NSEN updates, member news and events, calls to action, green job opportunities, and more!
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NSEN News & Updates
Member Updates
Calls to Action
Nova Scotia Environmental News
Green Job Opportunities
Volunteer Opportunities
Other Information
NSEN Updates
NSEN's Staff Team
For the next four months, we are thrilled to have an increase in staff power! Kass and Megan will work with the network to deepen connections within our network and facilitate operations, with an emphasis on supporting our provincial caucuses.
Learn more about what brought them to NSEN on our website!
Thank you to everyone who contributed to our Thanksgiving campaign! Your engagement and support are essential to our mission to build a sustainable future for Nova Scotia. Your support makes all the difference, and we’re grateful to have you as part of our community.
Whether it’s during the giving season or any time throughout the year, every act of kindness counts. One-time donations are always appreciated, but this year, we’re also looking to grow our community of monthly donors who provide steady, reliable support we can count on. Even a small gift of $5 per month helps us plan with confidence, and larger commitments make an even bigger impact!
This summer, the Biodiversity Caucus invited people across the province to get outside and explore nature as part of our 2025 Bioblitz. Over 70 days, hundreds of community scientists helped document thousands of species on iNaturalist, contributing valuable data for conservation.
We’ve just released the 2025 Bioblitz Outcome Report, celebrating what we discovered together and the people who made it possible!
Congratulations to our prize winners: Heather Haughn for best photo (Northern Dog-Day Cicada), David McCorquodale for most species observed (812), and Bark and Bog for most total observations (1,477).
NSEN is growing, and we want you to be part of it! With new members, exciting events, and stronger collaboration across the province, there's never been a better time to be connected.
As a member, you can: ✅ Join provincial caucuses on key topics like water, biodiversity, and environmental education ✅ Participate in our annual meeting with the Minister of Environment and Climate Change ✅ Share your events, projects, job postings, and calls to action through our newsletter and social media ✅ Highlight your work in free webinars hosted by NSEN ✅ Recruit volunteers through our Volunteer Hub ✅ Connect with like-minded individuals and organizations at NSEN events
If you're a past member, we’d love to welcome you back! If you haven't yet renewed for 2025, now’s the time. And if you're thinking about joining for the first time, there's never been a better moment!
If you’re unsure about your membership status or would like to learn more about joining, please don't hesitate to get in touch. We’re always happy to connect!
NS Walks: Become a Walk Leader. Check out this upcoming training course from Hike NS!
Join our growing network of volunteer walk leaders to help us support more adults in Nova Scotia to get out walking! NS Walks has local community-based walking groups. We are looking for people interested in leading gentle, fun, friendly regularly scheduled walks for adults who are currently less active. Take our free walk leader training to give you the skills and confidence to lead these walks. Most sessions are virtual (join from your home) and some are in person.
Date: Tuesday, November 18th (register by November 17th) Time: 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. Format: Zoom and in person in Bridgetown
Hike NS invites groups across NS to partner with it on delivering winter guided hike, walk or snowshoe events from January to March of 2026. The purpose of the event series is to:
Get more people in NS hiking, walking and snowshoeing
Applications Open: Winter 2026 Climate Adaptation and Resilience Training (CART) Program
Are you new to climate adaptation and working with municipalities or Indigenous Communities in Atlantic Canada? Apply to join a Francophone Atlantic-wide or English Provincial cohort today!
This 12-week part-time online program with modules and virtual training sessions offers a certificate of completion to help you develop a wide range of skills needed in climate adaptation.
Join CLIMAtlantic for two days of connection and sharing to grow climate resilience in the Atlantic region. This conference will bring together climate change adaptation practitioners, knowledge holders, community leaders, policymakers, engineers, academics, youth, artists, and more.
We will explore the following themes throughout the conference:
From response to readiness
Letting nature lead
Aligning with social, economic, and environmental priorities
Avoiding and addressing maladaptation
Adaptation as an ongoing, evolving process
Enjoy engaging workshops, hands-on activities, panels, and talks focused on climate risks, adaptation and resilience and approaches, and case stories across the Atlantic region. You’ll leave with practical tools and resources for building connected resilience as well as a broader network and opportunities for further learning.
Co-chairs for this conference include:
Sabine Dietz, Executive Director, CLIMAtlantic
Tim Bernard, Natural Resources Manager, Lennox Island First Nation
Stephanie Arnold, Associate Executive Director and PEI Climate Services Specialist, CLIMAtlantic
Registration will open in January 2026 and a call for speaker interest will be sent out in fall 2025.
Be the first to know about registration, opportunities to contribute, and more.
Scotian Shores is proud to report that we have now passed 230,000lbs collected in 2025. This has been collected during our group cleanups and by cleanups reported by our amazing volunteers.
If you would like to help the movement, please report your cleanup in our Facebook Group or join us at one of the following events:
November 1st 2025 - West Head, Shelburne County November 8th 2025 - Phinneys Cove, Annapolis County November 16th 2025 - Kejimkujik National Seaside, Queens County
Protection of Cape LaHave Island marks major achievement in coastal conservation
We are honoured to announce the permanent conservation of Cape LaHave Island - now one of the largest islands ever conserved in the province, and the Nature Trust’s largest protected land to date.
Achieved through an exciting partnership with the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg, this major win for nature fulfills the community’s wish: for the island to remain natural and undeveloped as it currently is, and for it to continue to be available for the low-impact community recreational activities for which it is locally beloved. Today's news also underscores the key role that municipalities can play in supporting conservation and permanently protecting municipally-owned natural areas. It’s also an exciting milestone for the Nature Trust’s current campaign to keep Nova Scotia’s most significant wild places In Our Nature, forever.
This is a crucial time for Sandy Lake. Numbers count. Please attend one or all of these sessions:
Public Engagement for Sandy Lake SPA November 12, 2025:
A public open house is taking place to share information on the planning process and development proposals by landowners, and to collect public feedback.
Three sessions are being held Wednesday, November 12, 2025 at Bedford United Church, 1200 Bedford Highway, Bedford, at the following times:
10am to 12pm 2pm to 4pm 6:30pm to 8:30p.m.
“All sessions are identical and are provided at different times of the day for residents’ convenience and accessibility. The open house will feature information boards, and HRM Planning staff will be in attendance to answer your questions and record your feedback.” The Developers will be present to share their proposed development concepts.
Update on Sandy Lake Park… AND downstream in Bedford and Sackville
WHO is paying attention? By now, the Province and the city ought to know about the importance of doing a full floodplain study of Sandy Lake subwatershed BEFORE deciding to develop or not at Sandy Lake Park. We in the Coalition have repeated it until we are hoarse!
Recently, Sandy Lake Coalition leaders met with the Provincial Task Force on Housing and later with HRM planners working on Sandy Lake SPA. We were telling them about the many relevant studies and reports that were provided to and ignored by Stantec in their Sandy Lake Land Suitability Assessment. But also, once again, we underlined that one of the major missing pieces is that floodplain study. Once again, we were met with some sort of surprise at the notion.
There’s still hope the Premier and Ministers will recognize a better path for Sandy Lake—one that protects its future while allowing housing to be built elsewhere. Please consider writing to them, even if you already have. (details below).
Who is NOT paying attention? The Sackville River Floodplain Study, Phase 2, of 2017 was released in a public meeting in 2018, read here.
A scientist in the audience asked why the Sandy Lake watershed was not included in the study. The consultant replied that the city gave them the scope of the study, and if Sandy Lake was not included, it must mean that the city does not intend to build there for at least 100 years.
100 years!
Who is NOT LISTENING?
Note that even before the floods of 2023, on July 12, 2022, City Council passed a motion that included this: “4. Assess how to best organize land use and green infrastructure as part of the Sandy Lake Provincial Special Planning Area Background Watershed Study to mitigate any downstream impacts to the Sackville River and Sackville River Floodplain.”
So, the city already knew this when the 2023 floods happened. Yet, the Province and city have proceeded to Secondary Planning at Sandy Lake, with still no sign of this essential study coming soon, if at all.
Even if they don’t care about protecting this amazing park asset, surely they would care about protecting homes and businesses.
If you, or someone you know, lives or works in Bedford or Sackville, tell them their community is at increased risk of floods. They need to speak up.
It is irresponsible for decision-makers to ignore this real threat to Bedford and Sackville. Climate Change is promising more frequent and larger storms.
This detailed subwatershed floodplain study must be done before any decision is taken on whether or not to build at Sandy Lake. It is all in the same subwatershed.
What to do: We need the political will to do the right thing. We urgently ask you to please do all you can to generate a clear message to the Province.
Tell Government: Stop the Rush on a New Brunswick Gas and Diesel Fired Electricity Plant
A new gas and diesel fired electricity plant is being rushed through the impact assessment process in New Brunswick. This plant will be expensive and increase NB Power’s reliance on volatile fracked gas from the United States at a time when renewable energy and storage is becoming cheaper than fossil fuels.
As wildfires burn across this country, we need to turn down the heat of climate change, not turn it up by burning more fracked gas and diesel. Send a message and call on government to stop the rush through and allow real time for community consultation.
Individual Submission: Wider Roads Make Worse Cities—Help Save Robie Street's last historic neighbourhood (North to Cunard).
Help Save Robie Street's last historic neighbourhood (North to Cunard). HRM Mayor & Council plan to spend $200m to widen Robie Street. They say it’s for Bus Rapid Transit but the $200m is only to make Robie a uniform width between Young - Cunard. Instead they should use public money to really prioritize transit with signalized lane changes like the Macdonald Bridge. That will save 50-70 homes and protect 80 historic trees. And leave money for more buses, drivers, shelters, lower fare and public safety. Widening roads, even for public transit won't reduce traffic or congestion.
Individual Submission: Help Save the Halifax Common Wanderers Field
HRM Council plans a $116 - $122 redevelopment of the Wanderers Block, mostly for a permanent stadium. This area, occupied by the Halifax Lancers, Wanderers Lawn Bowlers Club, HRM equipment depot, Power House, Halifax Public Gardens green houses, and, for the last few years, a temporary ‘pop-up stadium’ on the Wanderers Field was deliberately left out of public consultations for the Halifax Common Master Plan. The Field was 100% used by amateur players prior to Sports Atlantic take over of the Field for its private, for-profit, professional soccer team. Spending public money on a stadium has no economic benefit. Like West Mabou Beach, this move condones the use of public lands by private business. If the private club needs a stadium now is the time for it to buy its own land.
Please sign the petition to take back the Wanderers Fieldhere.
Nova Scotia Environmental News
Halifax moves toward installing EV chargers across municipality
29 chargers are now operating across the HRM according to a recently released progress report. The chargers are of varying speeds and located at parks and community centres.
The city is behind on installation, with the federal government announcing in January 2024 that 56 charging stations would be installed across the HRM by spring of that year. The lag is due, in part, to equipment delays and other hurdles, according to Kevin Boutilier, the municipality's manager of clean energy. Boutilier states that the city expects all 56 chargers to be installed by around March 2027.
Outside of the HRM, Atlantic Canada, including Nova Scotia, recently received more than $5 million in federal funding to expand EV charging infrastructure by adding 157 chargers across the region.
Invasive fish lands on menu for hungry eagles at N.S. wildlife centre
Cobequid Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre using donated chain pickerel to feed their recovering bald eagles.
Chain pickerel, introduced to Nova Scotia in the 1940s, are aggressive carnivores with green bodies marked by black, chain-like patterns. Their predatory nature puts native species like trout and salmon at risk, and they have spread through many provincial lakes and ponds.
The donations not only help combat chain pickerel populations but also save the centre money by keeping the eagles well fed. Anglers are being encouraged to catch the freshwater fish and donate them.
New relief fund supports Atlantic farmers struggling with tough growing conditions
Farmers in the Atlantic region have struggled with the droughts and intense heat this summer, had significant losses or poor yields, who couldn’t harvest blueberries due to the forest use ban, and who have had to buy feed due to poor pasture growth.
The Atlantic Canadian Organic Regional Network and the Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security started an online fundraising campaign that offers immediate and direct aid to eligible producers.
Hosted on the GoFundMe website, the fund has raised about $4,500 so far, and is currently distributing it to eligible farmers on a first come first serve basis.
Efforts underway to restore a salmon habitat in Cape Breton
Students and environmentalists are changing the way the river flows with logs and rocks to create habitat features important to native salmon. This project combats low water levels from our dry summer, creating natural pool features, and is a natural solution to the impacts of climate change.
Tensions rise over potential golf course in West Mabou
Another bid for a possible development at West Mabou Beach Provincial Park in Cape Breton has the community frustrated. The land is protected and has previously been deemed out of bounds for such proposals, but the NS government is open to a conversation, due to potential economic benefit.
Don't forget that you can check out the NSEN Job Board at any time to see the latest job opportunities with NSEN members. Submit a new position or apply today!
The Director of Programs oversees one or more Managers and their teams, ensuring alignment with organisational goals and strategies. This role involves approving recruitment and performance management decisions, overseeing financial management and reporting, strategic engagement with key partners and program funders, guiding new project design and delivery across a range of subject areas, and supporting Managers’ professional growth.
This is an 18 month contract.
Application Deadline: Position will remain open until filled.
In this role you will help municipalities, private industries, and federal/provincial governments identify climate change risks that could impact their existing and planned infrastructure and identify adaptation solutions to address the identified climate change risks. You will support the development of climate change risk analysis and adaptation plans, and prepare technical reports, proposals, and presentations.
Application Deadline: Position will remain open until filled.
The Energy Mix: Stephen Lewis Climate Journalism Fellowship
Open to students, recent graduates, and individuals who are excellent newswriters and looking to apply their craft to one of the most urgent crises — and one of the biggest opportunities for social and economic transformation — that we’ll see in our lifetimes. Duties will expand in the course of the fellowship from desk rewrites, to compiled stories, to original newswriting.
This is a 12 to 15 week position beginning January 2026.
At AgExpert, we’re not just designing interfaces – we’re shaping the future of Canadian agriculture. We’re searching for UX Designers who are as comfortable sketching wireframes as they are out in a field, and who believe that great design starts with understanding the people who use our products.
If you’ve ever thought, “This could be simpler, clearer, better,” and then made it happen – you’re our kind of designer. Whether you’ve crafted digital experiences for ag tech, helped producers navigate complex workflows or simply have a knack for making the complicated feel effortless, we want to hear from you!
Roles include working the ground for an arborist. Running ropes, brush chipping, cleaning up, operating chainsaw, tree felling, shrub pruning, and whatever may need to be done on the ground. There is opportunity for training, education, and personal growth and to advance to a climbing position.
Application Deadline: Positions will remain open ongoing.
Have you visited NSEN's Volunteer Hub yet? This tool is a powerful one-stop-shop where NSEN members can post volunteer positions and our network of volunteers can view and apply for opportunities that fit their interests. Submit a new position or apply today!
This volunteer position supports the East Hants Chapter by co-leading monthly nature events, helping with planning, communication, and running engaging nature-based and conservation activities for kids aged 8–14.
Nova Scotia Adopt-A-Highway: Litter Clean-Up Volunteer
The NS Adopt-A-Highway and Great NS Pick-Me-Up Programs are looking for volunteers to register for litter clean-ups. We provide free clean-up supplies and facilitation for planning your clean-up. Clean-ups can take place on roadways, parks, trails, shorelines, and more!
Halifax North West Trails Association: Communications Officer
The Association is seeking support with managing email communications, including reading incoming messages and forwarding them to the appropriate board members. Key responsibilities would include coordinating website email traffic and working closely with the Newsletter and Membership officers to ensure that email distribution lists are kept up to date.
ESCOM & The Deanery Project: Social and External Communications
This volunteer role aims to increase public visibility of the Eastern Shore Citizen Science Coastal Monitoring Network's (ESCOM) mission, activities, and outcomes by managing its external communications, ensuring community awareness, and public engagement across the Eastern Shore and beyond.
Commitment: Up to three hours per week when only monitoring activities are planned. Up to three extra hours per week when special field visits or events are organised.
National Invasive Species and Climate Change (NISCC) Network Website Launch
Invasives Canada is proud to announce the launch of NISCC.ca, the official website for the National Invasive Species and Climate Change (NISCC) Network.
Climate change and invasive species are two of the most significant drivers of global biodiversity loss, and their impacts are even more severe when combined. Warmer temperatures and extreme weather events create new pathways for invasive species to spread, while invasive species reduce ecosystem resilience and impact carbon storage.
The new online hub connects researchers, managers, policymakers, Indigenous nations, and practitioners working at the critical intersection of invasive species and climate change.
We are deeply saddened by the passing of Dr. Jane Goodall, a visionary primatologist, conservationist, and humanitarian whose life's work transformed our understanding of the natural world. Her tireless dedication to the protection of chimpanzees and the preservation of our planet has left an indelible mark on science and global conservation. As we honour her extraordinary legacy, may we be inspired to carry forward her mission—with compassion, curiosity, and action—to protect wildlife, empower communities, and ensure a better future for all living beings.
The Jane Goodall Institute of Canada is hosting a Celebration of Life and Hope with an interactive livestream on November 22nd at 3:00pm.
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