Wooded areas of parks in Nova Scotia off-limits as wildfires burn

By CityNews Halifax Staff

All travel and activity in all wooded areas around Nova Scotia are now banned.

The province announced the restrictions apply to Crown and private land. Private landowners are free to use their own properties but cannot host others to use wooded areas of their properties.

Hiking, camping, fishing and the use of vehicles in the woods are not permitted. People can still access beaches and provincial and municipal parks, but trail systems are off limits. Camping is allowed only in campgrounds.

Tim Houston visited Shelburne County on Tuesday where the province’s largest wildfire has been burning since the weekend in Barrington, the Premier strongly encouraging Nova Scotians to obey the provincial burn ban.

Meantime, Halifax Regional Municipality has announced all wooded areas of municipal parks will be closed as of 8 a.m. on Wednesday, May 31.

That means parks such as Shubie Park, Point Pleasant Park, Admiral Cove and other heavily wooded parks will be fully closed.

According to the Municipality, non-wooded areas of parks, like playgrounds and sport fields will remain open for use.

For parks which have both wooded and non-wooded areas, the wooded areas are closed and the non-wooded areas remain open. HRM says an example of this would be Fort Needham Memorial Park where the monument, playground and sports field remain open but the wooded section is closed.

Parking lot closures will be completed as soon as possible, however with many wooded parks across the region, the Municipality says this will take time.