NEWS RELEASE

HRM Parks Taking Root Four Years after Hurricane Juan

(Friday, September 28, 2007) - Four years ago today Hurricane Juan roared through HRM devastating many HRM parks and streetscapes. Since then significant progress has been made on several fronts.

Public Gardens received just under $400,000 dollars damage to trees, park features and infrastructure. The gardens have undergone a complete transformation with an investment of 2.4 million dollars and a great deal of assistance from the Public Gardens Foundation. Not only was the hurricane damage restored, but the ponds, waterfalls and brook were completely redone. The main gates were completely restored and opened for the first time in thirty years. Most recently a new Public Gardens visitors centre was opened through the restoration of Horticultural Hall and the transformation of the maintenance yard into a new visitors entrance.

Point Pleasant was the most affected park in the municipality. Its 150 acre forest was almost totally destroyed. A careful $2.3 million dollar, nine month clean-up ensued to ensure that the park would be afforded the best conditions for restoration. So far the forest re-growth has been phenomenal.
Planting, thinning of new growth, shoreline protection measures, archeological work and repair of historic military roads are all proceeding this year thanks to a donation of 1 million dollars from the federal government.
Peter Bigelow, Manager HRM Real Property Planning said, “ Hurricane Juan was a devastating event for HRM, but we’ve learned a lot over the last four years that will benefit us in the future as we move ahead with such programs as our Urban Forest Management Plan”.

The thousands of street trees which came down along HRM streets have been cleaned up. Since then the municipality has spent over $500,000 dollars on replacing these trees. That program will continue.

The hurricane has focussed HRM’s goal of protecting its urban forest. The development of an Urban Forest Management Plan is underway and the approach has recently won national recognition as a template for other cities to follow.

The Municipality and Province are still going though the Federal Disaster Assistance application and Audit process with the Federal Government. That process will, hopefully, see HRM reimbursed for millions of dollars in expenses incurred during the Hurricane clean-up. That process is expected to last another one to two years.

Overall the municipal parks and open space system is on track to a long term recovery thanks to the assistance of the public, our corporate citizens, the other levels of government and staff and Council.

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Contact:
Peter Bigelow
Manager, HRM Real Property Planning
476-4016