A group of local cottagers donated a co-owned forested lot and a Selwyn couple partnered with KLT on an easement to preserve the natural and working lands on their property in perpetuity.
At the height of summer, we’re excited to share more positive conservation news for the Kawarthas. Kawartha Land Trust (KLT) has protected two new properties: Crescent Trust Property and Plant Conservation Easement Agreement (CEA).
The protection of these two properties was made possible by the generosity of the landowners, our donors, volunteers, and Environment and Climate Change Canada’s (ECCC) Nature Smart Climate Solutions Fund (NSCSF), which supports the conservation, restoration, and enhanced management of the country’s wetlands, forests, and grasslands to help combat climate change and biodiversity loss.
Learn more about KLT’s two newest protected properties and how ECCC’s Nature Smart Climate Solutions Fund also contributed $7 million toward the protection of KLT’s largest property – the Hammer Family Nature Preserve.
Crescent Trust Property
It’s amazing what can happen when people come together to make a difference on the landscape. For a group of cottagers in the Kawarthas, it meant arriving at the powerful decision to donate the land adjacent to their cottages to ensure it would be protected forever.
One hundred percent of KLT’s Crescent Trust Property’s* 22 acres is natural cover. The property is home to a mixed forest, wet and dry meadows, and vernal pools that support amphibian habitat. A 2023 article in Nature cited that the second Global Amphibian Assessment found that amphibians are the most threatened vertebrates on the planet (40.7% of species are globally threatened). Habitat loss and climate change are two of the driving factors affecting the world’s amphibians.
“We’re grateful for the donors’ conservation-minded collaboration in protecting the land they love for future generations,” said John Kintare, KLT’s Executive Director.
“Increasingly, more of our natural lands are at risk of unsustainable development, and the protection of the Crescent Trust Property is another win for nature in the region.”
KLT’s Crescent Trust Property was donated to KLT under the Government of Canada’s Ecological Gifts program. Canada’s Ecological Gifts Program provides a way for Canadians with ecologically sensitive land to protect nature and leave a lasting legacy. The program offers significant tax benefits to landowners who donate land or partial interests in their lands to qualified recipients like Kawartha Land Trust.
Plant CEA
The Plant Conservation Easement Agreement (CEA) is an 79-acre property in Selwyn Township. The mature hardwood forest on the land is home to an abundance of wild leeks and beautiful spring ephemerals. The hedgerows allow animals to move between fields and forests more freely and provide places for edge-loving birds to nest.
When KLT staff visited the property, Barn Swallows, an at-risk species in Ontario, were seen swooping over the hayfields as they foraged for insects.
The owners of the property, Dick and Susan Plant, were concerned with the loss of natural lands and farmlands locally. According to the 2016 Census of Agriculture, between 2006-2016, the number of farms in Peterborough County declined by 21% and rented farms declined by 17%.
Like so many farm properties in the Kawarthas, the Plant’s land contains both active farmland and forest. The CEA developed protects both.
“I’ve been very inspired by Dick and Susan Plant as we’ve worked through this agreement to protect their property,” said Thom Unrau, Director of Community Conservation.
“Like many people in the Kawarthas, they’ve seen profound changes to the landscape as they’ve enjoyed their rural home and farm over the years. They saw their opportunity to do something on their land to offset these negative changes and to ensure a sustainable future by protecting agricultural land and nature on their property.”
Learn how KLT is able to protect working lands (farmland and woodlots) in the Kawarthas.
Environment & Climate Change Canada’s Contribution Toward KLT’s Hammer Family Nature Preserve
In addition to the announcement of the permanent protection of KLT’s Crescent Trust Property and Plant CEA, we’re also grateful to be able to announce at this time the Government of Canada’s support, through ECCC’s Nature Smart Climate Solutions Fund, for nature in the Kawarthas. The fund made a $7-million contribution toward the protection of our largest property to date – the Hammer Family Nature Preserve, which was announced in February.
“Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Nature Smart Climate Solutions Fund has made a lasting impact on nature in the Kawarthas,” said John Kintare, Executive Director.
“The funding that we have received from ECCC’s Nature Smart Climate Solutions Fund was critical in enabling Kawartha Land Trust to protect the 1,400-acre Hammer Family Nature Preserve and nine other properties to date. The cumulative impact grows with the protection of each new property — all contributing to making the Kawarthas more resilient to the effects of climate change, improving water quality, and safeguarding habitat for wildlife.”
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*At the request of the donors, the location of this nature reserve will not be publicly shared.
Main photo: Barn Swallow flying above Plant CEA on a sunny summer day. (KLT)
