Advocacy

Our HRM National Urban Park Needs The Full BMBCL Boundary

Our HRM National Urban Park
Needs The Full BMBCL Boundary

Blue Mountain–Birch Cove Lakes Wilderness Area is one of the last great wilderness areas in the urban Halifax — a sanctuary of forests, wetlands, and clear freshwater lakes, home to bobcats, loons, and centuries-old hemlocks and pines. It’s where people come to breathe, paddle, hike, and reconnect with nature — just minutes from downtown.

The Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Wilderness Area is also the one of the largest candidates for a National Urban Park and is the only candidate east of Toronto nearing approval. Our HRM national urban park should have the full Blue Mountain–Birch Cove Lakes boundary, preserving a fully intact wilderness area, including the gem of the Birch Cove Lakes, for future generations.

But this area is under constant and increasing threat. Developers are pushing to carve up land that has long been designated for protection. Although plans are advancing to establish a national park, boundaries that considerable research shows would best safeguard the wilderness and are ideal for an urban national park are being ignored.

Today, developers and many government decision-makers are moving faster than the national urban park planning process to develop critical land. This development is also happening despite promises made over the past 20 years and thousands of voices already saying: we want preservation, not development.

Here's How You Can Help

Sample Letter For Constituents
& Members To Send To Officials

Subject: Stop the Highway 102 Special Planning Area – protect all of BMBCL for our national urban park and for future generations.

Dear [Official’s Name],

I am writing to express my strong opposition to any development within the Highway 102 Special Planning Area and lands adjacent to the Blue Mountain–Birch Cove Lakes Wilderness Area.

This area has long been identified in municipal plans as part of the preferred boundary for the Blue Mountain–Birch Cove Lakes Regional Park; and, ideally, it would be incorporated into a national urban park—a park planning process that is already well underway.

It was promised to the public as a protected wilderness, not as a site for high-density housing or commercial use. The conceptual boundary of the national urban park, which Friends of Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Lakes advocate for, is based on sound environmental research and park planning principles and reflects decades of work by citizens, environmental groups, and numerous government staff.

Allowing development in this area would:
– Fragment vital wildlife corridors and damage sensitive ecosystems.
– Damage the sensitive, integrated waterways in the Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Lakes wilderness area, which clean our water and prevent flooding.
– Undermine accessibility to the wilderness area.
– Continue to undermine public trust in all levels of government’s commitment to protecting the environment and preserving sensitive, unique urban, wilderness areas.

For decades, thousands of residents have spoken in support of protecting this landscape. I urge (insert which level of government will receive the letter Council/the Province/the Government of Canada) to uphold that vision of protecting the integrity of the wilderness and seeing it become a national urban park, restore the public planning process, and ensure that the Highway 102 Special Planning Area remains undeveloped.

Please take this opportunity to stand with your constituents in safeguarding one of Halifax’s most important natural areas for generations to come.

Thank you for your commitment.

Sincerely,


[Your Full Name]

[Your Address or Community Name, e.g., “Resident of Clayton Park”]
[Optional: Your Email / Phone]

Friends of Blue Mountain & Birch Cove Lakes