We are delighted to welcome you to many of our conservation lands. Our promise is “forever wild,” and we work to safeguard the old forest, iconic coastline, islands, lakes, rivers, wetlands and habitat for wildlife under our protection so that Nova Scotia’s natural legacy will endure. For future generations to be able to enjoy the same wild landscapes we have today, our work includes active stewardship and outreach programs to monitor and mitigate potential impacts.

In general, lands owned by the Nature Trust are open to the public for low-impact activities such as hiking, fishing, paddling, birding and berry picking. Some have actual hiking trails or old roads; some are more rugged wilderness and tend to be visited less as a result.  

We do not allow motorized vehicles of any kind, which means you must travel on foot or by water in order to access the conservation land.

When visiting our lands, we ask that you follow Leave No Trace principles. Those principles include not chopping down trees for firewood, not building fire pits in dangerous areas, packing out what was packed in, and burying human waste and toilet paper. 

The Nature Trust also holds conservation easements; on those properties, the landowner gets to make the decision about allowing visitors or not. 

If we find that a specific use of a property is beginning to threaten or damage the conservation values for which we protected it in the first place (trampling rare plants, for instance), we would no longer allow the use that is damaging it. Decisions are made on a case-by-case basis and would be communicated through signage at the site.

The Nature Trust has a few properties with official trails, many with unmarked old roads and trails, and many more with no trails at all.  You may hike on any of these properties, recognizing that you must hike within the level of your abilities to handle the terrain and to navigate.  If you are looking for day hikes, here are a few we recommend (more recommendations will be added!):

• The Cape Mabou Highlands Hiking Trails
• Pennant River
• Lowland Cove (not for the faint of heart; 17 km loop)
• Meander River

The Nature Trust currently has only wilderness footpaths or old ATV and logging roads, and unfortunately in their current state they are not accessible to wheelchair users.

As with our hiking trails, we own a number of properties accessible by water, but they may require varying levels of skill.  Please choose destinations within your skill level. Here are a few routes we recommend (more recommendations will be added!):

• The St. Mary’s River (more route info here)
• Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Wilderness Area – visit this page for information, and click the “Trail map” button to see hiking and paddling routes. Note that these routes include land protected by other entities as well as the Nature Trust.
• Vogler’s Cove – this coastal archipelago, situated within the Mahone Bay Islands Natural Landscape, is now fully protected by the Nature Trust, the Nature Conservancy of Canada, and the Province.

We do not allow motorized vehicles of any kind, which means you must travel on foot or by water in order to access the conservation land.

Our land use policy only allows vehicles on Nature Trust properties for very specific stewardship needs (i.e., hauling out junk piles). Vehicle tires have been shown to spread non-native species, and the vehicles cause compaction of the soils, noise and pollution, none of which contribute to the Nature Trust’s mandate of allowing its conservation lands to be wild.

Many of our properties contain delicate ecosystems or fragile species. In order to protect the conservation value of our land, we ask that you keep your dog leashed and avoid sensitive areas such as sand dunes or places where your dog may disturb wildlife.

Whether hunting is permitted on Nature Trust conservation lands is decided on a case-by-case basis, depending on whether it impacts the conservation values of the land. Contact the office if you are interested in hunting on a Nature Trust property. We do not allow hunting blinds, tree cutting for sight lines or ATVs/OHVs on Nature Trust land. 

We also strongly recommend using non-lead bullets to protect other wildlife. Birds of prey and other scavengers who feed on carcasses containing lead bullets are susceptible to lead poisoning and death.

We do not allow permanent structures, including hunting blinds, on Nature Trust land. When hunting blinds (whether old or newly constructed) are found on Nature Trust lands, a notice is posted for the hunters and then the hunting blind is removed.

While the Nature Trust often speaks of species at risk in general terms, you may have noticed that we rarely discuss much in the way of specific locations. This is for two reasons: one, Nova Scotia’s Endangered Species Act applies to private lands such as the Nature Trust’s lands, and the Act considers certain features where a listed species at risk lives or forages or nests as sensitive data. We cannot reveal the location of sites such as these, because to do so may put the species in question at higher risk. 

The second reason is similar: certain species have specific vulnerabilities. For instance, one of the risk factors for listed turtles such as Wood Turtles and Blanding’s Turtles are that they may be taken and kept as pets. This means that the turtle has been removed from the breeding population, which is very important when the whole population may only number a few hundred individuals and hatchlings are slow to mature. The turtles’ vulnerability lies in the fact that they are slow-moving and sometimes easily visible, which makes them easy to pick up. In the same way, rare wildflowers may be picked or dug up, Peregrine Falcon nests may be disturbed by drone pilots, and Ram’s-Head Lady’s-Slipper is so tiny that it may be trampled entirely by accident. In some cases, it makes more sense to mark the location of a sensitive species to protect it, as Birds Canada does on beaches with Piping Plover to ensure that people walk on the wet sand and keep their dogs leashed. But in many other cases, such as in the case of a bat hibernaculum or maternity roost, the species in question is so threatened that we cannot take the risk of publicly stating that it exists because it may draw people to the site and thereby threaten it still further.

We want you to know that we take the stewardship of species at risk seriously, and even though we may not always be able to say what we are working on, we are steadily working towards plans that will reduce the vulnerabilities of rare species on our properties. We are especially grateful to the various researchers, species recovery teams, provincial biologists and other experts who provide their much-needed advice to us as we work through challenging stewardship questions.

Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA) is an aphid-like insect native to Japan, China, and British Columbia, Canada. They first arrived in the eastern United States on nursery stock in the 1950s, and were first discovered in Nova Scotia in Yarmouth County in 2017.

While native to parts of Canada, HWA is an invasive, non-native species in Nova Scotia. HWA feeds on the nutrients and water storage cells at the base of Eastern Hemlock needles, leading to the decline and eventual death of hemlock trees. Hemlock mortality where HWA is present is over 95%, typically within 4 to 10 years of the adelgid’s arrival.

With no natural predator to control the population, HWA has devastated hemlock forests in southwest Nova Scotia since it was first discovered here in 2017. This invasive species is highly transmissible and is spreading rapidly.

A working group convened by organizations concerned about HWA (including the Nature Trust) has spent years researching, consulting groups in the northeastern United States about their own responses to HWA, and have now successfully implemented a provincial HWA Action Program to protect the highest priority old-growth hemlock stands in Nova Scotia.

Learn more about HWA, how it affects Nature Trust conservation lands, what we are doing about it, and what you can do to help.

You can report your sighting by phone (1-866-727-3447) or email at sightings@speciesatrisk.ca. If you observed the species at risk on a Nature Trust property, please also email us at stewardship@nsnt.ca or call us at 902-425-5263.

There are four species of turtles in Nova Scotia, and all of them are at risk. If you find one on your property, you can help keep it safe by leaving it alone and reporting it as described above. If the turtle is crossing a roadway, please move it off of the road – make sure to move it toward the direction it is going (and if it is a Snapping Turtle, use a broom or a shovel to gently encourage it to cross).

There are four species of turtles in Nova Scotia, and all of them are at risk. If you find one on your property, you can help keep it safe by leaving it alone and reporting it as described above. The eggs will hatch between August and October, depending on the species, and some Painted Turtle nests may overwinter and hatch in the spring. You require a permit to install any kind of nest protection – when you contact the Species at Risk hotline or email above, you can ask for further instructions about how to protect the nest.

Invasive species are plants, animals and micro-organisms that have been introduced into areas beyond their native range and negatively impact the environment, the economy, or society. It is widely accepted that invasive species are an immense threat to biodiversity worldwide. In Canada alone, more than 20% of our species at risk are threatened with extinction by invasive species. Once established, invasive species can spread naturally, or be moved further by human activities such as outdoor recreation, release of pets into the environment, or movement of firewood.

The Nova Scotia Invasive Species Council has several educational programs aimed at helping us all understand how to prevent the spread of invasive species. A few especially relevant requests from the Nature Trust:

Do not dump garden waste off the side of the road. It spreads invasive species such a goutweed and Japanese knotweed, which are very persistent and very hard to remove.

Purchase your firewood locally. Transporting firewood can also transport invasive insects such as Hemlock Woolly Adelgid and Emerald Ash Borer.

Clear your boat and propeller between water bodies. This prevents the transportation of invasive aquatic vegetation.

Do not release live bait. This is an easy way for aquatic invasive species to spread.

Good luck!

Thank you for considering this idea – as a landowner and steward, you play a role in the legacy of nature we will leave for others. You have many options for protecting your land. We can help you design the best option for your own needs. Many options also provide tax benefits. You can learn about these options and get in touch with us to get the process started on this page. As part of our initial conversation with you, we will ask for the precise location and PID (the unique Parcel Identification Number assigned by the provincial mapping system); if you need help finding the PID for your land we will be happy to assist.

A conservation easement is a legal agreement developed in partnership with the Nature Trust, which permanently protects the land’s significant ecological features by restricting some land uses and the type and scope of development that can take place on the property. The easement is registered with the property deed, and its restrictions apply to all future landowners. This gives you the freedom to sell the land or pass it on to your heirs, confident that its natural features will remain protected. The holder of the easement (the Nature Trust) assumes permanent responsibility for ensuring that all future owners of the land abide by the terms that you set out in the agreement. Learn more about conservation easements and other options for protecting your land.

No, the Nature Trust never sells its conservation land, including land donated to us for conservation purposes. Once we take on a property as a conservation land, we commit to protecting that land in perpetuity. There is a different kind of land donation called “trade lands”, in which the donor donates land that is not suitable for conservation. In that case, the specific purpose of donating the land is to sell it and use the resulting profit to fund further land conservation, and the land donor specifies that that is what they want done with the land. This is part of the reason why it’s so important that someone considering donating their land to us speaks with us before making the donation – we have to ensure that we can honour the intent of the donor before accepting the gift (even a bequest).

We post current opportunities on our employment page.

We also post newly available employment opportunities through our social media channels, including Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, so make sure to follow us there.

Possibly! Please email our Stewardship Team at stewardship*nsnt.ca to discuss your research and submit an application.

On occasion, the Nature Trust does hire seasonal staff or take on students looking for a project, but it is not common due to constraints on staff time and the sheer volume of requests that we receive.  If you are interested in doing an internship or work placement with us (and no opportunities are currently posted on our employment page), please email office*nsnt.ca and let us know what sort of situation you’re looking for.

The Nova Scotia Nature Trust was created to protect our province’s incredible natural legacy through private land conservation. We are a non-partisan, non-activist organization. This position allows us to work with a broad range of partners – including municipal, provincial, and federal government, corporate and other private funders, and individual donors – who might not be willing or permitted to partner with a more explicitly advocacy-oriented organization. We strategically pursue partnerships that we believe will best position us to advance our mission of conserving privately owned, ecologically valuable land in Nova Scotia.

We are fortunate to be part of an organizational ecosystem that includes environmental organizations with a broad range of missions and capacities. In fact, effective climate and conservation work depends on different organizations using their unique positions to bring as broad a group as possible into the network of potential partners in solutions. We encourage our supporters to also connect with other groups that are working to address environmental issues from a broad variety of perspectives, including advocacy, political action, and activism, including:

• Ecology Action Centre 
• Clean Foundation 
• Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS)
• Friends of Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Lakes
• Canada Climate Action Network/Réseau Action Climat
• QUEST

The province protects land in three different ways: wilderness areas, nature reserves and provincial parks. The following information is from the Nova Scotia Protected Areas website:

1. Provincial parks have the lowest level of protection and the highest level of visitor use. They often include amenities such as campgrounds, picnic parks, swimming areas and hiking trails.
2. Wilderness Areas protect representative (typical) examples of Nova Scotia’s natural landscapes, our native biological diversity, and outstanding natural features. They are used for scientific research, education and a variety of recreation and nature-tourism related activities such as hiking, canoeing, sea-kayaking, sportfishing and hunting.
3. Nature reserves are areas selected to preserve and protect, in perpetuity, representative (typical) and special natural ecosystems, plant and animal species, features and natural processes. Scientific research and education are the primary uses of nature reserves and recreation is generally restricted.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) works throughout all of Canada; we focus exclusively on land conservation in Nova Scotia. We have different focus areas in the province, but we collaborate on projects.

Along with other conservation partners and environmental organizations, we are working toward a collective and collaborative goal of saving nature, so we stay in regular communication to make sure that our work is in complement and not in competition. Our stewardship teams also work together where we have bordering lands, such as in Mabou and along the North Mountain, in Cape Breton.