Fill out our survey on Land Conservation

We're developing a Land Conservation Strategy and want to hear from you!

The Strategy will guide how we identify, care for, and expand protected natural areas so that nature and people thrive, with a goal of conserving 20% of municipal lands by 2030. Our Land Conservation Strategy will combine local knowledge and science to map high-priority areas and outlines tools we can use such as purchasing land, accepting donations of land, applying conservation easements, partnering with land trusts, entering stewardship agreements, and developing supportive land use policies. We are engaging residents to ensure the Land Conservation Strategy reflects local priorities, lived experience, and the places people value.

We want to understand the social, cultural, historical, and community benefits provided from and current barriers of accessing land and water for people across the municipality, alongside ecological science. Fill out our survey today! https://engage.modl.ca/conservation

Special Council Meeting - Nov 25, 2025

A Special Council meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 25, 2025 at 6:00 p.m. to review the first draft of the capital budget.  This is an open meeting and the public is invted to attend.

The meeting will be held at the Municipal Services Building at 10 Allee Champlain Drive, Cookville.

Click on  pdf Public Notice(426 KB) to view it in its entirety. 

Indian Falls Park Closure

Please be advised that Indian Falls Park will remain closed for the remainder of the season to allow for ongoing capital upgrades work. The park will re-open again in Spring 2026.

The capital upgrades include:

• Constructing accessible pathways to the look off area
• Creating an accessible picnic area near the grassy area and look off
• Improving the trail leading to the river to improve accessibility
• Installing accessible vault washrooms

There will be no access to the park during this time. Thank you for your cooperation as we make exciting new improvements to this park!

Water Fill Station Moved Indoors

With the impending cold weather, the water fill station has been moved into the Municipal Services Building. Unfortunately, this means the station is only accessible Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Public Statement re: Sawpit Wharf

Following a recent inspection, the wharf structure at Sawpit Wharf has been found to be structurally unsafe. After receiving legal advice, the District of Lunenburg has decided to close the wharf. Please do not walk on the wharf or tie boats to it.

Sawpit Wharf Park remains open. The boat launch and park space at Sawpit Wharf remain open and available for use.

We appreciate your cooperation as we work to ensure public safety.

Notice of Approval - By-law 018 Building Code By-law

On September 23, 2025, Municipal Council conducted Second Reading and passed a motion to repeal and replace By-law 018 Building Code By-law with a new By-law 018 which will remove Schedule A – Fees from the by-law, add location certificate requirements, and add a new section regarding expiry of permits. The effective date of this new By-law will be January 1, 2026.

Read the pdf new By-law, effective January 1, 2026(73 KB) .

Reposted: Nov 3, 2025

Posted: September 23, 2025 2:00pm

News release: Nova Scotia Nature Trust and MODL announce permanent conservation of Cape LaHave Island

On October 21, 2025, the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg (MODL) and the Nova Scotia Nature Trust announced the conservation of Cape LaHave Island, a beloved jewel of the South Shore coast. At 2,608 acres, Cape LaHave Island is Nova Scotia’s 5th largest island and now becomes one of the largest islands ever protected in the province. Following community engagement conducted over the past several years, MODL signed a conservation easement with the Nature Trust to ensure that the natural values of the island will be protected in perpetuity, as well as the opportunities for visitors to experience its incredible beauty.

In announcing this long-awaited conservation achievement, the Nature Trust’s Executive Director Bonnie Sutherland said, “Cape LaHave Island is one of Nova Scotia’s great treasures, not only for the birds and pollinators whose habitat is now protected but also for the countless generations of people – past, present, and future – for whom this island is so precious. It embodies what the Nature Trust is working to protect: intact wild space for nature, and for people.”

A conservation easement is a legally binding written agreement between a landowner (in this case the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg, the apparent owner) and the holder of the easement (the Nature Trust) to protect a property’s conservation values. The Nature Trust originally pioneered the first partnership of this kind between a community land trust and a municipality in Canada in 2007. 

Today’s partnership with MODL underscores the key role that municipalities can play in supporting conservation and permanently protecting municipally-owned natural areas. Her Worship the Mayor of the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg, Elspeth McLean-Wile, remarked, “Our residents are very interested in protecting Cape LaHave Island. We heard the importance of protecting the Island from development, preserving access and maintaining activities that are associated with the traditions of the Island. We are pleased that this agreement will ensure this for generations to come.”

Cape LaHave Island is one of Nova Scotia’s largest remaining undeveloped islands. The Lunenburg Common Lands Act of 1897 transferred guardianship of the island to the Municipal Council of the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg to ensure that it would remain accessible for the common use of the community, but the Act does not specifically acknowledge (or protect) the ecological significance of the island. The Municipality recognized the importance of keeping the island in its undeveloped state and in 2019, the Council began to explore the option of a conservation easement as an additional layer of legal protection. The specific terms of the easement were defined based on extensive community engagement, which included public community sessions in 2020 and 2024, public surveys conducted online in 2020 and 2024, and a public information session in 2025. The details and reports from these public consultations can be found on this page.

Through this engagement process, the community expressed a clear 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. Its long history of human use includes Indigenous and settler mainland communities’ use for drying fish and harvesting resources to support local fishers, while its pristine sand beaches have long welcomed visitors for camping, kayaking, walking, and general appreciation of its beauty.

Protecting the island’s intact and thriving natural features is an important win, not only for Nova Scotia’s natural legacy but also for biodiversity more broadly. Plants and animals are disappearing from our planet at unprecedented rates – scientists have documented almost 70% declines in wildlife populations over the last half-century. With habitat loss globally recognized as a major driver of biodiversity loss, there is an urgent need to ensure that habitat is permanently protected, especially large tracts of land, islands, and native biodiversity. 

Cape LaHave Island provides stopover habitat for many migratory birds, including shorebird species like Ruddy Turnstone, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Sanderling, Blackbellied Plover, and Short-billed Dowitcher. Endangered Piping Plover have been known to nest on its beaches. Shorebird populations have declined by 40% globally over the last decade, making protection and stewardship of stopover sites like the island crucially important. Recent surveys have also shown boreal bird species like Canada Jay and Boreal Chickadee to be common in the interior of Cape LaHave Island; it is likely that the ocean-moderated climate of the island could provide refuge from climate change-related declines for these species.

Beyond its importance for birds, the large areas of undisturbed terrain on the island host rare lichens and plants, and pollinator species that are elsewhere in steep decline, including Yellow-Banded Bumblebees and migrating Monarch Butterflies. Its interior landscape features extensive unforested bedrock ridges often dominated by Broom Crowberry, which, although fairly common in southern Nova Scotia, is a globally rare ecosystem type.

Community members are invited to be part of the ongoing protection and care of Cape LaHave Island through the Nature Trust’s volunteer Property Guardians program. Property Guardians receive training and support as they conduct regular monitoring visits to conservation lands, providing the Nature Trust with key information about changes and concerns on protected properties and helping maintain their ecological integrity. Interested nature-lovers are invited to contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for information.

This project was undertaken with the financial support of the Government of Canada and the Government of Nova Scotia through the Canada-Nova Scotia Nature Agreement. Additional funds to complete the protection of the island came from the Nature Trust’s recently launched In Our Nature campaign, which urgently aims to protect Nova Scotia’s most ecologically significant, rare, and at-risk natural areas – before it’s too late. From now through December 31, donations to In Our Nature unlock 4X their value in additional funding to help catalyze the conservation of high-priority wild places like Cape LaHave Island – visit https://nsnt.ca/ for more information.

ADDITIONAL QUOTES
"The Government of Nova Scotia is pleased to support the vital work of the Nova Scotia Nature Trust to protect the province's land and water through funding programs like the Crown Share Land Legacy Trust and the Nature Agreement. Cape LaHave Island is one of Nova Scotia's most beautiful and ecologically significant natural places, and I want to thank Bonnie Sutherland and her team for protecting this special place for perpetuity and for their ongoing land conservation work."
~Timothy Halman, Minister, Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change

ABOUT THE FUNDING
The Canada-Nova Scotia Nature Agreement is a project of the Province of Nova Scotia. Working with conservation partners, the goal is to increase the amount of protected and conserved areas and advance an integrated approach to the protection, conservation and recovery of biodiversity, including habitat, species at risk and migratory birds, in the Province. The Canada-Nova Scotia Nature Agreement is funded by Environment and Climate Change Canada, through the Canada Nature Fund.

IMAGES, VIDEO, & BACKGROUNDER
https://nsnt.ca/media
Interviews available upon request.

CONTACT
Anna Weinstein, Marketing and Communications Manager
Nova Scotia Nature Trust
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
(902) 499-2825

Sarah Kucharski, Manager, Corporate Services & Communications
Municipality of the District of Lunenburg
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
(902) 541-1328

Tax Bills Mailed

At the October 14 Council meeting, Council approved 0% interest on the final tax bills until November 30, which will be the revised due date of taxes.

The tax bills will be mailed this week, though their delivery may be delayed due to the rotating postal strike.

Please pay your bill through your online banking, at a bank branch, or visit the office to pay your tax during regular business hours, or by using our after-hours drop-off.

Land Conservation Strategy Public Engagement

The Municipality of the District of Lunenburg (MODL) is developing a Land Conservation Strategy and wants to hear from you! The Strategy will guide how MODL identifies, stewards, and expands protected natural areas so that nature and people thrive, with a goal of conserving 20 percent of municipal lands by 2030.

A Land Conservation Strategy is a roadmap that shows which natural places matter most and outlines the practical ways to look after them. MODL’s Land Conservation Strategy will combine local knowledge and ecological science to map high-priority areas and will outline various tools the municipality can use to protect land such purchasing or accepting donations of land, applying conservation easements, partnering with land trusts, entering stewardship agreements, and developing supportive land use policies.

MODL has hired CBCL Limited to help prepare its Land Conservation Strategy. The final document will include clear criteria that consider the ecological value of land along with its social, cultural, and community benefits. The Strategy will also outline practical ways MODL can conserve land and will describe implementation pathways with estimated costs and timelines so Council and residents can see how conservation actions go from being an idea to reality.

Clean Foundation’s Community Climate Capacity program team is assisting with public engagement to understand the cultural, historical, and social values related to conservation that matter to residents.

MODL is engaging residents to ensure the Land Conservation Strategy reflects local priorities, lived experience, and the places people value. We want to understand the social, cultural, historical, and community benefits that land and water provide people across the municipality, alongside ecological science.

Municipal staff and Clean Foundation have developed an initial set of conservation criteria focused on the ecological value of land. With your input, we will expand these criteria to include the cultural, historical, and social values that matter to residents.

Your feedback will also inform our maps and scoring system. When you identify important places, that knowledge is combined with scientific data to refine how MODL ranks and selects high-priority areas for conservation. This helps ensure decisions are transparent, repeatable, and grounded in community insight and scientific evidence.

CBCL Limited will use the results of public engagement to help draft the Land Conservation Strategy.

Learn more at https://engage.modl.ca/conservation

Property Tax Bills During Postal Strike

At the October 14 Council meeting, Council approved 0% interest on the final tax bills until November 30, which will be the revised due date of taxes.

The tax bills will be mailed this week, though their delivery may be delayed due to the rotating postal strike.

Please pay your bill through your online banking, at a bank branch, or visit the office to pay your tax during regular business hours, or by using our after-hours drop-off.

Are you on our Tax Installment Prepayment Plan (TIPP)?

This is a reminder that your monthly payment amount or full amount of the final tax bill (depending on your pre-payment agreement) will be withdrawn on October 31, 2025.

Council in the Community - October 14

We’re Bringing Council Meetings to You!

We’re holding Council meetings in local community centres across the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg. This is part of our commitment to making local government more accessible and helping more residents take part in the conversation.

Join us for the first ‘Council in the Community’ meeting on Tuesday, October 14 at Conquerall Bank Fire Department.

📌 Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

📌 Meeting begins at 6:00 p.m.

This is your chance to stay informed and connect with Council in a more personal setting.

Everyone is welcome, we hope to see you there!

Water Filling Station

The Municipality of the District of Lunenburg will provide a potable water bottle filling station outside the front entrance of the Municipal Services Building, located at 10 Allée Champlain Drive, Cookville to assist residents experiencing dry wells.

A hose dispenser will also be availble. Please note: that because of the way the hose may be used, there is a potential risk of cross-contamination.

The water filling station is in addition to the water coupon program.