Cape LaHave Island

Cape LaHave Island is the largest of all the LaHave Islands, measuring approximately 2,600 acres in size. The island is special for many reasons—one of which is that it is a rarity to see such a large and undeveloped island like it along Nova Scotia’s coastline.

In 2019, after a series of public presentations and meetings, Council passed a motion to work with the Nova Scotia Nature Trust on creating a conservation easement for Cape LaHave Island to ensure that this special place is conserved through permanent, legal protection for current and future generations.

Officials with the Municipality and Nature Trust staff have been working in coordination to better understand the conservation features of the land (i.e. rare/at risk species or important habitats), document its historic and current uses, and conduct community consultation.

In 2020, a field team of scientists from the Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Centre and Nova Scotia Museum spent a few days on Cape LaHave, cataloguing the diversity of plant and animal life found there. They traversed almost the entire periphery of the island on foot and ventured throughout the island’s thick interior forests, documenting hundreds of fauna and flora, forty-three uncommon or rare species (including several species at risk), the wide variety of ecosystems found on the island, and the context of current human use of the island. Their documentation is summarized in the Ecological Summary document linked from the sidebar.

This data-informed further community consultation conducted in 2020 and helped the Nature Trust establish a baseline for future stewardship of the island. The Nature Trust has also been coordinating with partners at Birds Canada and the Canadian Wildlife Service to acquire long-term monitoring data on the endangered Piping Plover who breed and nest on Cape LaHave Island in the spring and summer months.

For the Municipality to enter into a land conservation easement with the Nova Scotia Nature Trust, the Lunenburg Common Lands Act required an amendment. With the assistance from the Honorable Becky Druhan, through Bill No. 348, the amendment to the Act received Royal Assent on November 9, 2023, granting the Municipality the ability “to grant a conservation easement with respect to the common lands on Cape LaHave Island.”

In accordance with the initial recommendations from the community, and because the process was paused during the pandemic, officials with the Municipality and Nature Trust staff have been working in coordination to conduct further community consultation.

Further community consultation that will help inform the terms and conditions of the conservation easement.

(Banner photo credit: Corey Isenor)