Nature Conservancy of Canada adds 191 hectares to protected lands near Thunder Bay
CBC
The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) has added 191 hectares to its portfolio of protected lands on the Black Bay Peninsula near Thunder Bay, Ont.
The property, located approximately 100 kilometres east of the northwestern Ontario city, adds to the approximately 3,700 hectares on the peninsula already protected by the non-profit.
"The more we protect, the more contiguous habitat is protected for the things that live there, like black bears, like moose, like species at risk – birds like the fly catcher, bald eagles or palm warblers or American white pelicans," said NCC Northern Ontario Program Director Kaitlin Richardson.
"The Black Bay Peninsula is one of the only roadless areas located east of Thunder Bay, and it has these expansive wetlands and forests that … function as, like, a vast carbon reservoir sequestering carbon," she said.
The forested wetland is home to moose calving areas and even carnivorous pitcher plants, Richardson said.
The property was placed on the market as part of an estate sale and purchased for approximately $175,000, she added.
It's part of a larger land acquisition in the Great Lakes region, where the NCC says wetland habitat and biodiversity have been in decline over the past 200 years thanks to drainage and invasive species.
The organization also obtained more than 750 hectares of land on southern Manitoulin Island.
The projects were made possible by funding from private donors and the federal and provincial governments, the NCC said in a news release.
The Nature Conservancy typically raises an additional 20 per cent of a property's value when fundraising to acquire land in order to cover the stewardship costs, Richardson said.
Within the first year of acquisition, it will develop a property management plan that identifies what it calls "targets" – or ecosystems or species the organization wants to protect – and threats, such as invasive species, dilapidated buildings on the property, or blockages to streams.
It then plans actions to neutralize the threats. The Black Bay property doesn't have any infrastructure on it, Richardson said, but the organization will be searching for invasive species and doing whatever else is needed to care for it, such as picking up garbage.
The NCC will continue to keep an eye out for opportunities to buy property that expands its holdings on the peninsula, Richardson added.
"Shoreline wetlands, any habitat for species at risk or intact forests? Those are all fair game for things we would want to preserve ... in the Lake Superior natural area," she said.
While his party has made a cause célèbre out of its battle with the Speaker, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has periodically waxed poetic about the House of Commons — suggesting that its green upholstery is meant to symbolize the fields of the English countryside where commoners met centuries ago before the signing of the Magna Carta.