The Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society (NSLPS) was founded in 1993 by four lighthouse enthusiasts while on a visit to Sambro Island: Rip Irwin, Patsy MacDonald, Graham McBride and Chris Mills. They were concerned about the condition of the lighthouse and the keeper’s houses. They set up the non-profit society to benefit all the 150 lighthouses in Nova Scotia. Electronic navigation meant that lighthouses were no longer needed in the same way as they were in the past. So the Coast Guard was planning to downgrade many and to turn some off.

Since 1993 the situation has worsened. The Coast Guard is reviewing all the "navigation aids" and has already made some lighthouses redundant. Some have been put up for sale by tender to the highest bidder. NSLPS is trying to keep as many lighthouses as possible in the care of local communities because of their heritage value, their symbolic and social meaning to the nearly communities and the environmental value of the open coastal land where many of them are situated.

Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society was registered as a non-profit society in 1994 and as a charity in 2000. Receipts for income tax purposes are given for donations.                

Individual Membership in NSLPS brings you

• a charitable tax receipt
  
• advance notice of tours, programmes and events, and
  
• four issues of the twelve page journal, The Lightkeeper.
• In addition, you are supporting the work of saving lighthouses in Nova Scotia and the rest of Canada as well!

Group Affiliation*, brings you the above plus

• Four membership cards for office holders
  
• Access to advice and assistance with research
  
• Support for lighthouse projects
  
• The group name under "Affiliates," below the masthead of The Lightkeeper  
  
• A special link on our website, or your own webpage if you administer a lighthouse.