Jordan orders gates opened on Avon River to allow fish passage

Jordan orders gates opened on Avon River to allow fish passage

Source: saltwire

3/23/2021

Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan ordered the province on Friday to allow fish passage up the Avon River.

The ministerial order to the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture, which operates the half-century-old, gated aboiteau on the Avon River, runs until April 3.

It is what comes after April 3 that matters to those arrayed on either side of the debate over the future of how the province manages what is allowed to pass up and down the Avon River.

“If it’s only two weeks it’s probably not that much of a problem but the fear is that this could be the start of something much longer,” said Sheldon Hope, vice-commodore of the Pisiquid Canoe Club.

“… When someone in government sends something with no consultation at 5 p.m. on a Friday afternoon, it certainly seems like they’re trying to hide something.”

The order calls for the draining of Lake Pisiquid, a man-made reservoir created by the Avon River causeway and aboiteau, on which the canoe club operates.

Farmers and home owners upstream of the aboiteau, who fear allowing salt water to pass through its gates will ruin their wells and prevent them from using fresh water for irrigation, have also lobbied against allowing free tidal flow.