Nature Trust Campaign Targets Coastal Gems

Nature Trust Campaign Targets Coastal Gems
Group Mobilizes to Conserve Navy Island and Sam Orr’s Pond

The Nature Trust of New Brunswick, the only land trust focused entirely on New Brunswick, has begun its Campaign for Coastal Lands in the St. Andrews area.

The campaign is a volunteer effort that aims to conserve two well-known coastal landmarks in the St. Andrews area: Navy Island and lands surrounding a popular hiking destination at Sam Orr’s Pond (the Caughey-Taylor Nature Preserve) in Bocabec. This is the largest campaign ever for the Nature Trust.

Since 2006 the Trust has been assessing the potential for acquiring lands on Navy Island for conservation. At 152-acre in size this well-known feature is visible from virtually anywhere in St. Andrews; it is also entirely privately-owned. This comes as a surprise to many who believe its current undeveloped state has to do with government intervention. This is not the case.

“The Nature Trust certainly took a financial risk last August by buying land there before actually having the money,” says Jessie Davies, who volunteers as Campaign Co-Chair with fellow Nature Trust board member Ken Hirtle. “But the land [twenty-four acres next to the sandbar known as Billy’s Bar] was too important to let slip away to another buyer via the Internet, something the owner had definitely contemplated” said Davies.

If it had, Davies says, plans the Trust had for acquiring other portions of the Island for natural habitat and to preserve the scenic viewshed from the Town, would have been pointless. A second, smaller parcel is under agreement to the Trust to purchase, if it can raise the money. Zoning in the municipal plan is for estate residential, with a minimum one-acre lot size.

“In theory current zoning could permit up to forty-four cottages, not all waterfront, to go in on land the Trust currently has purchase agreements on,” says Davies. For Trust board members, that would be an unfortunate and all too-predictable outcome. An application from a private developer has already proposed twelve residential lots on other parts of the Island.

Notwithstanding current zoning, which is currently being reviewed, saving major portions of Navy Island is important for lots of reasons, says Campaign Coordinator and Trust Executive Director, Margo Sheppard. The Island has seen Loyalist settlement and clearing of its forests for ships’ masts in the 1700’s, followed by agriculture and a gradual regeneration of trees. More recently, use for such activities as kayaking, picnicking and occasional camping has been the norm. The St. Andrews New Brunswick Community College frequently uses the Island for course training and relies on the goodness of owners for student access.

The Island’s tidal shores shelter seals, harbour porpoises and numerous shorebirds. Bald eagles regularly feed at low tide on the two sandbars, and osprey are abundant, having been documented nesting in four separate spots. Two branches of the Atlantic Flyway, a main route followed by migrating waterfowl, diverge in the vicinity of the Island, resulting in the Passamaquoddy Bay area having the highest winter concentration and the next-to-highest spring concentration of waterfowl in all of New Brunswick.

St. Andrews residents and Pagan Point Nature Preserve donors Senator Michael and Mrs. Kelly Meighen feel setting aside natural areas and open space like these shows respect for the future. They have agreed to help volunteer organizers, serving as Honourary Chairpersons to the campaign. In Ottawa for late Senate meetings, the Meighens are looking forward to being in St. Andrews this summer where their home looks out over Navy Island to Maine.

The Campaign for Coastal Lands has also set a goal to conserve forested lands beside its existing nature preserve at Sam Orr’s Pond, called the Caughey-Taylor Nature Preserve, ten kilometers northeast of St. Andrews in Bocabec. This is one of the Trust’s biggest and most visited preserves in the area. Although no agreements of purchase and sale have yet been signed, indications are that owners of land the project aims to conserve are willing to sell to the Trust, having contributed land to the original preserve.

This part of the project, if successful in its fundraising, would protect 300 additional acres including much of the drainage area for Sam Orr’s Pond, a brackish water feature that supports both fresh and salt-water species of plants and animals.

“This place is really a coastal paradise” says Margo Sheppard, “People come here looking for a near-wilderness experience and they get it.” Despite its low profile, the preserve has become a regional destination according to the log book kept on-site. “There are very few public lands with well-marked trails in Charlotte County,” Sheppard says, “and with development encroaching on this site from all sides, we’re fearful that this one will be degraded if we don’t act decisively.” Conversion of the forest so close to this protected area will negatively affect the hiking and wilderness experience visitors to the site value so much, she says.

Some land is already secured. For example, a nearby plot of Department of Fisheries and Oceans land was purchased by the Province last year at the Trust’s urging, in spite of a competing bid from a private developer. This nine-acre parcel, at the mouth of the existing preserve on Birch Cove, protects a headland and tidal inlet once used for fish farming. The Nature Trust has plans to extend the existing hiking trail through this land to the Glebe Road if successful in its land securement.

Other landowners are offering to help the land saving effort. Two have come forward to endorse the Nature Trust’s work and to enter into voluntary conservation agreements for over 100 acres of adjacent lands. Two others have offered to donate parts of their property to safeguard the wilderness feel of the preserve.

The Nature Trust’s stated mission is to conserve, for people and nature, New Brunswick’s finest ecological landscapes. Not coincidentally this has included many Charlotte County coastal areas over the last twenty years. The present campaign has a deadline of December 31, 2009 for completion. The $950,000 price tag includes land at both the Navy Island and the Sam Orr’s Pond locations, as well as money for expenses such as appraisals, surveys and stewardship. The group has raised just over $100,000.

The Nature Trust is working with partners like the Nature Conservancy of Canada and the Town of St. Andrews to achieve its goals. People wishing to donate to the campaign for coastal lands may contact the Trust at ntnb@nbnet.nb.ca, 457-2398, or make a donation through participating St. Andrews businesses including the St. Andrews Motor Inn, the Red Herring Pub and Tradewinds Imports. Visitors wishing to hike the Sam Orr’s Pond Trail at the Caughey-Taylor Nature Preserve should log on to the Trust’s website at www.naturetrust.nb.ca , click on the Preserve link for Charlotte County and print out a map and directions.

June 18, 2008