The Issue: wetland degradation in HRM

The Urban Wetland Restoration course laid out foundations for wetland restoration and considered the impact of unplanned or poorly planned development on watershed health. We are now reviewing all the comments made by our diverse panel of participants and will follow this up with an assessment of what was accomplished and what steps are needed. We talked about opportunities and impediments for greener developments in HRM that work with watersheds. With the goodwill and good intentions evident in all the organizations involved, there is hope we can truly make HRM the City in the Wilderness where watersheds work, and ensure by attention to wetlands, that Dartmouth is a City of Lakes that are monitored to maintain water quality.

All of you, each one of you, made not only a contribution to the course itself but most importantly, to the future of HRM. We can’t thank you enough.
NH

These courses have a market because there has been substantial  loss of wetland throughout Nova Scotia that has affected saltmarsh, floodplain, swamp and bog. By the 1930s, we had also lost  50% of the best lakeshore habitat for some of the rarest wetland plants  in Canada of the Atlantic Coastal Plain Flora. Wetland has been described as the fabric that holds landscapes  together and the newly drafted Wetland Policy and the established Environment Act offer hope for no net loss of wetland and for wetland rehabilitation.

Salmon fishing on the East River

Our crew consists of experts in botany, plant and wildlife ecology, soils and hydrogeology, and all have considerable working and/or research experience in Nova Scotia’s wet areas. The courses gave successful participants familiarity with wetland processes, wetland plants and hydric soils, all skills required to delineate wetland according to Nova Scotia Department of Environment standards.

2012 wetland course offerings:

• Urban Wetland Restoration
• Wetland plants
• Wetland delineation
• Functional assesssment