Healthy Coasts Project

Strengthening the Eastern Shore Parishes for coastal ecosystems protection and climate change preparedness through citizen science

A project led by the Diocesan Environment Network of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island (DEN)

This project is framed on living out the Anglican Church’s commitment to the 5th Mark of Mission: increasing awareness of ecosystem protection, safeguarding the “integrity of creation and sustaining and renewing the earth's life”.

Advisory Committee meeting at Marine Drive Academy, Sheet Harbour (NS) - January 5th 2024

Do you want to participate in our activities? Just navigate to the end of the page!!

Learn more about our study area, where citizens in Sheet Harbours collect and analyze data for a healthy coastline and better climate change preparedness.

Check our Frequently Asked Questions

Project purpose, target community, and primary locations

Led by the Diocesan Environment Network, Anglican Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, the project's objective is to establish community monitoring of coastal ecosystems and climate change events, with the goal of facilitating and strengthening local leadership in parishes on the Eastern Shoreline, while gathering standardized information on coastal parameters related to climate-related threats.

The approach is based on the theory and techniques of citizen science, in which local communities equipped with basic training support the gathering and organizing of scientific data. In addition to engaging local groups as citizen scientists, the project includes implementing scientific techniques for monitoring coastal parameters such as the beach's profile, vegetation, and oceanic dynamics. The coastal monitoring led by local teams will provide relevant information for decision-making at local and provincial levels while improving safeguarding of ecosystem integrity and preparedness of local communities for extreme climate-related events (hurricanes, flooding, wildfires, etc.).

Timeline of project

This phase of the project will take place over for a period of ten months, beginning in February 2024, with a completion date of November 2024. It will cover four stages:

The first stage includes identification of the environmental assets of coastal areas on the Eastern Shore where the Anglican churches are located, including their parish boundaries and the communities they serve and engaging as many citizens of the Eastern Shore communities of all ages as possible. (February to April).

The second stage will focus on training local coastal monitoring teams using simple but robust parameters (e.g., vegetation species, beach profile, coastal currents, wave dynamics, etc.) between May and June.

The project will provide updates using the Diocesan Environment Network website, Facebook group, and other diocesan communication vehicles, including reports to Diocesan Council, and over the course of the project will publish testimonies, pictures, and videos of the activities.

The third stage will involve implementing a coastal monitoring network based on the online submission of data by each local group. This Summer, the trained citizen scientists will gather data, applying the training they received in stage 2. This stage also allows for the testing of data transfer protocols and compiling the first results of collaborative monitoring.

The final stage seeks to expand the impact on the rest of Nova Scotia and other Atlantic Provinces with a final report of easy to understand actions and results! The fourth stage focuses on the design of communicative pieces for publication and presentations to celebrate and share results (October and November).

People involved in the project leading

The project is a transformative mix of spiritual leaders and environmental scientists. Following an article published by the Anglican Journal, our project demonstrates that there is not a rift between science and faith, but the opposite: mutual benefit. Meet our project leaders.

Rev. Marian Lucas-Jefferies

Project Coordinator

Marian Lucas-Jefferies - Diocesan Environment Network Coordinator

The Rev. Marian Lucas-Jefferies has served in parish ministry for almost twenty years and as coordinator of the Diocesan Environment Network (DEN) since its establishment in 2012. Rev. Marian has a passion for social, economic and environmental justice and a background in community development. Rev. Marian has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a Master of Divinity. She firmly believes that science and faith, in partnership, can have a positive impact on the environmental emergence we currently face, ensuring a future for generations to come.

Rev. Mike Foley

Priest-in-Charge, Parish of Port Dufferin

The Rev. Mike Foley's career as an educator has been located for many years on the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia and in the Musquodobit Valley. His passion for teaching and working with teachers has focussed on teaching and learning practices in rural communities that enable equity, equality, and inclusion for all learners. He was ordained an Anglican priest in 2010 in the Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island and blessed to have ministered for the majority of time along the Eastern Shore. He is currently the priest-in-charge for the Parish of Port Dufferin. His passion in ministry has evolved into missional work and a journey of self-discovery. Having lived on the Eastern Shore and on Jeddore Harbour for most of his life and witnessing first-hand the changes to the coastline and the fishing industry, he is again feeling blessed to be a partner of an action ecology team that will bring awareness to all ages in our communities and an opportunity to truly make a difference in the lives of our rural citizens.

Dr. Camilo M. Botero

Lead scientist

Camilo M. Botero - Coastal Explorer and Geographer

Camilo M. Botero is a coastal explorer and geographer. Born thousands of kilometers from the sea, mandatory service in the Colombian Navy ignited his passion for studying coastal systems and being an active pacifist. He has been a professor, a researcher, and a project leader in Latin America and now in Canada. He’s an indisciplinary researcher with academic experience in engineering, law, and management. He has published in many scientific journals, but he feels equally proud of the short films, gameboards, and tourist guides he has also produced.

Funding

From the funding perspective, the project is a miracle in itself. To gather the needed resources, the project proposal was submitted to three different grant sources of the Anglican Church, and all of them were approved! In addition, Dalhousie University is supporting the project with funding from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund's project Transforming Climate Action. We are very thankful to our sponsors: