Work Zone Ahead!

This is will be busy two months for maintenance work involving heavier vehicles on the trails and in the Park.

• Shearwater Flyer - Bissett Lake Bridge abutment restoration - started today (contractor did not advise us before - sorry) duration couple of weeks. 
• Funded by HRM (Maintenance Funding and Councillor Karsten), Trans Canada Trail (TCT), NS Recreational Trails Expansion Program (RTEP) and CHPTA. Signs are going up as I write this. 
• Project lead - Barry Ducolon. This is the first restoration and the only one for this fall. 
• Narrowed access will be maintained as most work is off the trail and under the Bissett Lake bridge;
• Salt Marsh Trail - re-rocking 200 m section between Flying Point and Canada Goose Bridge start 6 November 
• Funded by RTEP, TCT, Councillor Nicoll and some corporate donors with a very generous donation from The Maple Tree Fund. 
• Project lead Charley Sharkey;
• This will be a partial closure with signs. Probably between the Canada Goose Bridge and West Lawrencetown Road. Main work is between Flying Point and Canada Goose bridge but heavy trucks will be entering at West Lawrencetown Road. The section from Bissett Road to the Canada Goose Bridge will be open;
• Salt Marsh Trail - recapitalization work east end from Cole Harbour edge to West Lawrencetown Road - starting after the re-rocking is completed. 
• Funding HRM through the Capital Funding Agreement. 
• Project Lead Charley Sharkey;
• Partial closures at various times dependent on work being done that day. Maximum closure area would be from West Lawrencetown Road to Cole Harbour salt marsh. 
• Jersey Jack and Jerry Lonecloud work funded by CHPTA and RTEP. starting as early as 24 October 
• Project Lead Jim Tudor assisted by Charley Sharkey;
• Some partial closures of individual trails. Some truck traffic from 256 Bissett Road (main entrance to Park) for access to the Jerry Lonecloud. Jersey Jack Access has been arranged from the north part of the Park. 
• Side of trail maintenance along Heritage and Flyer Trails starting in the next couple of weeks. 
• Funded through MFA and Off Highway Vehicle-Infrastructure Fund (OHV-IF). 
• Project lead Michael McFadden
• This will involve cutting and chipping and partial closures along the trails.
• HRM has indicated that construction of the Bissett Trail Phase 3 (they call it the Bissett Greenway) will start 29 October. This is an HRM "Direct Delivery" project. 
• Funded by HRM with a $20,000 grant from TCT (submission was made by CHPTA and transferred to HRM). 
• CHPTA liaison - Charley Sharkey.
• we will determine if there would be any blockage of the existing trail at Brookview Drive

Michael McFadden
Chair
Cole Harbour Parks and Trails Association

Warden's Report

Victor  Henrikson is our highly organized and creative Chief Trail Warden.  Each month he produces a fabulous report which includes statistics, photos, news and stories.  The reports are archived in the Warden tab.  Here is September, 2018 for your reading pleasure:

Motorized or Not?

Our Dedicated Volunteers

We're immensely indebted to and proud of our trail wardens who have logged over 1200 hours and 1000 outings so far in 2018.  Ably led by Victor Henrikson, they are a well-trained and dedicated band who handle every imaginable situation with aplomb.  I always enjoy reading Victor's monthly reports, which are chock full of stories, comments and photographs.  Be sure to read this month's report under the 'Trail Warden' tab.  And smile at the really bad joke.............

e-Bird

Birdwatching has been transformed by its own social media.  e-Bird, run by Cornell University collects tens of thousands of reports submitted by dedicated birdwatchers.  They geocode them, identifying 'hotspots' by repeated submissions.  Three are in the park:


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Hotspot	Species	Rank in Halifax County
Salt Marsh Trail	158	13
Bissett Lake	101	36
Shearwater Flyer	89	47

another is nearby

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Rainbow Haven

168

9

For today, let's check out the SMT.

You can look at a chart of the occurrence of species in checklists.  This doesn't account for relative abundance, just prevalence.  The top ten species (with a month-by-month chart, highest occurrence red, lowest green) are:

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American Crow
Herring Gull
Black-capped Chickadee
American Black Duck
Ring-billed Gull
Song Sparrow
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Black-backed Gull
Canada Goose
Greater Yellowlegs

So you'll always see a crow or a herring gull.

You can explore data and print your own checklists.

Here is a treemap of all species seen on the SMT since 2005.  The size of a box is proportional to the frequency of appearance in checklists.  The bigger the box, the greater the prevalence.