Parks starting to reopen after Dorian

Municipal and provincial parks in Nova Scotia are beginning to reopen one week after Hurricane Dorian blew through the region.

The Halifax municipality announced on Friday the Public Gardens, Shubie Park and Point Pleasant Park have reopened.

Users of Point Pleasant Park must keep pets on leash when approaching working staff and stay on the paths, the municipality's parks and recreation department stated in a tweet on Friday evening.

Some parts of Point Pleasant Park are closed.

Dan Bignell walked his dog through the park "a couple of times since the storm." He said with the exception of a few areas in the park, much of it weathered the storm fairly well.

"There's no problem from what I can see," Bignell said.

Emily MacKay noted some of damage while out on her run.

"There's some torn up sections, there's a lot of seaweed, quite a few rocks you want to be careful on, fallen trees, but if you're thinking and you're smart you can easily look after yourself," she said.

There are more than 900 parks throughout the municipality and crews are still in the process of assessing the damage and removing downed trees and debris, municipal spokeswoman Erin DiCarlo said in an email.

All sports fields, artificial turf fields and ball diamonds throughout the Halifax area have also reopened.

Minister of Lands and Forestry Iain Rankin told CBC News on Saturday that crews working in the parks have been seeing downed trees and power lines, but no major infrastructure challenges.

He said some contractors with heavy machinery were called in to "address some issues."

"There are areas that we've identified as possible safety areas and those areas have been roped off," Rankin said.

The following provincial parks have reopened:

• Battery.
• Cape Chignecto.
• Caribou-Munroes Island, loop A only.
• Dollar Lake.
• Graves Island.
• Mira River.
• Porters Lake.
• Valleyview.
• Whycocomagh.

The following provincial parks have more extensive damage and will be closed until at least Sept. 17:

• Amherst Shore.
• Blomidon.
• Caribou-Munroes Island, loop B and C.
• Ellenwood.
• Five Islands. 
• Smileys, closed for the season.
• The Islands.
• Thomas Raddall.
• Rissers Beach.

The following parks are closed to the public:

• Heather Beach, closed indefinitely.
• McNabs Island, closed indefinitely.
• Cape Split.