Demise of Rusty's Pool

Before & After

Rusty's Pool was found approximately 3 km downstream from the Gold Brook bridge on the Cabot Trail. The pool was characterized by a stone protrusion in the river that had a vertical wall with 3 ft above the low water level and 10 ft of depth in the pool under the edge of the stone ledge. This was used by many people in the community as a favoured swimming hole in the summer. In the fall, the pool was a refuge for salmon and up until the mid 80s often contained scores of salmon resting while on their way to spawn above the Gold Brook bridge. Today, the pool is a desert with trees growing in it. The river has migrated east in an unstable channel.

Before

After

Hard to believe, but behind the spruce tree in the first photo is the rock ledge. The beautiful pool is completely filled in with gravel and the river has migrated east, threatening the cabin which is behind the spruce trees in the seond photo. This is the result of no one looking after the stream and a bureaucratic cloak that threatens criminal charges to anyone who dares to alter the stream without permission. Amazing to believe that the residents of Middle River looked after the stream for hundreds of years and kept it in a stable formation by annually monitoring any problems and correcting them. Everyone was better off when community control was in place.

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A Note from the owner of the surrounding lands by Rusty's Pool

VICTORIA COUNTY NOVA SCOTIA

IMPRESSIONS FROM THE MIDDLE RIVER

In 1984, I purchased lot 19 as shown on the grant map of 1832 for Upper Middle River, subsequently adding lot 20 [PID's 85010460 & 85074698], where I raised Highland Cattle breeding stock, mostly for export. The eastern boundaries of these properties represented approximately 3000 ft. along the banks of the Middle River. Ownership of the watercourse was claimed by the government of Nova Scotia and the comments herein apply primarily to my lands bordering the river.

The river at that time was pristine and the riverbanks were stable, being lined with large mature trees.

The setting was impressive enough to convince me to purchase the farm. I was not the only one attracted by these natural assets. It was not uncommon to see 30 or more people at the large, deep salmon pool during a hot summer day, and fishermen from far away were usually present to catch trout in the spring and salmon in the autumn. One time while attending a meeting near Halifax, a resident told me about his favourite place in Cape Breton and how to find it. He was surprised when I mentioned it was on my farm.

Salmon have long been associated with the Middle River. During the French Regime, it was written that a person could walk across the river on the backs of the salmon. To the first Scottish settlers, salmon were a staple food. In the 1920's, some residents would drive their horse- drawn wagons into the shallow waters and using a pitchfork, would fill the cargo box. In the 1940's, Nova Scotia residents were allowed to harvest 6 salmon per day without a licence. Even in the 1980's, although salmon numbers had declined dramatically, I can remember seeing a large dark mass of salmon swimming around the pool, prior to individually cresting a small waterfall and continuing upstream.

That was about to dramatically change.

Sometime around 1990, a very large clearcut was made to the forest at the headwaters of the Middle River. Research has suggested that a mature deciduous forest can retain up to 14 times as much water as a cleared area, and with the first heavy rainfall of 1 1/2- 2 inches following the harvest, this was tragically demonstrated. It is not uncommon for a river flow to increase by 10-15 times due to heavy rain, but this ratio increased to an estimated 90-100 times, overwhelming the riverbanks and washing away whole meadows and trees. After a few such events, I had lost over 3 acres of valuable property representing over 20,000 cubic yards of soil and gravel. More importantly, the best salmon pool on the entire river had been completely destroyed.

Between 1832 and 1990, the riverbed made one major shift in 1929. Following 1990, at least a dozen major shifts to the riverbed have occurred. During the past 30 years, new forest growth near the headwaters have slowly restored stability to the downstream flow. However, a once pristine and popular area has become a degraded and neglected wasteland. The once plentiful salmon are now endangered.

They say that one way to solve a problem, is to pretend there is no problem. Obviously that approach solves nothing. Certainly, I have never heard of a credibile explanation for the destruction that I witnessed. For 150 years, many residents along the Middle River worked with nature to protect their lands from unnecessary erosion. When I enquired, I learned that this was no longer permitted.

-There are those empowered to protect the environment from harmful human activity. However, they never came.

-There are those responsible to protect fish habitat. They never came.

-There are those who certify that forest activities are sustainable by monitoring forest activities and nearby watercourses for the effects of harvesting. They never came.

It has been said that an act of nature was responsible for the damage to the river. Or perhaps climate change. If we as a society are too timid to identify the real reasons for our past mistakes, then what will prevent us from repeating these failures again in the future?

Bruce Aikman P Eng

Middle River Cape Breton

15 Mar 2023