Ernest Blair Experiment

On Wednesday evening at St Luke’s church in Annapolis Royal, the Clean Annapolis River Project(CARP) hosted a public presentation on two years of estuary monitoring.

The event included four presentations:

Kyle vandertoorn. Overview of CARP
Tim Webster (AGRG). Hydrodynamic modeling
Leah Creaser. Beach Seining
Keeler Colter. Fish Tagging (Striped bass, Atlantic sturgeon)

The audience numbered around thirty. The backstory was the history, from a proposal for Heritage River status to the causeway and the demise of the tidal generating station.

To move forward, it is critical that the watershed is considered in relation to existing land use, water quality and its impact on fish species that use the Annapolis River. This event complemented the Saving our Forests event from the previous Saturday (see Saving Forests). The difference was the size of the audience and that it was less political in nature.

Tuesday, Heather and I decided to walk the Peter Point trail in Kejimkujik National Park. The trail was dry (free of snow). We did not see a soul. The Visitor Centre was closed at this time of year. It did encourage me pull off the shelf, Dan Rubinstein’s Born to Walk.

Sandra Barry sent me an email. Geography as Generosity : Robert MacFarlane on Barry Lopez. In Orion Magazine, March 30, 2023.

“Robert MacFarlane attunes us to a guiding principle in Barry Lopez’s work ‘how the rendering of landscape with particular nuance and specificity strengthens connection to each place and counteracts the indifference that can emerge from nameless abstraction.’

Acknowledgements

Heather listened to the presentations, and shared the walk. Sandra shared the Orion link. Edward put it together with the graphics.

References

Dan Rubinstein, 2015, Born to Walk: the transformative power of a pedestrian act, ECW Press.

Robert MacFarlane, 2023, Geography as Generosity, Orion Magazine, March 30, 2023.

POSTSCRIPT

Small tidal estaury emptying into the Annapolis Basin near The Old Post Road, with Digby on the distant shore. Watercolour by Edward.

On Saturday, Heather and I attended the Save Our Old Forests (SOOF) meeting at the Bridgetown legion, organized by the Arlington Forest Protection Society.

Speakers included a moving welcome from the Mi’kmaq First Nations and by biologists, Donna Crossland, Bob Bancroft, and Rob Bright. It included a free lunch and a silent auction. The estimated turnout was around one hundred and eighty. It included members of municipal council and Carman Kerr, our local MLA. The Master of Ceremonies was Larry Powell, local reporter and writer.

The fundamental concern was old forests and the cutting on crown land. To address these issues in Annapolis County, to my mind, we need two large wall maps in the Municipal Board room at Annapolis Royal.

1. Land ownership in Annapolis County
2. Forest Ecosystems in Annapolis County

I can remember sitting in the COGS library and looking at the Church map. Well, we need current maps, at a similar scale, for the ownership and ecology for the county.

We have the Human Resources. COGS has turned out some excellent cartographers. Have you seen the maps produced by Marcel Morin, Lost Art Cartography for the Grand Pre area (see blog post “Spring Forward“)? The maps could also show the topography and the underlying geology.

All of us drive along highway #101 and notice the beech hangers along the face of North Mountain or, after a snow fall, the clearcuts along the face of South Mountain.

From my bookshelf, I can find seminal texts on Bioregionalism by Gary Snyder and Wendell Berry or Suzanne Simard’s, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest.

If we want ecological planning, maps of land ownership and ecosystem type are critical especially when connected to a modern GIS system. It would allow elders (from Mi’kmaw and settlers ) for example to speak on behalf of the old forests.

Acknowledgements

The Arlington Forest Protection Society for hosting the meeting. To the invited speakers.
Edward added the graphics.

References

Suzanne Simard, 2021, Finding the Mother Tree, Penguin Canada.

Gary Snyder, 2016,The Etiquette of Freedom, Penguin Random House

Gary Snyder (essays), 2020, The Practice of the Wild, Counterpoint Press

Saturday morning, we headed down to the Annapolis Royal library to meet two local authors: Peter Wyman and David Wiseman.

For several weeks, I had been trying to purchase a copy of Crossing Thames by Wyman at the Endless Shores bookshop in Bridgetown (see blog post “Community Economies“).

From the book’s title, I and Sandra Barry wondered if there was any link to Helen Humphreys’ The Frozen Thames, about the river through history and all the times it froze over.

The venue was 11am – 2 pm. There was a small but well-informed audience, friends and neighbours.

It was structured into a couple of readings from Crossing Thames and Old Wrongs, plus a question and answer session on the writing process. Both authors had spent time in England and Nova Scotia. Both authors started writing for publication in their retirement years.

David Wiseman had an interest in genealogy which is reflected in his work. Peter Wyman has travelled in England, and Iceland and lived in Nova Scotia. This is reflected in the short stories.

As someone who has entered the world of ‘blogging’, their comments on the writing process were both revealing and interesting. I look forward to Crossing Thames. The level of historical detail intersects well with my personal knowledge of London’s geography.

It is intriguing to appreciate the ‘authors among us‘. This connects well with our ongoing planning for the Ernest Buckler Literary Event Society (EBLES) planned for July …

… with contributions from (images left to right) Whit Fraser, Elizabeth Hay, Ken Maher and Alan Syliboy. (Whit Fraser image from Boulder Books)

One of the delights is attention to detail. Crossing Thames is published in the same small book format. The covers are colour-coded. Crossing Thames is dark blue.

In Wyman’s words:
‘Crossing Thames takes the reader on a jaunt over the tidal waters of this Medieval river, where one becomes unfixed, suspended on a bridge between the seductive shadows of Southwark and the Puritan lights of London.’ P.87.

David Wiseman launched Old Wrongs, the third in the Lydia Silverstream mystery series.

Acknowledgements

Heather shares my literary interests. David Wiseman and Peter Wyman proved entertaining hosts at the book launch and Question/Answer session. Edward added the graphics to the blog.

References

Peter B. Wyman, 2022, Crossing Thames, Cardigan, Little and Crow Publishing.

David J. Wiseman, 2022, Old Wrongs, Askance Publishing.