Hundreds of thousands of Arctic birds flock to Johnson’s Mills every year to feast and double their body weight before migrating to South America.
Many people enjoy visiting Johnson’s Mills to admire the scenery and learn more about birds at the Shorebird Interpretive Centre.
Spokesperson for the Nature Conservancy of Canada, Andrew Holland, says while staff are still on site maintaining the reserve, the centre wasn’t able to reopen to the public this year.
“It’s quite small in size, and we get a lot of people who bring their binoculars and cameras, but there’s no way to physically distance. Especially at the centre, there’s a very limited amount of space inside the interpretive centre and out on the viewing platform,” he says.
Holland says some people still stop by, despite not being able to access the centre.
“People are accustomed to driving there and they’re used to the centre being open so if they are in the are we just ask them to refrain from going on the beach area. Make sure they aren’t going down there and letting their dogs off leashes because that’s a real problem for the birds, they’ll be really disturbed and they won’t survive,” he says.
Holland says they were usually are able to raise about a hundred thousand dollars through donations at the centre.
To make matters worse, Holland says, they’ve also had three break-ins over the last few weeks where about 15 thousand dollars worth of equipment was stolen.
“And that money goes toward buying more land and caring for the lands that are there, along with paying the staff. And now we have to collect the money to buy new equipment,” he says.
Click here to learn more about the NCC’s ‘Migratory Campaign’ and what you can do to help the NCC preserve this significant area.
“We’re encouraging people, even though they can’t physically drop in this summer, if they could be kind enough know about our work and donate if they recognize the importance of it. This is a special place in Atlantic Canada and Southeastern New Brunswick because of all place these incredible little birds could come from the Arctic, they pick here. So, we need to continue caring for these lands or else the birds will disappear,” Holland concluded.
