Letter from Dr. Chris Miller
Thank you for the guided tour of the coastline near Sand Dollar Beach at Rose Bay. It was an enjoyable excursion in a beautiful portion of the province. Please pass along my thanks to the other members of the KCC who also attended the walk. Below, please find a brief description of the wetland complex that we traversed. I’ve also attached a few pictures from the site to illustrate some of these points as well.
Best regards, Chris
The stretch of coastline is best described as a coastal wetland complex. It contains extensive estuarine salt marshes that exhibit evidence of recent hydroseral changes, most likely associated with on-going increases of relative sea-level position. It was interesting to note the diversity of plant species within the wetland complex, including certain areas with plants more typical of beach and dune environments. These areas occur where there seems to be higher inorganic content within the wetland soil, probably the result of storm surge deposits or eolian deposition. These portions of the wetland are extensive, and quite interesting to examine. It also appears to be adding to the overall ecological diversity of the wetland complex. One of the attached photos shows salt marsh wetland communities forming atop the beach itself!
Sections closer to the road seem to transform into more freshwater wetland communities, with Juncus and Phragmites being present. Also of interest were the salt panne formations within the salt marshes (shown in attached photos); small ponds which contain micro-organisms well adapted to a hypersaline environment.
Pretty much all of the land between the base of the infill from the edge of the highway to the intertidal zone along the beach would be considered to be ‘wetland’. A closer examination of the content of the peat deposits, the water table depth, the hydroperiod, and the geochemistry of the groundwater would prove most interesting and would likely reveal greater information about the dynamic nature of this wetland complex.
A wetland is defined as
"land that is saturated with water long enough to promote wetland or aquatic processes as indicated by poorly drained soils, hydrophytic vegetation, and various kinds of biological activity which are adapted to a wet environment. These include bogs, fens, swamps, marshes, and shallow water areas."
The area where we walked meets this definition.
Chris Miller is the Wilderness Conservation Coordinator for the Nova Scotia Chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS-NS). His research and conservation work are focused on expanding the protected areas system in Nova Scotia and improving forestry management through FSC certification. Chris holds a Ph.D. in biology from the Wetland Research Centre, University of Waterloo, and a combined honours B.Sc. degree in biology and earth sciences from Dalhousie University. He has successfully advocated for the protection of several important natural areas in Nova Scotia, including the Blue Mountain – Birch Cove Lakes wilderness area near Halifax and the Jim Campbells Barren wilderness area in Cape Breton. Chris also holds a part-time faculty position in the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University.