Welcome to the Bras d’Or Lakes Collaborative Environmental Planning Initiative, a unique process in a unique ecosystem. Here are just some of the features of the Bras d'Or Lakes that make them so special:

• The Bras d’Or Lakes is an estuarine environment home to animals normally resident much farther north, and host to occasional visitors (like the Sunfish) from much farther south.
• Their 1,100 kilometres of shoreline boast many sheltered harbours and inlets, perfect for mooring a sailboat or gardening oysters.
• Waters in shallow Whycocomagh Bay flush only once every 2 years, while the tidal jets of the Great Bras d’Or Channel move water in and out daily at a speed of up to 11 knots, flushing about once every day and a half.
• The 3,500 square-kilometre watershed includes parts of the Cape Breton Highlands at hundreds of metres elevation, down to sea-level salt marshes and barrachois.
• Our people have their roots in four different languages and cultures: Mi’kmaq, Acadian, Gaelic, and English, with newer immigrants and summer residents from all corners of the world.
• Human activity within this area is diverse, and includes mining, farming, fishing, tourism, hunting and fishing, arts and crafts, science and state-of-the-art wind farms.

Through the Bras d’Or Lakes Collaborative Environmental Planning Initiative, we are working together to manage our home watershed sustainably. Because there’s no place like home, and there’s no home like this anywhere else on earth.