The woods offer walks along well-used paths that connect the soccer field and surrounding neighbourhood to the old railway trail and the Hawthorn Hill development.
The video below shows how students at the South Shore Alternate School (a public school for students who are not meeting with success in a traditional school, held at the Mahone Bay Centre) as well as participants in the Youth Stewardship Centre use the woods and field as a living lab, a place for exercise, a unique and valuable classroom. We all have an investment in their success.
Narrower paths through the woods lead to backyards. These are not deer trails; they are obviously made by people and in themselves are evidence of how much the woods are enjoyed by residents.
The sign at the entrance to the woods reads “Motorized vehicles prohibited”.
A rocky area next to the soccer field where the topsoil was removed in order to level the field decades ago.
There are a few particularly large pines in these woods.
However, the woods are more than a pleasant place for humans (and their canine companions) to enjoy connecting with nature. They are part of a drainage system that leads to the Maggie Maggie and the Bay. They act as a sponge that helps to control flooding and limit damage in the downtown area at times of spring melt and heavy rain — a resource we disturb at our peril.
Slope leading downhill towards the power lines that run between the woods concerned and Jubilee Park. The Town’s duck pond may also be threatened by development upstream.
