Port Joli/Port L’Hebert
Aerial view of Port Joli, NS, showing its white sandy beach and aquamarine waters (Photo by Mike Dembeck)
Land conservation is like working on a jigsaw puzzle: it is most strategic to add pieces to existing sections, and it happens faster when done together.
The Port Joli and Port L’Hebert peninsulas and surrounding area are home to one of the largest concentrations of coastal protected areas in the province, including the Kejimkujik National Park Seaside Adjunct National Park (2,417 hectares), Thomas Raddall Provincial Park (615 hectares) and the adjacent Port L'Hebert Nature Reserve (691 hectares). Since 2006, the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) has added 1,600 hectares to this ecological puzzle along Nova Scotia’s South Shore.
The Port Joli and Port L’Hebert peninsulas and surrounding coastal areas feature a stretch of coastline that gives rise to large, shallow-water basins with significant coastal habitat diversity, including sandy beaches and extensive intertidal salt marshes, freshwater wetlands and Wabanaki (Acadian) forest. The upper half of the Port Joli basin is a designated Migratory Bird Sanctuary, managed by Environment and Climate Change Canada and governed by the Migratory Birds Convention Act.
The Port Joli and Port L’Hebert peninsulas are recognized as one of the most significant sites for rare and endangered lichens in Nova Scotia. Lichen species in the area include the globally rare, nationally and provincially listed endangered boreal felt lichen and vole ears lichen, the provincially vulnerable blue felt lichen and the provincially threatened black-foam lichen.
You can play a part in conserving more precious habitat around Port Joli and Port L’Hebert.