Nestled away in the marshes, Sackville is home to many hidden treasures. From cosy cafes and bookstores, to bustling farmers markets and exciting art displays, there is a little something to attract everyone. One of these treasures is the beautiful natural landscapes that surround the town, notably in Waterfowl Park. The award winning, 55-acre wetland is described as one of Sackville’s “crown jewels” on the town’s website.
To learn more about what draws tourists to Waterfowl Park, I talked to Ron Kelly Spurles, the Manager of Tourism & Business Development for the municipality of Tantramar. Kelly Spurles manages Sackville’s Tourist Information Centre, which is located just off the highway at 34 Mallard Dr., right next to the park itself. The centre’s responsibilities include travel counselling and guided tours of the park. “The tours involve a bit of local history and the history of when the [park] was created, kind of how the wetlands were managed or had been managed[…]Then there’s also a lot of talk about the birds that people might see and the plants they might see,” said Kelly Spurles. The park boasts an impressive 160 differing species of birds living within its diverse ecosystem. The centre also hosts other programs throughout the summer, including educational workshops for kids.
In order to attract new visitors to the park, the town advertises Waterfowl Park in different ways. The park is heavily featured in the town’s visitor guide, around nine thousand of which are given out by the visitors centre each summer. The park is also advertised at Saltscapes Expo, an annual event that takes place in Halifax, where Atlantic Canadian businesses and tourist destinations show off what they have to offer. Kelly Spurles says that their advertising is working at bringing new people into Sackville and the park. “Anecdotally, we do get people pretty regularly at the visitor centre who’ve mentioned that they’ve seen [us] in Saltscapes. In the Saltscapes magazine, or they saw us at Saltscapes in Halifax. So, we do know that it’s generating interest and it’s getting people to come out.”
One aspect of ecotourism that garners some controversy is the emerging risk of damaging the environment when a natural space is marketed as a destination for tourists. While the volume of tourists in Waterfowl is lesser than other tourist destinations, there are measures in place to reduce these risks. Garbage cans are placed at strategic locations throughout the park and the paths are laid out in a well developed manner, showing where visitors should tread. As well, summer student employees perform almost daily walk throughs of the trails to ensure the park is being respected. “[The students] go out in the park and they walk around all the trails and make sure that there’s nothing that’s been damaged, or there’s no garbage or anything that kind of needs maintenance, that sort of thing.”Signage posted around the park also encourages visitors to show respect and clean up after themselves.
Another method of protecting the park’s sanctity is teaching and informing the public about the importance of our local wetlands. Kelly Spurles hopes to do just this through a special play workshop he is working on. “It [is] going to be an interactive play that deals with how wetlands are made, what their function is and how we can preserve them: how important they are,” he said. The goal is for the play to be completed by early next year and toured around local schools. Other plans for the future of the park include a tourism plan for the municipality and an updated self-guided tour, which will update the existing tour pamphlet from 2016. Recently, the Information Centre has undergone some big changes as well, including the opening of Café Tintamarre in the space and the addition of three electrical vehicle charging spots. Now visitors can buy a coffee and walk through the trails, all while their vehicle is charging.
So, come visit for yourself! Explore what one vacationing Globe and Mail reporter referred to as a “standout spot” and what a postcard received by the Information Centre declared to be “the hands down, most lovely EV charging site.” More information about Waterfowl Park, as well as the centre and its programs can be found on the town’s website, https://sackville.com.
This post was originally published on here
