Spring has sprung!

A wetland near my house where you can hear the sound of frogs calling.  A sure sign of spring.

A babbling brook near my house.  I don't think it comes through on the video but there were about 1/2 dozen trout darting in this plunge pool presumably on their way to the estuary to become sea trout.

It is amazing how quickly the weather has turned here in my part of Nova Scotia.  Only a few weeks ago my yard was covered by a few feet of snow and I shot a video of a late March snowstorm.  This week the snow at the lower elevations has all but disappeared and as I hiked the wooded areas around my home I could see signs of spring all around.  Trees are beginning to bud, rivers are starting to swell, trout are migrating out to the estuaries to fatten up, fry are emerging, and all around animals are either returning or awakening from their winter slumber.  While nature blooms all around, I am naturally finding it harder to stay at my desk and stare at my computer, especially as from my home office I can see the brook that runs through my property and the pool by the bridge that every year holds salmon and brook trout.  Still while this a distraction my colleagues at ASF and I are working hard to advocate on the behalf of wild Atlantic Salmon and those that care for their future.  

My activities this week of course involved numerous emails, conference calls, and video conferences.  One of the things that all ASF staff have been involved with this past week has been the preparation for our upcoming board meetings.  ASF being an international organization has both a Canadian and an American Board of Directors, that twice a year meet  jointly to review our progress and guide our collective efforts going forward.  In the lead up to the big joint board meeting there are numerous committee meetings (Research, Regional Affairs, Finance, etc.) where directors work with ASF staff to provide more specific guidance and direction to each of the different departments.  These meetings are always incredible productive and valuable as our directors are a group of incredibly knowledgeable and dedicated volunteers.  This spring our meetings, which normally alternate between locations in the US and Canada, were scheduled to be held in St. Andrew's, NB near our headquarters.  Eager to meet with the directors to gain their usual biannual insight, but mindful of the Covid-19 restrictions, we have been exploring novel ways of holding our board meeting.

Potential logo for the Healthy Bays Network, a community driven network of  organizations committed to protecting NS bays from the threats posed by open-net pen finfish aquaculture.

As has been the case the last few weeks, Aquaculture has been another dominant issue.  Throughout the week I have done research on several topics (open applications, legislative requirements, government process, recommendations of geophysical conditions, etc.), worked on a couple of documents, and participated in numerous meetings in support of our efforts to stop the expansion of open net pen aquaculture.  Several of these activities involved a group that we are calling the Healthy Bays Network.  The Healthy Bays Network, or HBN, is a coalition of community based and environmental organizations that are all working to oppose open net pen finfish aquaculture.  With an active effort to expand open-net pen finfish aquaculture in NS, it was felt by many that there needed to be a way for groups opposed to open-net pen finfish to work more collaboratively and have more of a "provincial" voice.  As a result, the HBN was created and I along with the other supporting organizations (EAC, FPMB, PLB, APES, SMBP, TBC, etc) have been working to get the group going and develop action strategies.  Stay tuned as I am sure you will hear more from the HBN soon.  

Other activities that I was involved in this week including reaching out to partners to check in and support each other during these difficult times, updating information associated with the gold mine file, preparing for upcoming meetings, working on outreach activities, and exploring training and professional development opportunities.