Dark Rivers, Dark Skies in the Southern Nova Scotia Biosphere Reserve
Surrounded by the dark peat stained, tannin-rich waters of the Tusket & Napier Rivers and overarched by North America's darkest night skies, Trout Point Lodge innovates by taking the unknown & unappreciated aspects of Atlantic Canada's largest protected wilderness area and making them an international example for sustainable tourism and social business, protecting this destination of diverse waterways by creatively mobilizing local resources in Nova Scotia's "empty quarter." The Lodge's efforts have resulted in sustainable economic & employment gains, as well as growing public recognition of the value held by protected wilderness and rivers in Nova Scotia.
About You
Section 1: About You
First Name
Vaughn
Last Name
Perret
Website
Organization
Trout Point Lodge of Nova Scotia
Country
Canada, NS
Section 2: About Your Organization
Organization Name
Trout Point Lodge of Nova Scotia
Organization Website
Organization Phone
902-761-2142
Organization Address
189 Trout Point Rd., Kemptville, NS B0W 1Y0
Is your organization a
For‐profit
Organization Country
Canada, NS
Your idea
Name Your Project
Dark Rivers, Dark Skies in the Southern Nova Scotia Biosphere Reserve
Country your work focuses on
Canada, NS
Describe Your Idea
Surrounded by the dark peat stained, tannin-rich waters of the Tusket & Napier Rivers and overarched by North America's darkest night skies, Trout Point Lodge innovates by taking the unknown & unappreciated aspects of Atlantic Canada's largest protected wilderness area and making them an international example for sustainable tourism and social business, protecting this destination of diverse waterways by creatively mobilizing local resources in Nova Scotia's "empty quarter." The Lodge's efforts have resulted in sustainable economic & employment gains, as well as growing public recognition of the value held by protected wilderness and rivers in Nova Scotia.
Website URL
Would you like to participate in the MIF Opportunity 2010?
No
Innovation
What makes your idea unique and innovative?
Trout Point capitalizes on the unique geophysical features that surround it, turning the seeming absence of tourism "development" potential - the dark waters of the Tusket & the dark skies at night - into attractive tourism features while at the same time providing for sustainable economic development & environmental protection.
At the coast, the Tusket Basin stretches for 32 km between rocky headlands while the highly indented coastline draining this watershed measures 500 km. Points, peninsulas, ridges, drumlins & eskers have North-South orientation & features carved by the last Ice Age. High tide in the estuary carries salt water 24 km inland and extensive salt marshes occupy an astounding 3,232 hectares. These marshes segment countless tidal channels, creeks, ponds and drainage ditches fed by 5 rivers, which flow into the Tusket Basin. 4 estuary rivers reach inland 10 km beyond high tide. The Tusket River itself is immense by comparison. From Wedge Point to Tusket Falls, the tidal estuary is 24 km in length. From its origin on Tobeatic Wilderness granite barrens near Trout Point, it flows 93 km to meet the tide. The main river and 10 branch rivers have a total length of 354 km along the drainage of 176 lakes and countless brooks.
Trout Point Lodge innovates by drawing on this fabulous but unappreciated waterway & upland bog resource in both subtle & active ways, creating a world-class geotourism destination out of the "middle of nowhere." Instead of opening a spa, for example, we decided to simply research, enhance & interpret the existing resources on site: swimming the Tusket's tannin-rich river water, drinking & bathing in pure mineral water from spring-fed wells, breathing pristine air attested to by the surrounding forest's cyanolichen diversity, taking "forest bathing" excursions on land & water to enhance the healthful effects of staying at Trout Point, and experiencing star gazing excursions, making a virtue from the lack of local "development."
Do you have a patent for this idea?
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What impact have you had on your clients and the tourism sector?
In 11 seasons, Trout Point has evolved from 4 rooms with 2 employees into a model of sustainable destination management, now having 13 units & regularly employing 15 persons, mostly from the local Kemptville community. The Lodge exposes guests to authentic Canadian experiences, following a long-ago forgotten tradition of nature tourism in Yarmouth County (see 2009 Geotourism Challenge entry). Guests not only enjoy comfortable surroundings & good food, they also leave more enriched & knowledgeable about local nature & culture.
While building the lodge, we learned from an Acadian whose vision for a local tourism strategy centred around the Tusket River Basin--a place first described by Champlain in 1605: a concept & geophysical reality that encompassed not only the river, but also the creeks, estuaries, glacial remains, salt marshes, islands, upland bogs, towns, & geological features interconnected by these river waters. The Tusket itself became a perfect metaphor linking together various tourism experiences, from beaches to marshlands, from island excursions to pristine inland wilderness areas.
The riverside location connected the Lodge--"in the middle of nowhere"--to unrealized tourism potential.
Each of our guests now experiences a unique sense of place, but always one that is multifaceted: cooking vacations, trips to a sustainable oyster farm on a salt-water lake fed by the Tusket system; salt marsh excursions to pick wild vegetables; guided kayak rides into the Tobeatic; river swimming; guided wild food forays or "forest bathing" sessions, star-gazing, riverside hot tub soaks.
The tourism sector too has taken note. Now our region embraces French Acadian culture & the Lodge has become a model for geotourism practices. We have joined the Relais & Chateaux Association (R&C), but also won a 5 Green Key rating from the Hotel Association of Canada. This year, R&C chose Trout Point for its best practices forum--teaching other members about geotourism.
Problem
The problems are longstanding: First, our local region suffers from a common malady: outdated, "cookie cutter" tourism experiences & accommodations combined with a total under-appreciation of local resources. For Yarmouth County, this situation has been compounded by a total loss of traditional links with the outside world, including the disappearance of 2 ferry services as well as bus, train, & plane routes that once existed. There is high unemployment & few job opportunities outside the fishing or forestry industries. Trout Point had to make itself into a destination--"the centre of the universe" instead of seemingly isolated in "the middle of nowhere"--in order to survive this increasingly difficult tourism economy, & we could not afford to become a typical luxury resort with infinity pools, linen table cloths, & spa facilities.
Second, the Tobeatic Wilderness and the Southern Nova Scotia Biosphere Reserve lacked purpose, and without purpose comes lack of protection. Most residents didn't know the Tobeatic existed. The Lodge has pioneered to effort to make Nova Scotia inland wilderness a tourism asset, a valued piece of the landscape equal to sandy beaches or scenic harbours.
Actions
Trout Point has a proven record of success in making & implementing geotourism-oriented strategies. Actions include everything from the site location and building style to efforts at sustainable operations, to increasingly succesful techniques to bring our guests into enriching contact with our unique ecosystem, defined as it is by waterways, lakes, & coastal features largely built by the last Ice Age.
We take sustainable, green operations as a baseline, not as an achievement. In the mid 2000s we redoubled efforts to enhance eco-friendly practices, including gray water, recycling, composting, & energy reduction strategies that earned the 5 Green Key rating in 2007.
Next, we have taken local employment seriously. Doing so not only benefits the local economy, it also gives guests a true sense of the locality--people tied to the river and the forest for their entertainment & livelihood. Our core operational team now derives entirely from the local village.
Finally, we continue to enhance interpretive guest experiences that make something out of our location, whether it be more water and land guides, or the current effort for Dark Sky Preserve designation for the Tobeatic.
Results
Trout Point has achieved a lot: guest satisfaction higher in 2010 than ever, as measured by surveys; increasing recognition, whether as a finalist in the 2009 Geotourism Challenge, inclusion in the NG Traveler "Stay List," or accolades like the Parks Canada Sustainable Tourism Award. Another benefit has been steadily increasing revenues--even in the face of recession and the local tourism crisis--and therefore an ability to hire more and have greater economic and social impact locally.
The Lodge has increased its operating season from early July to early October in 2000 to May 1 to late October in 2010. Likewise, the Lodge has increased employment from 2 local employees in 2000 to 9 local, 4 Nova Scotia, and 2 international employees in 2010. Trout Point trains all of its employees on the job, and generally does not hire from tourism or culinary programs.
Finally, Trout Point has successfully diversified its markets from 98% United States guests in the early 2000s to a mix of European, American, Maritime, & Canadian guests in 2010. Trout Point has become a destination, and more importantly one that brings the Tusket Basin and the Tobeatic into the consciousness of others.
What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Please address each year separately, if possible.
The local tourism region faces substantial challenges, and these affect Trout Point directly. The Lodge also increasingly faces the challenge of succesfully balancing the creation of upscale tourism offerings with principles of sustainable- & geo-tourism. Being both "eco" and "luxury" has its challenges. However, the economic impact we can gain from higher rates is directly translated into more employment & a greater ability to protect local environmental resources.
For 2011, we plan to increase guest experiences of our unique place & its attributes by working with government & the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada to have the Tobeatic Wilderness Area declared a Dark Sky Preserve; by building riverside star gazing facilities open to the public as well as guests; & by hiring additional nature guides, particularly for kayak excursions on the Tusket & Napier River waterways. We also plan to enhance guest access to local riverside and cranberry bog areas through low-impact trail development & the building of new boardwalks. Finally, we will implement "safari" excursions into the heart of the Tobeatic Wilderness Area using the Indian Fields road for jeep & mountain bike excursions. The road crosses numerous waterways, as well as upland bogs & eskers, and ends at the Shelburne River, a Canadian Heritage River. See: www.chrs.ca/Rivers/Shelburne/Shelburne_e.htm
For 2012, we plan to work with the local Environment Department on creating the first managed trail system in the Tobeatic, a double loop that will enhance public access to the Acadian Forest as well as the Napier River and the local lakes that it feeds. We also plan to create guest materials & exhibits that will document Yarmouth County's rich history of nature tourism--a tradition of camps & guides resembling that of the Adirondacks, & which centred on use of the rivers as access ways to the wilderness.
2013 is hard to predict, but may include the creation of sustainably-powered tent facilities to somewhat augment guest capacity.
In general, the Lodge is also on a never-ending campaign to entice local stakeholders--such as the Environment Dept., tourism associations, and the Biosphere Reserve Association--into recognizing the world-class assets represented by the Tusket Basin and the Tobeatic Wilderness. We must literally put "the Toby" on the tourism map--it's currently never pictured.
What would prevent your project from being a success?
The project is already a success, but as a small, seasonal tourism enterprise the vicissitudes of the economy and local transportation infrastructure remain important. It remains completely unclear whether the ferry services between New England & Yarmouth that existed for decades will ever be restored. The last ferry was cancelled for 2010 season. The Lodge has successfully expanded its shoulder seasons beyond the peak summertime, however a goal of less seasonality is difficult to achieve. This, in turn, makes employee attraction and retention a challenge. Changes to government unemployment assistance would likely devastate our core team of local employees and increase the abandonment of the local rural area.
Finally, we have found that members of the Protected Areas Division, NS Dept. of Environment, have encouraged any efforts at making the Tobeatic--among other protected areas--a tourism asset and something present in the consciousness of Nova Scotians. Fears are that without sustainable & productive use, any perceived value of the wild areas will be quickly lost. This, in turn, could result in these areas once again being opened up to industrial and commercial development, including mining and forestry. Obviously, loss of protected area status for the 104,000 hectares that is the Lodge's immediate neighbor would devastate the enterprise.
Thus, we fight to keep the Tobeatic and its beneficial uses present in the minds of others, whether it be through advocacy of "forest bathing"--see http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/travel/forest-bathing-not-just-a-wal... --or through promoting the importance of local cyanolichen diversity & abundance (http://www.gov.ns.ca/nse/protectedareas/docs/EducationResearch_Epiphytic...), or through pioneering efforts at receiving the Dark Sky Preserve designation alongside that of Kejimkujik National Park, http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2010/oct/30/kajimkujik-park-nova-scotia...
How many people will your project serve annually?
101‐1000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
More than $4000
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy or introduce models and tools that benefit the tourism sector in general?
Yes
Sustainability
What stage is your project in?
Operating for more than 5 years
In what country?
Canada, NS
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
Yes
If yes, provide organization name.
Trout Point Lodge, Ltd.
How long has this organization been operating?
More than 5 years
Does your organization have a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with businesses?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with government?
Yes
Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.
We seek out and encourage partnerships with local businesses, with provincial, local, & federal governments, with Dalhousie University, & with NGOs. For instance, in our effort at having the Tobeatic Wilderness declared a Dark Sky Preserve, Trout Point is working with the Department of Environment, Biosphere Reserve Association, Argyle Municipality, & the federal Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency as well as the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. University interns will staff the program.
In its daily operations, Trout Point also encourages local small business, such as Eel Lake Oyster Farm, Sea Kist Lobsters, or Day by the Sea Excursions. Our cooking vacation programs showcase & support these local businesses. Encouraging guests to visit and use the local businesses enhances their experience of local Acadian French culture & history, as well as their appreciation of the local ecosystem. Argyle Municiapltiy is the largest Acadian Francophone municiplaity in Nova Scotia, and this community has particularly strong ties to coastal & freshwater ecosystems. Without partnering with local stakeholders as employees and suppliers of experiences, Trout Point would be less successful
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization?
1. Conceptually define and implement operational strategies that make Trout Point and the local tourism region a true destination. Exercises such as entering the 2009 & 2010 Geotourism Challenges help achieve this goal, as do communications opportunities such participating in the Relais & Chateaux best practices forum, or explaining what we do to the media. In the era of "experiential tourism," a small enterprise like Trout Point can actually hope to make itself into a destination that will attract enough visitor numbers to survive at a high level. Today, travel is about participating in life enriching experiences and returning home transformed. In order to achieve this goal for its guests, the Lodge must continue to identify, define, and communicate to its guests what life enriching experiences it offers, but always on a sustainable basis. Over the past 3 years, each season we have had to enhance the experiential nature of a stay--emphasizing the Acadian Forest ecosystem, emphasizing the riverside location, talking about cyanolichen diversity or the biological impacts of light pollution, arranging excursions to unique coastal locations--all of which require a commitment to our local human resources as well as on-the-job training. We have to do more in this area--utilizing and training members of the local community.
2. We have to even out occupancy across the time period the Lodge is open in order to operate more efficiently and fully. This requires understanding and being committed to important markets, including increasingly the local Maritime Canada market, but also to providing international guests with a unique and truly experiential vacation. We thus have to increase outreach through the Internet, the Trout Point blog, competitions such as this one, and through media outreach.
3. We have to redouble our commitment to local food resources and sustainable food resources. This will include expanding the existing on-site gardens, sourcing local seafood and vegetable resources & demanding sustainable fisheries on the part of suppliers, and finally making fuller use of local foods, including resources from the forest and the coastline. Our food must speak of place.
The Story
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
The defining moment was most likely the discovery of Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia & the Tusket River's forgotten past as an international nature tourism destination. From the 1880s through the 1950s, Yarmouth was the place of choice for a tourism centred on the marshes, coastline, rivers, and lakes of a pure Canada. When we happened upon this rich past--combined as it was with the unique history of the French Acadians--we began to look past the obvious beachside locations for our new project, to that which existed more inland, a world described well by Albert Bigelow Paine in his 1907 work "The Tent Dwellers." Discovery of Trout Point--at the confluence of 2 rivers and surrounded by Acadian Forest--was only enhanced when by surprise, 3 days after the land purchase, the Province of Nova Scotia declared the creation of the Tobeatic Wilderness Area as our most immediate neighbor.
Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.
The social innovators behind this idea are Vaughn Perret and Charles Leary. Turning away from professional careers as a lawyer and a professor, we pursued a love of food and the land to open Chicory Farm in rural Washington Parish, Louisiana in 2000. Here we practiced diversified sustainable agriculture and hired from the local black community. In 2006, we opened the Chicory Farm Cafe--a vegetarian Creole restaurant--in Uptown New Orleans. Our social business efforts were recognized with the inaugural Tibbetts Award from the U.S. Small Business Administration's Offices of Advocacy and Technology in a 1996 presentation ceremony presided over by Senator Ted Kennedy.
In 2008, we sold our Louisiana enterprises and moved to Nova Scotia, starting Trout Point Lodge in July, 2000. We also built and operated the Inn at Coyote Mountain in Costa Rica from 2000 to 2009, a model eco-lodge.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Through another organization or company
If through another, please provide the name of the organization or company
National Geographic Society
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 | 77 weeks agoVaughn Perret updated this Competition Entry. |
| 77 weeks agoVaughn Perret updated this Competition Entry. |
| 78 weeks agoVaughn Perret updated this Competition Entry. |
| 78 weeks agoVaughn Perret said: I've made some changes and additions in response to your comment. Thanks. about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 78 weeks agoVaughn Perret updated this Competition Entry. |
| 78 weeks agoVaughn Perret updated this Competition Entry. |
| 78 weeks agoCharles Leary said: As I belong to the same organization, I admittedly really like the concept here. The Tusket River and its Basin have become integral to ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 78 weeks agoVaughn Perret updated this Competition Entry. |
| 83 weeks agoVaughn Perret submitted this idea. |
