Navy Island

Credit: Tom Moffatt

Navy Island, also known as St. Andrews Island, is a 150 acre island less than 1.5 km off the southern coast of St. Andrews. The Island forms the natural St. Andrews harbour and protects the Town and its shore.

For many people in St. Andrews, Navy Island has remained largely untouched for as long as they have known it, subject primarily to natural succession and the forces of nature.

Sitting as a picturesque backdrop to the Town, the Island has claimed a place in the citizenry’s psyche; residents have grown attached to the sight and sounds of the Island and recognize and appreciate it as part of their community.

Evidence of Loyalist settlers can be found today on the Island, in the form of old cellar holes, dug wells, and even headstones. Descendents of these first settlers, including the Stinson family, still live in St. Andrews.

Navy Island from St. Andrews Town Centre. Credit: Caroline Lee

The water around Navy Island is home to seals, harbour porpoises, and numerous shorebirds. Eagles frequent the island, along with ospreys, which perch in their nests high in the Island's trees. The Island also has mature coastal Acadian forest, sandbars and a small salt marsh.

Caughey-Taylor Nature Preserve (Sam Orr's Pond)

View of Sam Orr’s Pond and surrounding coastal Acadian forest Credit: Laura Minich

Created in 1999 and expanded in 2000, this preserve is a gem for hikers, birdwatchers, and community naturalists. Named for its interlinked brackish (part salt-, part freshwater) pond system, this unique ecosystem is also a forum for education, attracting school groups, summer camps, university students, and researchers from around the country. The Sam Orr’s Pond Walking Trail circumnavigates the pond for a distance of approximately 4 km and is popular with hikers.

With only part of the pond’s surrounding lands owned by the Nature Trust, we secured 180 additional acres of unprotected shoreline to complete the pond’s protection and that of a large portion of its watershed. These areas offer many of the best views of Sam Orr's Pond and form the mouth of the inlet; in effect they are critical to the wilderness feel and sanctity of the preserve.  This action effectively doubled the preserve's size from 300 acres (121 ha) to 600 acres (242 ha).

Credit: Wyatt Lawrence

The preserve is home to several provincially rare plants and mosses, including the provincially ranked S1 (extremely rare) Alberton alkali grass (Puccinellia ambigua) and Dicranum spurium moss. The preserve is home to the quahog clam, which is uncommonly found in the Bay of Fundy.

Sam Orr’s Pond also bears particular historical significance, as archaeologists have uncovered evidence of past Passamaquoddy communities who came to hunt and trap fish and shellfish of the area.

For more information on this special place please visit Caughley-Taylor Nature Preserve . 

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