ground
- Cooperating with related organizations
The overall goals are developing patterns of use that conserve the natural world, and increasing public awareness of and participation in those efforts.
The Bluff Wilderness Hiking Trail was built to allow the Woodens River community and the public generally to become aware of the extraordinary natural assets of this area, on the principle that awareness is the first step in protection. Completed in 2005, it was rated one of the eight best urban escapes in Canada by Explore: Canada's Outdoor Magazine in May 2008.
Goals
- To promote community involvement in management of the watershed
- To raise community awareness of local environmental issues, and to encourage feedback from the community
- To set site-specific goals to maintain areas of high environmental quality and to improve poor or degraded areas
- To interact with other activities, groups and agencies in order to improve human and natural environmental conditions within the Woodens River watershed
Vision for the watershed
In April 2009, WRWEO published a vision statement and strategic action plan for the Woodens River watershed. It was written as a dynamic document, open to challenge and revision through public feedback. It set out the state of the watershed as it then stood — the geography, the settlement history from Alexander Hubley's 1841 arrival and the Old Halifax Road that predates 1800, the natural habitat, the recreation, the environmental impact of development — and then a series of goals with actions attached. In summary:
- Natural environment
- Preserve and protect the natural habitat for generations to come: preclude further sales or swaps of Crown land within the watershed for development or resource extraction; encourage provincial and municipal purchase of the private lots needed to connect the Crown lands into the wildlife corridors envisaged in the Regional Plan; and work with the Nature Conservancy and the NS Nature Trust to promote bequests of private land.
- Water quality
- Recognizing that nearly all human activity affects water quality, regulate development to mitigate the impact: limit lakeshore residential density to what the receiving water body can absorb; limit recreational development on the same basis; require tertiary sewage treatment for high-density development and public facilities; protect a 30 m natural buffer of undisturbed vegetation along all lakes and watercourses; and rigorously enforce existing legislation rather than warning transgressors.
- Outdoor recreation
- Develop and expand low-impact recreation: maintain and operate The Bluff Trail for hiking and skiing; ensure adequate funding for regular trail maintenance; provide an interpretation centre and sign-in registry at the entrance to the trail system; promote Leave No Trace camping; encourage canoeing and kayaking by reopening and maintaining the portage routes.
- Parks and public lands
- Preserve and protect the public lands within and adjacent to the watershed as a natural wilderness area. This goal was substantially achieved with the designation of the Five Bridge Lakes Wilderness Area in 2011.
- Infrastructure and aesthetics
- Reduce reliance on private cars through express bus service and commuter parking at Exit 4; improve Highway 333 for tourist traffic; and minimize the visual impact of development through setbacks, smaller footprints, preserved ground cover, green space, and restraint with street lighting and billboards.
Summarized from the 2009 vision statement and strategic plan. Several elements — wilderness designation, the trail, the portage routes — have since been achieved; others remain open. The board is currently reviewing the document.
What has actually been accomplished
Thirty years of work, most recent first. Each of these has a fuller account elsewhere on the site — this is the index, not the record.
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The long boardwalk rebuilt, end to end
Two phases across two years, $86,000 of lumber, hardware and labour, funded by the province, HRM, a district councillor and individual donors. Where the money goes.
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The Bluff Trail Stewardship Program begins
A joint program with the St. Margaret's Bay Stewardship Association: trained stewards on the trail, damage measured and remediated, results published every year. The program.
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Five Bridge Lakes Wilderness Area designated
Close to 8,600 hectares protected, after a decade of work by a coalition WRWEO helped found. How it was protected.
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The Bluff Wilderness Hiking Trail completed
Nine years, thousands of volunteer hours and more than $200,000 raised from three levels of government. Named one of Canada's eight best urban escapes by Explore in 2008. The trail.
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The Five Island Lake PCB spill addressed
WRWEO sat on the citizens' liaison committee from 1995. By 2008 concentrations had fallen to levels considered non-toxic. Water quality.
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Cranberry Bog pocket wilderness conserved
Secured through negotiation with the developer and the municipality.
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The Sheldrake Lake aeration project
A response to nutrient levels five times those of undeveloped lakes upstream, alongside a full aquatic survey. Sheldrake Lake.
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Watershed Management Plan, river survey and forestry workshop
Together with the removal of abandoned cars from the watercourses. The documents.
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A Guide to the Trails of the Woodens River Watershed published
Based on the summer work of students, initiated and supervised by WRWEO. Read it (PDF).
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WRWEO forms, and forces a democratic process on the Crown land swap
Prompted by the PCB spill, the threat of development through a land swap, and the Sheldrake Lake nutrient studies.
Compiled from WRWEO's record of important projects successfully undertaken, 1995–2014 (PDF), last updated 6 March 2014, supplemented with later material. The record from 2014 onward — the Bluff Trail Stewardship Program from 2017, the Mi'kmaw Hill renaming in 2016, and the boardwalk replacement of 2023–24 — is covered on the stewardship and trail pages.