Spring 2018 NCC Magazine

PROJECT
UPDATES
3
2
WANT TO LEARN MORE?
Visit natureconservancy.ca/where-we-work to learn
more about other NCC projects.
1
1
Protected: Island home
of a nationally rare shrub
YARMOUTH, NOVA SCOTIA
BC NS
Within an area 25 kilometres wide, on the
southern tip of Nova Scotia, grows a unique
perennial flowering shrub. A member of the
aster family, eastern baccharis grows to about
three metres tall. In fact, the entire Canadian
population of this species, estimated at 3,000 plants, is found in
and around the salt marshes of Lobster Bay, near Yarmouth.
The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) recently protected
a 61-acre (25-hectare) island habitat for this nationally threatened
and rare plant. The newly conserved island in Lobster Bay is called
Tete a Milie (Milie’s Head), named by the area’s Acadian settlers.
Although found along the eastern coast of the U.S., in Nova Scotia
the eastern baccharis is at the northern tip of its range.
The island was entrusted to NCC by John Brett of Halifax, who was
thrilled to discover eastern baccharis on the property about 15 years
ago. “[Since I’m] an amateur naturalist, you can imagine how excited
I was. It’s not every day you come across a large, prominent shrub
that turns out to be the only member of its genus to be found in the
entire country! And here it was, hiding in plain sight.”
This dynamic environment, coupled with the shelter provided by
Lobster Bay’s salt marshes and relatively mild climate, attracts a great
diversity of wildlife: willets, bald eagles, ospreys, blue herons, kingfishers,
harbour and gray seals, white-tailed deer, black bears, bobcats, minks,
even the occasional porpoise and small whale. In the fall, many kinds of
shorebirds feed on the mudflats before continuing their migration south.
In winter, sea ducks, loons and mergansers shelter in Lobster Bay.
NCC has now completed two conservation projects in Lobster Bay,
building on work by the Province of Nova Scotia to establish the nearby
Tusket Islands Wilderness Area.
Learn more at natureconservancy.ca/easternbaccharis.
Harbour seal
Tete a Milie is a drumlin: a rich mound of soil and rocky debris formed thousands
of years ago by retreating glaciers, which has been further shaped by the tides.
SEAL: NICK HAWKINS. EASTERN BACCHARIS, TETE A MILIE: ANTHONY CRAWFORD.
14 SPRING 2018 natureconservancy.ca