The Sikniktuk Climate Adaptation Project is coming to the Tantramar Civic Centre this Thursday evening for a public outreach session to explain the project, which aims to put 100 hectares of coastal land under conservation trust.
Environmental consultant Lyle Vicaire was in Sackville on Tuesday night to tell Tantramar councillors about the event, and CHMA caught up with him after his presentation.
Vicaire says the project is a land conservation effort which his consulting company, Maqamigew Anqotumeg Inc., has been working on alongside Elsipogtog First Nation. The goal is, “to acquire up to 100 hectares of land within Sikniktuk coastal land for future conservation,” says Vicaire. “And any sites that are need of restoration, we will do that by 2030.”
The project is part of Canada’s commitment to conserve 30% of its land by 2030.
So far, says Vicaire, the project has acquired 25 hectares of land on Dorchester Cape that will eventually be transferred to a land trust controlled by the Amlamgog (Fort Folly) First Nation. The parcel is located alongside the Dorchester Island Hiking Trail, near the site of the dock built to serve the ill-fated Westmorland Chemical Park (which you can read about here.)
Keki’namuanen Msit Wen Wlo’tmnen Nmaqami’kminu Inc. is a land trust owned in part by Amlamgog First Nation which already owns at least two parcels on the Maringouin peninsula, at the tip and at Pink Cove.
“What I’m doing with these outreach events is to talk about our overall plan for what we think climate adaptation should, could look like in our part of the world,” says Vicar. “And that would be utilizing the dykes and the traditional salt marshes here in Sikniktuk and inner Bay of Fundy, and also other coastal ecosystems in Northumberland Strait.”
Vicaire says Atlantic Canada is home to unique nature and geology, and he encourages members of the public to come learn about it “and see how our area of the world can possibly help in global decarbonization, and the fight with the ongoing climate crisis.”
Thursday’s event runs from 5:30pm to 7:30pm at the Civic Centre, and will feature traditional Mi’kmaq cuisine.
Note: A previous version of this story indicated that a parcel of land already owned by Keki’namuanen Msit Wen Wlo’tmnen Nmaqami’kminu Inc. was the parcel purchased by Vicaire’s company. We regret the error.
