NSLC receives conservation award

The Nova Scotia Liquor Corp. has been named the recipient of this year’s Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Conservation in recognition of its two decades of work with the Nova Scotia Salmon Association to restore fish habitat in Cape Breton.

The provincial salmon association manages the NSLC adopta-stream program, providing technical advice, training and project funding.

The association says the program has restored nearly 2.2 million square metres of degraded stream habitat including watersheds on the island.

NSLC received the award at the Nova Scotia Salmon Association’s annual dinner in Halifax on Thursday.

“Our environment is precious and we believe it is important that at the NSLC we do our part to help keep Nova Scotia’s rivers and streams clean,” Bret Mitchell, NSLC president and CEO, said in a release issued Friday.

Mitchell said the proceeds from NSLC store promotions in partnership with its suppliers assist in funding the adopt-astream program.

The program’s work last summer and fall included the installation of a new fishway at the Sydney Steel Corp. dam on Sydney River. That work made it possible for gaspereau to return to the 140-square-kilometre watershed for the first time in more than a century.

Fish passage restoration work was also carried out last summer on the Cheticamp River. It included planting 1,400 seedlings along the Cheticamp River and Aucoin and Fiset brooks.

Since the NSLC has been involved with the partnership with the Nova Scotia Salmon Association, 35 communitybased groups have restored 396 kilometres of fish passage across the province.