A year of celebration and discovery at Kawartha Land Trust’s Hammer Family Nature Preserve.
A year ago this month, we gathered at Kawartha Land Trust’s (KLT) Hammer Family Nature Preserve in Lakehurst, Ontario, to celebrate the protection of this expansive 1,400-acre nature reserve, KLT’s largest ever.
Located on the eastern shore of beautiful Pigeon Lake, this protected property is home to verdant wetlands, retired agricultural fields, vast forests, and vital natural shoreline.
The property was permanently protected in the final days of 2023 with the support of Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Nature Smart Climate Solutions Fund and private donors. We remain grateful for their support to make this historic conservation success and community asset possible.
“A property is not protected in a day, and sometimes not even in a year,” shared John Kintare, Executive Director.
“Certain conservation projects, like the Hammer Family Nature Preserve, can take closer to a decade to conserve. It takes the dedication, determination, and vision of donors and funders to realize large-scale conservation successes like this one that will have long-lasting positive effects for nature and the community.”
In addition to its natural beauty, this property represents a powerful tool in the region to combat climate change. Protecting and restoring our natural lands, such as this one, ensures the Kawarthas can sequester and store as much carbon as possible.
KLT has estimated that its largest nature reserve sequesters at least 730 tonnes of carbon annually — the equivalent of offsetting a year’s worth of emissions for 123 cars.
Caring for Nature, Caring for the Kawarthas
In the past 12 months, our staff and volunteers have been getting to know the land and its diverse habitats better and learning how we can best support them.
Through bioblitzes and site visits, we’ve been able to record the abundance of native species found on the property, but also identify threats and opportunities.
“The more we visit, connect, and reflect on the lands at KLT’s Hammer Family Nature Preserve, the more plans for future stewardship projects seem to bloom,” shared Hayden Wilson, Land Stewardship Manager.
This year, the stewardship team, with the support of volunteers, will focus on a number of projects including tree plantings to improve degraded areas, garbage cleanups, species at risk surveys, seed collection, invasive plant species control, which will include managing invasive Phragmites along the edges of the Provincially Significant Wetland (PSW), and the enhancement and expansion of rare savanna habitat on the property.
“Savannas are part of the complex of habitats that include prairies and are similarly rare in our region,” shared Wilson.
“The sparse tree canopy of savannas acts as both a transition from woodlands to grasslands and as a standalone hub of diversity that supports an impressive number of species at risk, including Mottled Duskywing, Red-headed Woodpecker, and Whip-poor-wills, among others.”
Protecting the property was the first step, an important one, in its ongoing care. The next steps will ensure its future health through carefully considered stewardship projects that support the preserve’s resilience and the ecosystem services it provides to the area.
Community Engagement
Throughout 2024, KLT had the privilege to welcome representatives from some of the First Nations within Williams Treaties First Nations, community organizations, and community leaders to the Hammer Family Nature Preserve to discuss possible future land-based collaborations.
As part of the ongoing community engagement efforts, KLT has enlisted the support of an external consultant to help support the process.
We will continue to provide updates on this process. However, if you have any questions, or would like to discuss land-based collaborations, please reach out to us at [email protected] or 705-743-5599.
We had an amazing first year on the land we love and look forward to continuing to provide you with updates on KLT’s largest protected property. For future updates and other conservation-related news from KLT, subscribe to our e-newsletter.
Main photo: Belted Kingfisher at Kawartha Land Trust’s Hammer Family Nature Preserve (Stephanie Lake)
Canada’s Nature Smart Climate Solutions Fund (NSCSF) is a $1.4 billion, ten-year fund (2021–2031) administered by Environment and Climate Change Canada to help conserve, restore, and enhance the management of ecosystems such as wetlands, peatlands, forests, and grasslands, in order to help tackle the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. The NSCSF focuses on three main objectives: (1) conserving carbon-rich ecosystems at high risk of conversion to other uses that would release their stored carbon; (2) improving land management practices to reduce their greenhouse gas emission-causing impacts on Canada’s ecosystems; and (3) restoring degraded ecosystems. Overall, these projects will contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and increased carbon sequestration, while also providing benefits for biodiversity and human well-being.
