Rissers Beach Boardwalk to be Reconstructed

NATURAL RESOURCES--Rissers Beach Boardwalk to be Reconstructed

The popular salt marsh boardwalk at Rissers Beach Provincial Park, Lunenburg Co., will be reconstructed.

A tender for the project will be issued later this month with work beginning soon after.

The existing boardwalk was closed to the public during part of the 2003-04 park season because of safety concerns resulting from frost and ice damage. Repairs were made at the time so that the boardwalk could be re-opened on a temporary basis.

"This is a great opportunity to improve the park experience and enhance its role in promoting healthy living among area residents and visitors to the park," Human Resources Minister Carolyn Bolivar-Getson said on behalf of Natural Resources Minister Richard Hurlburt today, Jan. 4.

While the details are being finalized, plans include removing the old boardwalk, placing a new boardwalk, creating a marsh-viewing platform and establishing two new walkways that access the beach.

Although the overall impact to users will be insignificant, the marsh boardwalk will also be re-aligned slightly to address environmental sensitivities to the wetlands. The marsh-viewing platform is intended to protect the area most prone to erosion and the new beach access points will improve traffic flow and protect sensitive dune habitat for the future.

The $354,000 in funding required for the reconstruction will be provided through the province's Tangible Capital Assets Program.

The boardwalk was first established in the 1970s as part of the Interpretative Marsh Trail, providing visitors with access over the salt marsh, a fragile estuary ecosystem.