Editors, read this first
Every item below carries the date it was published. Anything with a deadline that has passed is marked closed. Please add new items at the top and mark old ones closed rather than deleting them — the record is useful. Urgent trail conditions belong in the status strip at the top of the home page as well as here.
Open
Calling all Bluff Trail enthusiasts: join our board
If you regularly walk the loops and cherish the wilderness experience of the Bluff Trail, you already know it is a special place. WRWEO, the volunteer non-profit that stewards it, is seeking committed people from the user community to join the Board of Directors.
The commitment is roughly six to eight meetings a year, mostly on Zoom, plus the AGM. We are particularly interested in:
- Trail knowledge and advocacy
- Volunteer coordination
- Communications and outreach
- Fundraising and grant writing
- Environmental stewardship
- Financial oversight, and legal or governance experience
All strong candidates who are active trail users are welcome regardless. Send a brief expression of interest to board@wrweo.ca: your connection to the trail, any relevant experience, and where you think you could make an impact.
Closed — reopened 15 October 2025
Trail closed under the Provincial Woods Proclamation
The Bluff Wilderness Hiking Trail was closed to the general public as of 5 August 2025 under the Provincial Woods Proclamation, to help prevent wildfires. The closure ran until 15 October 2025, or until there had been sufficient rainfall to lift the ban. A province-wide burn ban was in effect at the same time under the Fire Proclamation.
Woods closures can be declared at any point in a dry season. Check novascotia.ca/burnsafe the morning you head out.
Held
2025 Annual General Meeting
The WRWEO / Bluff Wilderness Hiking Trail 2025 AGM took place on Saturday 20 September 2025, registration at 11:00 and the meeting from 11:15, in the Russell Walker Community Room at the Canada Games Centre, 26 Thomas Raddall Drive, Halifax.
Open house held — campaign continuing
Speak up about development at Sandy Lake
The Province selected lands at Sandy Lake as a Special Planning Area in 2022, which means the Province has the final say about development next to the lake rather than HRM Council. Since then the Province has required HRM staff to advance development planning in a fast-tracked way, including hiring consultants to carry out background studies.
Those studies are complete, and the Province decided to push HRM to the next stage — “secondary planning” — despite significant omissions in them. At that stage HRM does seek public feedback, which made an open house at Bedford United Church on 12 November 2025 a critical moment to speak up.
The municipality has been acquiring lands to build this park since 1954, and a joint federal, provincial and municipal effort in 1971 selected the whole area to be saved as a park for all time. The municipality has continued to build it one piece at a time ever since, but developers out-bid the city for some essential lands. It has been a race against time.
The Sandy Lake – Sackville River Regional Park Coalition prepared four main speaking points grounded in the science and the background studies, for use at the open house, in HRM's online survey, or in an email to your MLA. The Ecology Action Centre also hosted a preparatory webinar covering Blue Mountain – Birch Cove Lakes, which is threatened in the same way.
— Karen Robinson and Walter Regan, Co-Chairs, The Sandy Lake – Sackville River Regional Park Coalition
References:
Complete
The long boardwalk has been fully replaced
Our two-year project to replace the long boardwalk is finished, with the completion of phase two — replacement of the stringers and posts — in November 2024. Phase one, replacing all the face boards, was completed in November 2023. Some of the funding we needed to complete the whole job at once did not materialise, so the work was split across two years.
Phase one cost just over $26,000 and phase two just over $53,000. A portion of the emergency funding was also used to fully replace the third boardwalk, at a cost of just under $7,000, completed in November 2023.
WRWEO received $20,000 in emergency funding from the Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage, along with a $27,000 capital grant, and recognizes the support of the Province of Nova Scotia — we are pleased to work in partnership with the department to develop and promote trails for all Nova Scotians. We received a $25,000 capital grant from Halifax Regional Municipality and thank them for their continued support of trails in HRM, and $10,000 from Councillor Iona Stoddard — thank you very much, Councillor. We also raised donations from trail users, WRWEO members and other agencies.
Phase one photographs, with before and after · Phase two photographs · The boardwalk inventory
Report
2024 Bluff Trail Stewardship Program report published
The eighth year of the stewardship program, coordinated by Mike Lancaster. Some highlights: 1,999 hours of stewardship presence on the trail and in the wider wilderness area, 72% of them volunteered; a program value of $79,067, bringing the total generated since 2017 to $625,586; 2,265 trail users observed and 1,904 of them engaged — an 84% engagement rate, the highest ever recorded; 256 dogs observed with 73% on leash, up from 45% the year before; more than 400 trail spur, widening and braiding barriers built or refurbished; 40+ fallen trees removed; and 20 fire pits remediated, which is not ideal but still below the program average.
Report
2023 Bluff Trail Stewardship Program report published
Another banner year for the stewardship program and our stewardship coordinator, Mike Lancaster. Thank you Mike, and all the trail users who contributed to the program. The value of the program, paid and in kind, came to $100,135.47; there were more than 3,000 hours of stewardship presence on the trail and in the broader wilderness area; and only 13 illegal fire pits were remediated — the lowest number in the program's history, against 23 the year before.
2023 Year in Review (PDF)
Held
The Bluff BBQ Bash
A day of outdoor barbecuing and trail community spirit at the Canada Games Centre, raising funds for the preservation and maintenance of the trail after one of our major grant applications was unsuccessful. Other trail and nature groups from the community joined us to spread the word about their work. Funds raised went directly towards trail stewardship, maintenance, conservation and educational programs.
If you cannot attend an event like this but want to support the cause, donate through CanadaHelps.
Closed
Backlands Suites at the Chase Gallery
Backlands Artists and the Backlands Coalition brought the beauty of the Halifax Backlands to the Chase Gallery at the Nova Scotia Archives — an exhibition of work by nine notable artists whose bond with the land shows in their pieces. Presented with the Backlands Coalition and the Williams Lake Conservation Company.