Fundraising underway for purchase of property

By Bill Power / Staff Reporter

The rally to protect Prospect High Head, near Peggys Cove, from development moved into high gear Saturday.

About 50 supporters of the effort to protect the ecologically sensitive area gathered for an organizing session at Our Lady of Carmel Church Hall in the nearby village of Prospect.

"We're already organized. We've been working at this for 15 years," spokesman Sam Rogers of Prospect said after the day-long session.

Conservationists thought they were winning their 15-year battle to protect the High Head with a plan that included the purchase of a 48-hectare privately held parcel of land valued at $495,000.

But that land was recently scooped up by another purchaser, then quickly resold. Mr. Rogers said the land is now owned by Ed Weaver of Hammonds Plains. He could not be reached for comment.

The sale "happened very quickly," Mr. Rogers said. "It happened during our negotiations with the original owners. It caught us by surprise, needless to say."

There have been local concerns that a 35-lot subdivision is in the works.

Such a development would undermine efforts to protect High Head, as the land involved is centrally located and extends to the coast, Mr. Rogers said.

But he said the new owner attended the session and gave assurances he wanted to explore alternatives to development, including an arrangement to turn over the land to conservationists.

"That was encouraging for us, because it shows some recognition of the significance of the land involved," Mr. Rogers said.

The small church hall at the centre of the old fishing village was converted into a sophisticated operations centre for the meeting.

Laptop computers were blinking away on tables, a digital projector linked to another computer provided wall-sized images and a photocopying machine spat out copies of transcriptions of the proceedings.

During the day, participants broke into smaller groups to map out a game plan to protect the wilderness area.

They will begin lobbying for a meeting between Halifax Regional Municipality, the provincial government, the landowner and the Ottawa-based Nature Conservancy of Canada to come up with a plan.

A fundraising campaign is also in the works, involving collection of pledges to contribute to the purchase of the land.

Prospect area residents received some support in their fight to protect High Head in 1999, when the conservancy group got involved.

The province gave the group title to 100 hectares of Crown land on High Head only a few weeks ago.

Halifax regional council has called for protection of High Head.