February 23, 2005

UNESCO may designate fossil cliffs as world heritage site

N.S. government to help fund construction of fossil centre

JOGGINS, N.S.

The Nova Scotia government says it will invest $1.1 million to build an interpretive centre that showcases the fossils of the Fundy shore.

For over a century, tourists and scientists have wandered the beaches along the cliffs that line the northern coast of the Chignecto Peninsula, searching for the Coal Age fossils exposed by erosion.

Last Friday, the province announced it will increase funding to develop the tourism potential of the area.

Part of the project includes the construction of an interpretive centre at the Dugway, N.S., site — including beach access and interpretive signage at the site and on the beach. The proposed cost of the project is somewhere between $5 million and $6 million.

The province has already committed more than $180,000 to the project.

Efforts to have the fossil cliffs designated a world heritage site by UNESCO have been ongoing for close to a decade.

The project got a boost last spring when Environment Canada selected it to its short list of 10 proposed sites. The first submission from that list, the Rideau Canal in Ottawa, was forwarded to UNESCO last month.

Joggins was selected for the list because of the important natural aspects of the site. It is the foremost example of the Coal Age, and it has yielded many important fossil finds over the last 150 years.

“It’s a dream that is very real,” fossil enthusiast Don Reid said during a news conference held at the Joggins Fossil Centre.

“The fossils in this centre are the best in the world and many people have come to tell me that. Years ago, these people told me I should do something with it so I started this little fossil centre to start the work and now it’s continuing with this announcement. Dreams do come true.”

He said it’s anticipated that the detailed designs will be in place to start construction late this summer.

Much of the work is expected to be completed in time for a visit by a team from the United Nations in 2006 to judge the area for world heritage designation.

The one-time investment will be administered by the Cumberland Regional Economic Development Association, which is leading the project in consultation with the local community. The funding will also be used to help acquire other public and private sector resources.

The 300-million-year-old fossils at Joggins are some of the most famous in the world and pre-date the dinosaurs.

“When you stand on these rugged shores, where the highest tides in the world rise and fall, and in the shadows of the 300 million years of history recorded on the Joggins fossil cliffs, you can’t help but know you are in one of the world’s most special places,” said Ernie Fage, the province’s minister of economic development.

Geologist Dr. John Calder, who has been working on the project for several years with Natural Resources, said it is gratifying to see so many people sharing a dream that has been ongoing since the mid-1880s when Nova Scotia scientist and educator Sir William Dawson documented the presence of fossils at Joggins.

“This dream began many years ago and has been shared by many people in government, in the scientific community and most of all the community here in Joggins,” Calder said, adding there have been many who have helped build the case for Joggins to receive world heritage designation.

The Canadian Press

‘It’s a dream that is very real. . . . The fossils in this centre are the best in the world’

Don Reid

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