The Nova Scotia government has announced the creation of the Mary Harper Nature Reserve, which it says will protect more than 24 hectares of natural habitat and valuable shoreline along Bras d'Or Lake.
"I'm pleased that we are protecting a beautiful and important piece of our province," said Environment Minister Sterling Belliveau in a statement released Wednesday. "I congratulate the Bras d'Or Preservation Nature Trust for their efforts to preserve this land and its wildlife for future generations."
The reserve lies between Highway 105 and Bras d'Or Lake, between Nyanza and Baddeck, and is named after the property owner who donated the land to the Bras d'Or Preservation Nature Trust in 1993.
The trust has requested that the land be designated as a nature preserve, and it will continue to own the land.
"This is wonderful news," said Grosvenor Blair of the Bras d'Or Preservation Nature Trust. "The designation of these lands as a provincial nature reserve is a very fitting tribute to Mary Harper and her love of Bras d'Or Lake."
The trust says a nature reserve is the highest form of legal protection that can be placed on conservation land, and the province say it is aiming to legally protect 12 per cent of the land by 2015.
