Bay of Fundy ever-evolving

Mary Majka has seen the Bay of Fundy and surrounding areas change right before her eyes.

Majka,
an Albert County resident for over 50 years, said whether it's the
environment itself or the surrounding communities, the wonder that is
the Bay of Fundy has undergone consistent development.

"A few
years before I arrived here, Fundy National Park was established, yet
Alma inhabitants had yet to realize the potential of tourism," Majka
wrote in an e-mail. "Two stores, a gas station and a hotel were the
only places to serve visitors."

Majka added that there have also
been many changes that have happened along the shores, noting that
"prior to the causeway being built across the Petitcodiac River, the
typical characteristics of the river was of all the tidal bodies of
water, with the additional unique influence of the tidal bore.

"Erection
of the causeway brought about great changes, not only to the shores but
also to the quality of the water, the mud and the vegetation," she
said. "In the upper Bay of Fundy there seemed to be more erosion in
some places and more siltation in others.

"Scientists tell us
that the consistency of the mud also is different nowadays, which does
not enable the mud shrimp to thrive in some parts of the bay which, in
turn, makes it more difficult for migrating shorebirds to obtain the
necessary amount of food. On the other hand, the population of lobsters
has increased greatly."

Over the years the long-time resident has also noticed a great deal of difference in the animals which surround the bay.

"The
beneficial effects of legislation have brought Bald Eagles and some
other birds of prey back from the brink of extinction. Nowadays,
travelling from Moncton to Fundy National Park ... we pass about 10
nests of eagles," she said. "Fifty years ago, it was a sensation to see
even one."

Andrew Spring, executive director with the Fundy
Biosphere Reserve, said that as much as the Bay of Fundy has changed
over the years, the people have changed right along with it.

"We
have always depended on the bay for something. We've always been tied
to the Bay and it has shaped our coastline, it's shaped where we live,"
he said. "We all tend to live around the bay, all the communities are
coastal here."

With increased urbanization and development in and
around the bay, Spring believes the impacts over the years haven't all
been positive.

"We use the bay, it's where our water ends up ...
storm sewers or sewage water, it ends up in the bay," he said. "So I
guess that's a way we've kind of impacted it. More people means more
things going out; that would be the logical answer to that. We know
it's there, but maybe we don't really appreciate it anymore."

Spring believes the key to getting more people to appreciate the Bay of Fundy is to improve education.

"We
need to go to people and start talking to them about their natural
environment. I think we're at the situation where that needs to happen
sooner rather than later," he said. "To me if you get people in their
natural environment to start caring about it, that goes a long way."

Another
person who has noted changes in the Bay of Fundy region over time is
Sean Blaney, botanist and assistant director with the Atlantic Canada
Conservation Data Centre.

"There's a lot of introduced species
now that weren't around prior to European settlement. There's hundreds
and hundreds of plants species that have been introduced and lots of
introduced insects and a handful of introduced birds," he said. "I
would say introduced species are hard to characterize as very positive
from any natural history perspective ... From my own perspective as
someone who likes natural areas as natural as possible, the human
induced changes are not generally something I view as positive."

Margo
Sheppard, executive director of the Nature Trust of New Brunswick, said
with a traditional land use pattern of strip development along roadways
in rural New Brunswick, it will be difficult for humans to not continue
to have an impact on natural areas like the Bay of Fundy.

"That's
going to ultimately, I think, degrade the landscape of New Brunswick,"
she said. "People are always saying we need more people, we need more
people. That's great, but let's put them in the right place, let's
direct them to the cities and places where the services are already in
place."

Despite some negative impacts of human development,
Sackville town Councillor John Higham believes there's been an
increased level of appreciation given to the natural wonder over the
years.

"We have a lot of local artists who reflect the Bay in
their work and, whether it's painters or photographers or sculptors, I
think that we see that people are getting that kind of inspiration from
a natural phenomenon like that," he said. "I think Sackville has a very
strong connection to the bay that is being expressed artistically and I
think that it's a fascinating cultural landscape."

One way in
which the Bay of Fundy region has continued to change in recent years
is through the development of alternative energy.

"I guess
everyone's talking about it, there are some wind farms here in the
biosphere reserve," Spring said. "We do have the highest tides, so
there is talk of tidal power alternatives here, but really most of it
is just potential right now and we have to decide whether or not that's
something we want to pursue."

Spring said at this point he feels
that although strides have been made forward with wind energy, tidal
energy at this point is an "opportunity missed."

"It's just
sitting right here in our backyard, all this potential and other
countries with not the tidal power we have are really leading the
charge here," he said. "I don't want it to be an opportunity missed for
our region."

Sheppard added that it's positive to see alternative
energy developed in the region, but it needs to be part of a larger
scale integrated renewable energy plan for the province.

"They
can't just be 'oh a wind farm here, a wind farm there;' that energy has
to go somewhere," she said. "My concern is that there be some rational
big picture plans that looks at the benefits to be had from renewable
energy."

No matter the changes that have been made, or what lies
ahead for the Bay of Fundy, it will be interesting for long-time
residents to see what developments the area makes in the future.

"Fifty
years is a short span of time," Majka said, "yet, in my experience,
enough changes have been made to warrant keeping a watchful eye on
further developments."