Rockypoint Wilderness Area

The 2935 ha proposed Rockypoint Lake Wilderness Area will provide crucial ecological connectivity between existing protected areas in Digby County. This connectivity is vital to the survival and recovery of the Endangered Mainland moose, a species known to still be present in this area, in spite of its declining numbers. 

Moose require substantial unfragmented habitat. The construction of 0.6 km of road in any square kilometer effectively drives the moose from that area. The area along this western flank of the Tobeatic Wilderness Area was supposed to be a Special Management Zone under the UNESCO designation of the Southwest Nova Scotia Biosphere, a zone intermediate between the protected and the working landscape. In practice the whole area has been subject to extensive clearcutting. The proposed protected area, though, does retain extensive areas of old and possibly old-growth forest, as well as Birch Lake, Rockypoint Lake and the Caribou River. 

Protecting this area will protect the remarkable wetland complex to the west and south of Rockypoint Lake. The Caribou River currently flows from its headwaters in Rockypoint and Caribou Lakes, through Nature Trust land, then across a neck of unprotected Crown land before it enters the Silver River Wilderness Area. There it flows south to Barrio Lake. 

In addition to this east-west connectivity, protecting this area will also connect the northern end of the Silver River Wilderness Area to Fourth Lake Flowage. The ‘head’ of the proposed protected area includes multiple areas of old forest, notably stands of White Pine 18-19m in height. Wetter parts support old stands of red maple and yellow birch, important habitat for species at risk lichens. 

In a landscape that has suffered massive clearcutting, protecting this area protects particularly valuable areas, not only for conservation but also for recreation and human well-being. Hunters and others speak of the impact industrial forestry in this area has had on them. Many describe the experience of going back to an area they knew well only to find the forest gone. ‘I got lost,’ they say. ‘I knew it like the back of my hand and I got lost.’ 

Although it may seem remote, being an hour or so from any paved roads, local people talk of it as ‘my backyard.’ This area is well visited by people coming from further afield to, providing something of a gateway to the Sporting Lake area of the Tobeatic with its magnificent stands of old-growth hemlocks.