Welcome to the web home of the Harrison Lewis Centre
The centre, situated close to the Atlantic Ocean on Nova Scotia's South Shore,
promotes understanding and appreciation of rural and natural environments through:
* Workshops
* Seminars
* Field trips
* Research
* Short courses
* Lectures and movies
Our faculty consists of visiting naturalists, educators, scientists, artists, and artisans.
Facilities include a cookhouse with meeting area, a large gathering space with flexible seating,
projector screen, and woodstove.
There is a large main kitchen and dining area, with laundry equipment and an accessible washroom.
An onsite field laboratory is equipped with scopes, dissecting implements, lenses, refrigerator,
plant specimen drier, glassware, scales, and other items.
Wireless Internet is available.
Overnight accommodations range from bunkhouses (two double-bunks each) to a large walled prospectors' tent,
and numerous tent sites.
Swimming (ocean beach or fresh water pond), canoeing, kayaking, surfing,
and hiking are popular off-hour activities.
2011 year in review
The garden is put to bed, but for a row of freshly-planted garlic bulbs. The pipes at the Harrison Lewis Centre are drained, the house is banked, the firewood is in good supply and let winter begin!
This past season, our fourth, was busy with new and returning programs. We hosted three week-long Dalhousie Seaside Summer programs (ornithology, GIS, and Terrestrial Ecology.) New workshops included one for writers with Harry Thurston, and an artist (water colour) workshop with Roger Savage. Also we had a first-ever mid-week workshop, this one on low impact woodlot management that was very successful despite having but two weeks to promote it.
Homestead Arts was held over three consecutive days in August. We focused on making a hay rake from scratch with Philip Clairmont, bending iron with artist-blacksmith Brad Allen, jelly-making with Jackie Race, mixing whitewash, hand mowing (with scythes) and other endeavors having to do with keeping a rural homestead cooking.
We had successful weekend workshops on mushroom identification and culture (with David Boyle as lead instructor), on operating chainsaws (Patrick Allan), digital photography with Len Wagg, and portable mill operation with Lew Dingwall, chairman of the Harrison Lewis Coastal Discovery Centre Society and for years the face of Wood-Mizer portable bandsaw mills in the Atlantic provinces.
Our last educational event came about in September when, at the suggestion of our Municipal Councilor Darlene Norman (and supply teacher in the public school system), she and another teacher brought nine ninth graders out for an introduction to forestry practices and a two hour grafting workshop with horticulturist Everett Emino. This was the first time people this young came to the Centre for an educational program and it went extremely well. The students were great, and totally engaged.
In addition to the Dal programs and our own workshops we hosted a retreat in September for graduate students in the Dalhousie biology department. The 20-plus students, mostly tenting, had a great time and say they will be back. (Last year we hosted another bunch of students, mostly under-grads in environmental studies programs, who similarly enjoyed their weekend stay.) In November birders gathered at the Centre at the invitation of the Nature Conservancy of Canada and Bird Studies Canada (BSC) before fanning out in groups to count geese, ducks, and other birds in the CWS Migratory Waterfowl Sanctuaries that are part of this Important Bird Area (IBA) identified by BSC and Nature Canada.
Anne was successful in applying for government grants enabling the Centre to hire two students over the summer. I don't think we would have made it through the season without the help of Kyle Nicholson and Ben Mosher. In addition, we hosted four volunteers; two WWOOFers in June and two HelpXers in August, providing help over another four weeks total.
Facilities have held up well - despite the best and aggravating efforts of Red squirrels. Kyle and Ben painted cabin floors, and with our HelpXers built a platform for our large prospector's wall tent - adding sheltered space for up to four people.
Thanks to Anne and Brooke our presence on the internet has improved. This website has undergone change for the better as Brooke added, altered, and generally improved what was there. More work is needed on an on-going basis, and it is good to see the direction taken. Anne, meanwhile, has created a Harrison Lewis Coastal Discovery Centre FaceBook page which is lively and fun (friends and contributions welcomed).
The 2012 season is taking shape, around a five week engagement with the Museum of Civilization in Ottawa, which, under the direction of Dr. Matthew Betts, will be continuing its investigation of pre-contact Mi'kmaq life on these shores. Dalhousie's Seaside Summer program, directed by Dr. Cindy Staicer, has spoken for another three weeks. The Centre itself will be scheduling a number of workshops as in years past; some the same as in past years, others new. We will have a preliminary schedule by the new year. Topics? Mushrooms, lichens, painting, writing, drawing, portable lumber mill operation, chainsaw workshops (open and for women only), homestead arts, etc.
Please let us know what old or new programs are of greater interest to you, or to your friends who might come to the Harrison Lewis Centre. Are there programs not mentioned you would like to see offered?
On the policy, planning, and operations side, we are pleased that Keith Williams, educator and agroforestry specialist, originally from nearby Shelburne, N.S., has joined the HLC Society's advisory board. Keith, who lives with his wafe Basma Kavanagh on a sall farm in the Annapolis Valley, brings insights based on years of experience teaching and working across Canada and abroad. Meanwhile, the search continues for a managing coordinator to take over much responsibility in the operation of the Centre. We have in mind a full-time position requiring the individual's presence here in Sandy Bay from May to October. For the remainder of the year he or she could work from home - preferably within visiting distance.
That's that. Love to hear from you. On behalf of our board of directors here's wishing everyone a happy and fulfilling 2012.
Dirk van Loon
Harrison Lewis Coastal Discovery Centre
Sandy Bay, East Port L'Hebert
RR 1 Port Joli, NS B0T 1S0
