Coastline erosion monitoring project underway along Eastern Shore

The Anglican Parish of Port Dufferin has partnered with coastal explorer and geographer Camilo Botero to monitor the south facing coastlines of the Eastern Shore for erosion progression.

In an interview with The Journal, Leon Levy, a warden of the parish, explained that monitoring will take place at four locations along the coastline: Watt Section, Sober Island, Turners Island (Harrington Cove) and Mooseland.

“Each site [is] being monitored by three to five volunteers,” he said.

While taking part in an activity of the Nova Scotia Environment Network in 2022, Botero, a full fellow of the Colombian Geographic Society, former professor, researcher and project leader in Latin America and now in Canada, with academic experience in engineering, law and management, met Rev. Marian Lucas-Jefferies, coordinator of the Diocesan Environment Network.

In an email, Botero explained that, after several conversations during 2023, they agreed to present a project that would integrate local communities and coastal environments.

He said he selected the Eastern Shore “because it is one of the better conserved coastal areas of Nova Scotia, with [lots of] small villages, depending on the coast.”

While formulating a proposal for funding, Rev. Mike Foley – priest-in-charge for the Anglican Parish of Port Dufferin – who has lived on the Eastern Shore and Jeddore Head for most of his life, and has witnessed the changes to the coastline and the fishing industry, expressed interest in being involved in the project and to be the first local community involved, Botero shared.

Levy said the group was interested in gathering real data from that area to show how climate change is affecting “our shoreline,” because, “It’s hard to rely on data from other areas of the province as each community has its own local challenges from climate change,” he stated, adding the hope is that this data will enable the development of infrastructure to help curb the effects of climate change on the monitored coastline, which would otherwise keep eroding.

The goal is to establish community monitoring of coastal ecosystems and climate change events, Botero explained, and “to facilitate the strengthening of local leadership in each parish and to gather standardized information on coastal parameters related to climate-related threats.”

To see how much erosion has taken place, measurements are being taken each month at the designated locations. Weather stations are set up in the same areas to check precipitation, wind and temperature.

Climate change expert Jim Abraham, who has more than 45 years of experience in weather, water and climate, and is president of ClimAction Services Inc. – which assists municipalities, including African Nova Scotian and Indigenous communities, to understand and adapt to climate change and extreme weather – visited Sheet Harbour on June 6.

“To give us a lesson in precipitation measurements,” Botero explained, “a requirement for becoming a volunteer in the Community Collaborative Rain Hail and Snow (CoCoRaHS) program,” a non-profit community-based network of volunteers of all ages and of various backgrounds, working together to measure and map precipitation in their own communities.

The project, which began in February, will focus on Sheet Harbour until November. Botero shared that the plan is to cover the whole Eastern Shore, from McNabs Island to Canso Islands, in the following years.

Botero noted that this program is included by Dalhousie University as a part of its Transforming Climate Action program, which received $154 million in funding from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF) grant program, and an additional $243 million in partner contributions. The Eastern Shore coastal monitoring project also received funding from the Anglican Church, Joan Feynman Climate Change Fund and Dalhousie.

After this project is completed, he shared, Dalhousie will continue the activities as part of the Transform Climate Action (TCA) program, as a case study on governance and empower coastal communities on the Eastern Shore.

Botero invited other institutions with local roots, such as the Credit Union or the Lions Club, to join their efforts, saying, “It will help a lot with the future of the project.”

Camilo shared that his ultimate goal is to positively influence decision-making, with an emphasis on coastal areas.

“From the academy to communities of practice,” he said, noting his path is the same as the one that he learned when he was a boy scout in Colombia; “to leave this world better than he found it.”

Those interested in learning about the program are invited to the Sheet Harbour Public Library on Thursday, July 4, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., for a presentation on a similar project from the Anglican Church of Melanesia. There will be a second session, also on July 4, at 9:30 a.m. at the Turner Island site in Harrigan Cove, located at 285 Atkins Point Rd.

More information on this project can be found at www.transformclimatechange.ca.

Joanne Jordan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Guysborough Journal