The Bras d'Or Preservation Foundation
Strategic Plan for the Years 2000 to 2004

The Bras d'Or Preservation Foundation was established in 1993 as the first "designated conservation organization" under the then newly enacted Nova Scotia Conservation Easements Act. Our objectives include broad environmental mandates, ranging from the acquisition of conservation easements and fee interests in environmentally important lands to community education on the need to conserve the Bras d'Or. We have been successful in both areas. Where the Foundation's future lies and how it will get there is described in the Strategic Plan outlined herein.

In the early years, the Foundation's focus was primarily on protection of private land in the Bras d'Or watershed. We received an important donation from a private owner of land bordering St. Patrick's Channel. We also obtained several conservation easements, including one over the land associated with the main building of the Alexander Graham Bell Estate at Baddeck. Nevertheless, our successes have been limited because the local community is not yet attuned to the importance of environmental conservation and private land preservation. Accordingly, in the past year, the emphasis of the Foundation's work has turned to public education. The first phase of an extensive public education program has been the Foundation's sponsorship of a Bras d'Or Lakes Interpretive Centre in the Old Post Office, an historic building in Baddeck. The Centre's objectives are to introduce the community to the ecology of the Lakes and to outline not only the importance of conservation, but steps that can be taken by individuals to promote that end. In addition to a public exhibition demonstrating the unique Bras d'Or ecology, the Centre will maintain an environmental science library on the main exhibition floor. On the upper floor, to aid the more serious researcher, a Resource Centre will provide access to the Federal Government's on-line computer data base of materials on the Bras d'Or environment. The Centre's exhibits will be portable so that they may be taken to classrooms throughout the Watershed area during the winter season. A seminar room will be available for programs on the environment and for other community activities. Funding commitments from the Federal Government, the Province of Nova Scotia and private foundations on both sides of the border contributed to the Centre's completion. Our operations are expected to be financially self-sustaining.

With the opening of the Centre in June of 2000, the Foundation's strategy for the next five years will be to return to its original focus on private land preservation. Until mid-1999, the Foundation's work was carried out exclusively by volunteers. These persons, members of the Foundation's Board of Directors, instituted a landowner contract program and generated interest in conservation easements, principally among expatriate summer residents. Landowner acceptance of the need for conservation being a gradual process, it is anticipated that over time easements in targeted areas will be acquired. It is clear to the Foundation that donation of interests of land, whether fee interests or conservation easements, will not be sufficient to affect significantly the future of the Bras d'Or. Foundation's strategy next in importance is a land purchase program. A key part of the program is a revolving fund to buy environmentally important land. Part of the purchase price would be recouped by reselling non-critical portions, but subject to stringent development restrictions. In some cases, those objectives may be met by paying landowners to agree to conservation easements or by purchasing development rights. Nevertheless, continuing public environmental education remains an important part of the Foundation's Strategic Plan. High on that agenda is an outdoor interpretive centre to provide hands-on demonstrations of the geology and flora of the Bras d'Or watershed. For that purpose, the Foundation has been offered the donation of an important tract of waterfront land at the head of Baddeck Bay. Plans for the outdoor centre include walking trails with explanatory labels, trained guides and an exhibit building.

In association with the outdoor centre, an education centre will house classrooms and space for lectures and a laboratory. These facilities will provide researchers and students at a higher level a place to study the Lakes and determine the areas where intervention to preserve the environment is most needed. Waterfront facilities and a resident's house are also planned.

As noted, the Interpretive Centre in Baddeck is fully funded, largely through a partnership with the Federal Governments and the Province of Nova Scotia, the Foundation and other private sources. Although that partnership may be extended to cover the construction of the outdoor interpretive centre, the Foundation cannot look to government support for operations. Moreover, the augmentation of the Foundation's staff and its land purchase program must be funded entirely from private sources. Those activities will succeed only if supported by an endowment providing a long term stable and dependable source of income. A cornerstone of the Foundationπs Strategic Plan, therefore, is the building of that endowment. The creation of the Bras d'Or Endowment will start with the formation of a Board of Advisors for the Foundation. Prominent members of the business, scientific, academic and sailing communities in Canada and the United States will direct fund solicitation. The proceeds of those efforts will be deposited in a trust account under the supervision and administration of a committee of the Advisory Board which will also have oversight of expenditures. Following the precedent of the Trans Canada Trail Foundation, donors to the Bras d'Or Endowment will be honored by their names inscribed on panels in pavilions placed at strategic locations around the Lakes. Discreet sections of the Lakes' shoreline will be dedicated to them as conservationists. Other ways to give recognition to donors will include annual events calling attention to their generosity in supporting the work of the Foundation.

In summary, the Foundation's Five Year Strategic Plan has as its paramount element the preservation of private land in the Bras d'Or Watershed. Those land preservation activities will be advanced by the Foundation's public education program, extended to encompass new centres on donated land at the head of Baddeck Bay.

The Bras d'Or Endowment, therefore, will be the essential underpinning of the Strategic Plan.