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The Marine Issues Committee of the Ecology Action Centre has been running the Coastlines natural history column in weekly newspapers around Nova Scotia since February 2002. This illustrated column focuses on coastal wildlife and habitat in Nova Scotia. The objectives of the column are threefold: 1) to develop a greater appreciation and understanding of coastal wildlife and habitat conservation in Nova Scotia; 2) to foster greater involvement in wildlife habitat conservation among the people who have the most impact on the coastal and marine environments, principally landowners and resource users; and 3) to provide an opportunity for students and amateur naturalists from across the province to gain experience in writing about science for a general audience. In Coastlines' first year, we succeeded in producing weekly articles on coastal animals, plants, habitats and processes that were distributed to community newspapers around Nova Scotia. Habitat related articles included those written on the topics of saltmarshes, tide pools, tidal barriers, estuaries and coastal plain flora. We have gradually increased the distribution of Coastlines from 6 to 11 weekly newspapers around the province and now reach over 50,000 households weekly. We hope to increase the distribution of our column to more newspapers in the following months. We have approached various organizations, including the Nova Scotia Nature Trust and the Nova Scotia Federation of Naturalists, to invite their members to write articles for the column. We will continue to encourage participation from other organizations with a particular focus on providing young people with an opportunity to write for the column. In the past year, we have had contributions of articles from high school students to amateur naturalists to academics. The Coastlines column has been well received and we are pleased with the progress we have made since February 2002. We plan to continue to coordinate and produce the weekly column for another two years. We look forward to the opportunity to continue educating Nova Scotians about coastal wildlife and habitats. Contributions by all partners for 2002-2003*
* For 2003-2004, we have received funding from the Henry P. Kendall Foundation and anticipate in-kind funding from our Members and Associates to keep Coastlines running.
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