| The series of special articles
to follow is printed with the kind permission of Eastern Shore
author and publisher Marike Finlay-de Monchy. |
 Beyond
Buckshot
Dateline: May 2007
2nd in the "Not Rocket Science" Series
By: Marike Finlay - de Monchy
Not Rocket Science:
Low-Capital Strategies for Creating Sustainable Development on
the Eastern Shore
Part Two
What We Already Have: Assets of the Eastern Shore
As I wrote in an earlier column, when we first sailed up the
eastern seaboard of the US to Nova Scotia some years ago, we were
repeatedly told to bypass the Eastern Shore. "Just head offshore
ten miles and then sail straight up to the Bras d'Or Lakes,"
we were told. "Don't bother with the Eastern Shore. There
is nothing there but some tricky reefs." How wrong our informants
were! A late start out of Halifax one morning meant that we decided
to stop and anchor in Ship Harbour one evening. Struck by the
beauty of the rocky shore, we continued to make our way slowly
up the Shore, in time investigating every harbour for which we
had charts. The people that we encountered along the way were
warm, helpful, humorous, and friendly. Indeed, we were so struck
by the Eastern Shore and its inhabitants that, after two summers
of sailing these shores, we left good jobs in Montreal and decided
to settle here. Not one of us has ever regretted this decision,
for our quality of life on the Eastern Shore is remarkable.
2.1 Counting Eastern Shore Assets
Assets of the Eastern Shore include some of the most affordable
coastland in the region, and the broad reach of the Halifax Regional
Municipality (not to mention its library, garbage collection and
recycling services,) extends about half the length of the shore
to Ecum Secum, which is a two-hour drive from the city on highway
7. A sustainable lobster fishery, running from April 20-June 20,
keeps many on the shore financially afloat; recent additions of
crab quotas have also helped to add money, if seasonally, to the
Shore economy. Likewise, a number of medium and small businesses,
including several retail stores, Christmas tree farms, cranberry
bogs, mussel farms, mink farms, small boat-builders, and small
logging enterprises serve to provide at least seasonal employment
and income to some number of residents. Tucked away on the side
roads are some of Nova Scotia's most gifted artists and writers.
As for its natural attractions, from Jeddore East, there are
numerous deepwater harbours and sandy beaches; Lawrencetown Beach
attracts surfers year round. One of the few provincial parks on
the ocean, Taylor's Head Park has a network of trails around its
headlands, and a long, protected sandy beach. The
Bay of Islands, which includes many islands set aside by the
crown as a bird sanctuary, stretches from Tangier to the Liscombe
River. An especially delightful and challenging area for sea-kayaking,
these numerous islands are home to wildlife of all sorts. Further
East, Liscombe Lodge and Sherbrooke Village bring in many summer
visitors, as does the Port Bickerton lighthouse. The Stan Rogers
Folk Festival, held in early July in Canso, attracts more visitors
each year. Guysborough is beginning to prosper thanks to the boost
from offshore gas and the recent development of an Inn, golf course,
marina, and delightful Rare Bird Pub. The area benefits as well
from a proximity to Antigonish, home to the prestigious St. Francis
Xavier University, as well as the Strait Area Campus of the Nova
Scotia Community College system, in Port Hawkesbury.
Other less tangible assets include the spirit of independence,
inventiveness, and self-reliance that several generations of hardship
and remote living have cultivated in many eastern shore dwellers,
strong traditional lifestyles, significant personal, family, church
and community loyalty, enormous funds of practical know-how, curiosity,
historical pride, and artistry. Small pockets of Acadians, and
larger communities of African Nova Scotians, and Mi'kmaq people
remain on the Eastern Shore. Remarkable and interesting histories
of members of these communities are just beginning to be rediscovered
and celebrated.
Several of the small communities in the region have undertaken
community-based skills and resource assessments in order better
to develop local enterprises and visions. Linking the insights
of some of these projects, and assessing the strengths and weaknesses
of various sectors of the region would help to produce an overall
action plan for the area, a plan that might ensure that sufficient
revenue will be continuously in place to warrant maintenance or
upgrading of highway, hospital and school services.
Individually and collectively, many people on the Eastern Shore
are taking first steps to try to ensure that the shore emerges
from the downward spiral brought about by the shutting down of
mines, various manufacturing and canning plants, and the collapse
of the ground-fishery.
Changing How We Think About Our Assets and Resources
Some intelligent, realistic planning - not pie in the sky promises
- is now required by our political and economic leaders in order
to take the necessary next step in envisioning and ensuring a
viable and attractive future for this Shore and its residents.
There is no reason why the growth and opportunities in Nova Scotia
need pass this region by, or remain focused simply on natural
resource extraction without further elaboration. Above all, it
is necessary to put the effort into imagining how we might grow
our rural economy in some creative and sustainable ways now, while
there are still plentiful human and natural resources to be had
along the shore.
Changing how we think about these resources may be the first
and greatest challenge, however. Right now, hardwoods deliver
a limited number of dollars when they are felled, chipped, and
sent from via ship from Sheet Harbour to Japan, where the wood
chips are processed into high-end glossy computer paper. Designing
a series of strategies to ensure that these scarce trees are harvested
sustainably, and that the dollars they now generate as chips,
may be multiplied, over the long-term, by other renewable and
value-added enterprises, is crucial to the future, not only of
our forests and wildlife, but of our communities and province.
Just a small shift of attitude in terms of how we evaluate what
our resources and abilities are, may help us to envision a number
of do-able low-capital solutions that could reverse the declines
of the region, stabilize the population, and provide sustainable,
recurring revenue streams. Sustainability means focusing on how
best to generate renewable revenue sources from our natural resources.
We must imagine that our resources might generate personal and
tax revenue from activities other than simple harvesting. For
example we must ask what kinds of things we can do to make our
woodlots generate income year after year, instead of once a generation.
And we must begin to take into account those renewable wilderness
values (access to water, opportunities to view birds or other
wildlife, outdoor adventures in all seasons) that might be enhanced
or highlighted in order to generate income from tourism, leisure
activities, the arts, education, and various service industries.
Emphasizing and cultivating such "renewable wilderness values"
will also help to attract new long-term residents, who will contribute
not only to local economies in a variety of ways, but to the tax
base as well.
Next week, in Part Three, "The Goal of Sustainability",
I will discuss what sustainability means economically and environmentally
speaking, and how our area could achieve this goal.
Read Installments - 1,
2, 3,
4, 5,
6, 7,
Coming in May - "It's Not Rocket
Science " 
Part III -
The Goal of Sustainability
In Part III, Marike discusses what sustainability means economically
and environmentally speaking and how the Eastern Shore can achieve
it.
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Marike Finlay - de Monchy taught Communications at McGill University
and abroad, practiced psychoanalysis, carried out development
work in Latin America, and managed an organic farm in Quebec.
Marike sailed to the Eastern Shore and loved it
so much that she has since settled in West Quoddy where she runs
a small writing, editing and publishing business.
Marike and Karin Cope are co-authors of "Casting a Legend
- The Story of the Lunenburg Foundry".
"Casting a Legend - The Story of the Lunenburg Foundry"
Buy the Book Now!
Buy Karin Cope's book
"Passionate Collaborations: Learning to Live With Gertrude
Stein"
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