A friend asked me to pass this along… she was running on Duck N Run / West Pine yesterday near dusk and heard several gun shots and soon after saw two guys in camo with rifles walking on the trail. She didn’t stop to ask what they were up to, and just kept running. It was reported to police when she reached the Norawarren trailhead.
Assuming they were hunting… best to wear orange or other bright colours out there if you can.
Its a perfectly legal place to hunt unless I am missing some wilderness or park classification. which even then would only cover the physical area designated. I can’t think of any reason that it would not be a legal area to hunt. As long as they are legal distances for a given firearm, which in there you would be legal for basically anything. If they were in Camo then chances are they were hunting for waterfowl and those were shotguns and not rifles as they would technically need orange to be hunting anything else.
Unless there is a park designation not showing on the maps, you could legally hunt within eyesight (182m with a shotgun) of the Ospry cul de sac if you wanted to. Also there a bit of a misunderstanding with the general non-hunting public as to when hunting season is… Most people think hunting season is only Rifle Deer season, buy you can hunt small game for a much longer period of time (rabbit is Oct 1 - Feb 28) and you can hunt somethings all year round (ie. Coyotes). As well you can now hunt the first 2 Sundays in deer season. When in doubt wear Orange.
Thanks @Margareefisher.
Also MRWA has confirmed DuckNRun and West Pine are on crown land which is perfectly legal to hunt on. Again…wear orange when you’r out there.
Might be useful for everyone if they confirm with them if the entire trail system (including the non sanctioned areas) are on crown/private land. Really the only places you can’t hunt as far as I recall are (assuming legal distances from houses, roads, schools) are : Parks or a Wilderness Areas. Private property is fair game as long as it is not cultivated, an xmas tree farm, a berry picking operation, and is not posted as no hunting. I’m just reciting that from memory, but I’m 99% sure on it.
Migratory Bird Season, here are the dates and like someone mentioned, you aren’t required to wear the orange (as a hunter) Hunting regulations summary for migratory birds: Nova Scotia - Canada.ca
As @Rolls stated, West Pine and Duck N Run are on Crown land so the usual hunting rules/season apply. There is a long history of hunting by some local residents, but the amount of hunting has dropped a lot in the past 10 years.
Hunting is not permitted around any other sanctioned trails, because all the land from Clark Kent to the far end of Flat Lake is now HRM Park. Hopefully no-one is hunting 182m from the Osprey trail head!
As for the unsanctioned Bloodline, Gords and SSS trails (ie the area NW of Flat Lake), these are on private ‘forest land’. As Margareefisher states, hunting is permitted here given legal distances but hunters are encouraged to seek permission from landowners before entering private property, and modifying someone else’s property (blinds, etc) is not permitted. (see page 7 of the summary rules link https://novascotia.ca/natr/hunt/pdf/Hunting_Summary.pdf)
It is kind of complicated, isn’t it…
The new trailhead maps will clearly show the division of Park, Crown and private lands. These should be up before spring. Land ownership overlays can also be added to Trailforks, I think. Would that be helpful?
Took the words directly from my mouth, well said.
Thanks for clarification on the HRM Park Land, I tried to do my due diligence and checked a map before I made the comment and it didn’t show any. I was just jokingly try to point out highlight one of the common misconceptions
Understood – the ‘Park’ designation has indeed been a bit hazy, as it is a new park. HRM is starting now to roll out their signage (starting with the new sign at the cul-de-sac). The Park boundaries are shown on HRM’s GIS Parks and Outdoor spaces | Halifax
It sometimes takes a while for all the independent online maps, such OpenStreetMaps etc, to fully update.
As to common misconceptions about hunting: I agree with you.
I reworded my comment so it wasn’t misleading
Just to let people know, hunting season is starting up again, waterfowl hunting opens the 10th and rifle deer season closer to the end of the month . I believe it’s still fully legal to hunt the areas around west pine trail/mcintosh run on the herring cove side of flat lake, (crown land), so don’t be too alarmed to see other people in the woods, as long as they seem to be following the rules. Wear your bright orange!
I’d throw some jingle bells on as well. Sound seems to travel farther when I’m hunting so the extra heads up would be awesome.
That’s why i don’t address all the mystery creaks and pings - safety first.