Nova Scotia Nature Trust – 100 Wild Islands

The most valuable islands you've never heard of

Just over an hour from Halifax, off Nova Scotia’s Eastern Shore, lies a remote and wild group of islands and headlands with over 7,000 acres of diverse and ecologically rich coastal habitats. Despite Nova Scotia’s long history of settlement, this group of over one hundred islands has seen little disturbance from humans—making it one of the continent’s last great coastal island wildernesses.

The untouched white sand beaches and idyllic sheltered coves, dramatic, windswept headlands and rugged rocky shorelines welcome the intrepid wilderness paddler or sailor. The archipelago stretches over 30 km along the coast. It is truly a globally significant coastal island wilderness.

The Nature Trust saw the need to preserve an irreplaceable part of Nova Scotia’s treasured coastal legacy, and we are making it happen! To date, we’ve protected over 85% of the 282 islands in partnership with the Province, land owners, community members, donors and volunteers!

Learn more about the 100 Wild Islands Legacy Campaign and the amazing people who are making this dream a reality.

Crystal clear waters reveal sandy ridges created by wave action off the tombolo beach connecting Borgle's and Middle Island.

Borgles Beach (connecting Borgles Island and Little Charles)

Water pours into the ocean from a wetland on Tangier Island.

American Mink on Little Shiprock Island. The semiaquatic members of the weasel family are common island inhabitants.

Aerial view of Outer Island within Little Harbour. Credit: Nick Hawkins

Bunchberries grow in the thick ground cover of crowberry heath that covers the exposed, windswept barrens of Borgle's Island.

Coastal wetlands in the 100 Wild Islands. Photo by Nick Hawkins

An American Toad forages at night along a beach on Borgle's Island.

Sun sets on the exposed south facing rock of Tangier Island.

The Eastern Shore forest represents a dynamic boreal coastal rain forest of spruce and fir, heavily influenced by forest insects, diseases and a harsh, storm wracked climate.