Celebration of natural and cultural heritage
- Fundy Biosphere Trails
The Fundy Biosphere Trail will build on the UNESCO designation and become a marquee outdoor experience for hikers and bikers, highlighting the natural landscape, culture and history of Fundy Biosphere Reserve.
The Vision is that this Trail will be a collaborative initiative of the trail organizations and municipalities within the Fundy Biosphere Reserve as well as the provincial Trail Council.
The Trail will link the communities of St. Martins and Sackville, traveling through the Biosphere Reserve and be designated as TransCanada Trail, but will remain under the jurisdiction of each individual trail council or municipality.
The Trans Canada Trail is a 21,500-kilometre recreational trail winding its way through every province and territory, from the Atlantic to Pacific to Arctic Oceans. When completed, it will be the world's longest recreational trail, linking close to 1000 communities and over 33 million Canadians. Today almost 70 percent (14,500 kilometres) is developed. Thousands of people are taking to the Trail to walk, hike, cycle, ski, horseback ride, canoe and snowmobile.
- Surviving the Fundy Footpath
Surviving the Fundy Footpath is a six-part web documentary series that follows Bruce Persaud, a city slicker from Toronto, with zero camping experience, as he attempts to complete one of Canada's toughest multi-day hikes. This hilarious series will have audiences cheering for the underdog and flirting with the idea of hiking the trail themselves.
The Fundy Footpath traverses 60 km of the Fundy Escarpment between St. Martins and Alma, New Brunswick. Descending in and out of 19 steep ravines, it totals more than 3,000 m in elevation. Completing the footpath is like climbing to the peak of Mt. Washington, twice, back to back.
On the Fundy Footpath, when you’re not scaling the mossy ravines of the fog forest, staring off from a towering cliff top, or sleeping on a barrier beach, you’re exploring the sculpted sea floor of the mega-tidal Bay of Fundy during low tide.
Physically demanding and surprisingly tough, many hikers are caught off-guard during their first Fundy Footpath expedition. The Fundy Biosphere Reserve, in partnership with the Fundy Hiking Trail Association and VideoBand Productions is thus proud to present an entertaining web doc series that will help would-be Fundy Footpath hikers mentally prepare for their expedition.
It might sound like a cruel trick to play on someone for their first hike, to take them out on the Fundy Footpath, but thankfully, Bruce was surrounded by a perfect team to teach him everything he needed to know to survive, including Alonzo Leger who built the Fundy Footpath, his son Marc Leger who is the current Fundy Footpath Trail Master, Ben Phillips, the Fundy Biosphere Reserve's Conservation Scientist and filmmaker Craig Norris of VideoBand Productions.
Test screenings will be held at five locations within the Fundy Biosphere Reserve to give locals a chance to share their thoughts on the video series before it is edited into one feature length adventure documentary and submitted to the Banff Film Festival. If selected, the film will be screened during the 41st Banff Mountain Film Festival and could be selected for the World Tour presented by World Expeditions.
The videos will eventually be released via the web after touring the film festival circuit.
Community Screenings Tour - Test Screenings
View the Surviving the Fundy Footpath video series at one of our upcoming free test screening events. Please reserve your seat via Eventbrite by clicking on the links below.
RIVERVIEW, NB
(TICKETS HAVE ALL BEEN RESERVED)
Fundy Chocolate River Station,
Cocoa Room
Wednesday, May 25th, 2016
7pm to 9pm
(UNCENSORED)ALMA, NB
Fundy National Park, Salt & Fir Centre
Saturday, June 4th, 2016
7pm to 9pmMONCTON, NB
Inspire Festival, Riverfront Park
Wednesday, June 15th, 2016
9pm to 10pm
(UNCENSORED)SUSSEX, NB
Adair's Wilderness Lodge
Saturday, June 25th, 2016
7pm to 9pm
(UNCENSORED)ST. MARTINS, NB
Fundy Trail Parkway, Interpretive Centre
Wednesday, July 6th, 2016
6pm to 8pmFollow us and join-in on the discussions on Facebook:
facebook.com/survivingfundyfootpath/
#SurvivingFundyFootpathAcknowledgments
The Surviving the Fundy Footpath project has been made possible thanks to funding from Mountain Equipment Co-op, Parks Canada, the New Brunswick Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture and the Festival international du cinéma francophone en Acadie.
A big thank you to our community screening partners!
- Trails & Amazing Places in the Fundy Biosphere Reserve
Our Amazing Places are the best hiking destinations in the Fundy Biosphere Reserve – they have a rich natural history, breathtaking scenery, and many uncommon characteristics.
The Fundy Biosphere Reserve consulted with the public to find the best places in the region, 50 of which were chosen as exceptional. These became our Amazing Places, bringing awareness to the important natural landscapes we aim to conserve.
Each Amazing Place is marked by a smartphone-enabled sign, so that you can access important interpretive information about the site. The Google Earth map application gives you all the geographic information you need to plan your trip. The videos give you a unique perspective on each site and will make you want to explore all of its hidden gems.
- Historic Places
Building on the model of the highly successful Amazing Places project, the Fundy Biosphere Reserve is moving forward with a brand new project called Historic Places of the Fundy Biosphere Reserve.
Upper Dorchester Covered Bridge
Building on the model of the highly successful Amazing Places project, the Fundy Biosphere Reserve is moving forward with a brand new project called Historic Places of the Fundy Biosphere Reserve.
The presence of many different groups, including First Nations peoples and both Acadian and English settlers, has given the region a rich history and diverse cultural heritage which lends itself perfectly to such a project.
The FBR recognizes that conservation of the history and cultural heritage of communities within the FBR is equally as important as conservation of the natural world.
The central objective of the Historic Places project will be to link significant historic events and stories with the places where they took place and make these fascinating narratives accessible to the public.
Acadian wavebreak near the Cumberland Basin
Shipyard Park in Harvey
How the Project Got Started
To start the project, our staff put together a list of historically significant places within the FBR based on the input and recommendations of local museums, historic societies, heritage trusts, and other similar organizations. After careful consideration, the list of recommendations was pared down to feature a manageable number of historic sites in the FBR with great historic and/or cultural value. Our staff conducted detailed research and important information about the location, historic and/or cultural significance was compiled. We are now looking at making these materials accessible into an interpretive resource that can be accessed via the web, smartphone-accessible QR codes, brochures, and other easily accessed sources.
The Historic Places project will be closely modeled after our already highly successful Amazing Places project. We will also be compiling information about each historic place in a manner similar to the New Brunswick Historic Places Register.
Project Goals
Through the process of completing the Historic Places project, we hope to identify some sites that are historically significant but that visitors or residents often miss due to poor promotion. By doing so, we hope to enhance the present offerings of museums and heritage groups in the area.
Some examples of historic places we are profiling with the Historic Places project include covered bridges, railways, wharves or shipyards, abandoned mines and quarries, dykelands, logging mills and dams, churches, commercial buildings, and even the sites of demolished or collapse historic structures. These various sites and the history behind them shaped the culture of our region and its people into what they are today.
Next Steps
Although we have begun to work on the Historic Places project, more funding is necessary to be able to see it to completion.
We are also always accepting suggestions from the public of potential historic sites within the FBR. If you would like to make a suggestion regarding this project please feel free to contact us. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter and visit our website regularly for updates to come about the project.