Tag Archives: heritage

New HCF Funding Available for Fundy Shore Lighthouses

April 29, 2012Anti-Automation, Automation, Coast Guard, Facebook, Government, History, In Memorium, Lighthouses, News, Reprintact, Canada, heritage, lighthouse, litehouse, saveretlkpr

From: “Heritage Foundation of Canada” HeritageCanadaFoundation@heritagecanada.org

Subject: HCF / FHC Communiqué :

New HCF Funding Available for Fundy Shore Lighthouses

Date sent: Tue, 24 Apr 2012 18:13:05 +0000

HCF Funding Available for Fundy Shore Lighthouses

Ottawa, ON, April 24, 2012 – The Heritage Canada Foundation (HCF) is pleased to announce the availability of heritage grant funding for the repair and conservation of historic lighthouses along Nova Scotia’s Fundy Shore, in the counties of Digby, Annapolis and Kings. Funding will come from HCF’s Runciman Endowment Fund for Heritage Conservation, created with the assistance of a generous bequest.

HCF will consider funding requests from community groups and organizations seeking one-time financial support for repair and heritage conservation work at historic lighthouses in the three named counties.

Among other considerations, priority will be given to: Continue reading New HCF Funding Available for Fundy Shore Lighthouses →

Deadline Looms for Canada’s Lighthouses

April 25, 2012Anti-Automation, Automation, Coast Guard, Facebook, Government, History, In Memorium, Lighthouses, News, Reprintact, Canada, heritage, lighthouse, litehouse, saveretlkpr

Deadline Looms for Canada’s Lighthouses

From: “Heritage Foundation of Canada” HeritageCanadaFoundation@heritagecanada.org

Subject: HCF / FHC Communiqué :

Deadline Looms for Canada’s Historic Lighthouses

Date sent: Thu, 22 Mar 2012 21:11:01 +0000

Deadline Looms for Canada’s Historic Lighthouses

Ottawa, ON, March 23, 2012 – The Heritage Canada Foundation (HCF) is urging Canadians to sign a petition http://www.savecanadaslighthouses.ca/ to help save Canada’s historic lighthouses.

The Government of Canada owns hundreds of iconic lighthouses, and has declared almost all of them to be “surplus”. Canadians have until May 29, 2012 to nominate lighthouses that matter to them for designation under the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act. However, almost all of them will require a proposal from an organization or group willing to acquire and invest in them. Continue reading Deadline Looms for Canada’s Lighthouses →

New Threat to Lighthouses Illuminated

April 8, 2012Anti-Automation, Automation, British Columbia, Canada, Fisheries and Oceans, Government, Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act, Lighthouses, News, Newspapers, ReprintCanada, CG, destroy, DFO, disposal, heritage, lighthouse, litehouse, maintenanceretlkpr

Reprinted with permission from Jack Knox, Times Colonist

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New threat to lighthouses illuminated

By Jack Knox, Times Colonist April 3, 2012

Imagine the fuss if the owner of a 152-year-old downtown heritage building just walked away from the structure, allowed it to crumble.

But the Race Rocks lighthouse isn’t downtown. It’s plunked in the waters off Metchosin, as out-of-sight, out-of-mind as many of the other West Coast lighthouses that Pat Carney worries about.

That’s why Saturna Island’s Carney is sounding the alarm (or perhaps the foghorn) about a rapidly approaching deadline that could determine whether lights stand or fall.

This has been an ongoing battle for the former senator and Mulroney-era cabinet minister who, even retired from politics, remains a fierce advocate for B.C.’s coastal communities. This fight goes back years and years, a reaction to Ottawa’s history of tearing down, burning down or neglecting-to-death light stations it no longer valued. Continue reading New Threat to Lighthouses Illuminated →

Save Canada’s Lighthouses

January 31, 2012Anti-Automation, Automation, Coast Guard, Facebook, Government, History, In Memorium, Lighthouses, News, Reprintact, Canada, GLLKA, Great Lakes, heritage, lighthouse, litehouse, saveretlkpr

Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association

CALLING OUR CANADIAN FRIENDS – What do the Georgian Bay lighthouses at Killarney, Bustard Rocks, Gereaux Island, Pointe au Baril, Red Rock, Snug Harbour, Jones Island and Christian Island have in common? They are all timber frame structures and the Canadian Coast Guard has ignored the spirit of the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act, and declared them to be surplus. Unless they are nominated for heritage status by May 29, 2012 and stewards identified who are willing to take on the prohibitively expensive task of maintaining them in accordance with heritage standards, the Canadian Coast Guard may demolish them and replace them with skeletal galvanized towers. The Heritage Canada Foundation is organizing a petition to the Federal government to provide funds to local groups to help them save these lighthouses for future generations, If you are a Canadian, visit the following website, sign the petition, and let your voice be heard.
http://www.heartofstonephoto.com/photos/save-georgian-bay-lighthouses

Bill S-215 – An Act to Protect Heritage Lighthouses

October 16, 2011Audio, Automation, British Columbia, Canada, Coast Guard, Equipment, Foghorns, Foreign, Government, Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act, History, Information, Lighthouses, Old Website, On The Job, Worldwideact, BC, Canada, government, heritage, lighthouse, litehouse, Pat | Carney, protectionretlkpr

Since April 2000 Canadian Senator Pat Carney has been working hard to get a bill through Parliament to protect Canadian Heritage Lighthouses. It passed during the week of May 7, 2008.

This bill will include buildings and equipment, including the main light on many of these stations – some being very old first-order Fresnel lenses imported from England in the early 1900s.

The normal procedure when a lightstation was unmanned was to burn it to the ground and maybe replace it with a solar-cell-charged, battery-operated, multiple-lamp array which operated only in the dark. Continue reading Bill S-215 – An Act to Protect Heritage Lighthouses →

Strathcona Regional District Backs Down

September 30, 2011Automation, British Columbia, Canada, First Nations, Government, Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act, Lighthousesautomation, heritage, lighthouse, litehouse, preservationretlkpr

From the Canada.com website

(NOTE: This is an image from the website. If the text is too small, hold down the CTRL key (lower left) on your keyboard and rotate the middle wheel on your mouse. The text will become larger or smaller depending on which direction you move the mouse wheel.) This applies to all websites and sites on the Internet.)

Heritage Lighthouses

July 21, 2011History, Information, LighthousesBC, British Columbia, Canada, heritage, lighthouse, litehouse, Parks Canada, Point Atkinson, preservation, Sheringhamretlkpr

From Parks Canada website on Heritage Lighthouses.

“In May of 2008, Canada adopted a new law that will protect heritage lighthouses, the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act . It came into force on May 29, 2010. Given its expertise in heritage conservation, Parks Canada was assigned responsibility for the implementation of the Act.”

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From Heritage BC website:

“Under the federal Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act Canadians can now nominate lighthouses for designation and protection. There is only a two-year window for the nomination process, however, until May 29, 2012. Nominations will be considered by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.”

“So far, 56 lighthouses have been nominated, but only three from B.C.: Point Atkinson, Sisters Islets and Sheringham Point.”

“Heritage BC and the provincial Heritage Branch have provided the federal Heritage Lighthouse Program with a list of community organizations and local governments that may have an interest in the 35 B.C. lighthouses identified by Parks Canada as having nomination potential. Parks Canada is writing to these organizations and governments to inform them about the nominations process, and to discover if there is an interest in participating in information sessions. Some sessions have already been held in the Maritimes and more may be scheduled on the west coast in September, if the level of interest warrants.”

For more information, contact Rick Goodacre
rgoodacre@heritagebc.ca

PDF letter LighthouseDesignation_2011-06-29 to Rick Goodacre from Heritage Canada

In answer to the above letter The Land Conservancy of BC wrote:

“Thanks for the reminder and update on this Rick. The Land Conservancy of BC will be moving forward with a number of nominations in the coming weeks, and we are prepared to help coordinate a holistic approach to figuring out what we can/should be doing with respect to Lighthouse protection over the longer term. That includes both the nomination process and then the much more detailed and involved process of taking on responsibility for those lighthouses that the Government will be declaring surplus (which is a lot).”

“At this stage, we want to gather information about who is interested in any specific Lighthouse(s). If your organization, your community or your municipality has a specific interest in protecting the future of a Lighthouse in BC would you please get in touch with us. Either contact myself or Deborah Hudson at: ifawcett@conservancy.bc.ca or dhudson@conservancy.bc.ca , or call at (250) 479-8053.”

Thanks everyone,

Ian Fawcett
Deputy Executive Director, TLC
Ph: (250) 479-8053 or (250) 888-1608
Fax: (250) 744-2251

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Heritage Lighthouse Program
(819) 934-9096
www.parkscanada.gc.ca

(cached snapshot of the Parks Canada website here)

(cached snapshot of the BC Heritage website here)

Triple Island 3rd Order Lens

June 22, 2011Automation, Coast Guard, Construction, Equipment, History, Information, Lighthouses, Old Websiteautomation, BC, British Columbia, Canada, Fresnel, heritage, lens, lighthouse, litehouse, Tripleretlkpr

This light was first made available to mariners on January 1st, 1921 to travel to the bustling port of Prince Rupert from the north. It was originally fired by a pressurized gas vapour lamp which would have been visible for over 12 miles (19 kilometers).

Electric generators installed in the late 1960s replaced this vapour lamp with an incandescent lamp and later with a mercury vapour lamp as seen in some of the photos below.

The lamp, reflector and base all floated on a large bowl of mercury. Even though the light weighed hundreds of pounds, it could be turned easily with one finger.

The Canadian government declared mercury a hazardous substance (like asbestos) in the 1990s and removed it from all work places. Reluctantly, the lamp was no longer usable.

Also, because of the planned automation of the lights which has gone on since the early 1970s, there was no reason to replace or modify the light and its housing – the Coast Guard abandoned it as a an Aid to Navigation.

The photos below show what replaced it. An APRB 252 12 volt battery-operated “flashlight”.