The Nature Conservancy of Canada recently announced the purchase of 43 hectares of land in Southern Alberta next to Waterton Lakes National Park.
The acquisition of land along the Belly River, located about a three-hour drive south of Calgary, not far from the United States border, expands the boundaries of NCC-owned property in an area that contains important habitat for birds, fish, grizzly bears and other wildlife. The NCC secured the property from a ranching family.
The Globe and Mail asked the NCC’s Carys Richards about the purchase and what it will mean for the conservation of wildlife in the area.
What’s the main purpose of this acquisition?
The big reason that this is such a big deal and that we’re very excited to announce the conservation of the Belly River property is because this expands the existing network of conservation lands that NCC has already helped to create surrounding Waterton Lakes National Park. Essentially, the NCC has been operating in this area for more than two decades. And working with private land owners, we’ve created a buffer zone surrounding the park which we call the Waterton Park Front.
About 18,000 hectares have been conserved thanks to the support of the community members and private landowners in this area. This particular Belly River property adds to that conservation network creating a larger safe space for the animals that live in and migrate through this landscape.
How did this happen?
Conserving any property is a lengthy process; it doesn’t just happen overnight. One of the really wonderful things about this organization is that everybody that we work with is working with us voluntarily. We don’t force anyone to conserve their property.
Landowners come to us and say, “Hey, I got a piece of land, I’m interested in conserving it for the long term. What are my options?”
And so the two main ways that NCC operates – the first one such as this Belly River property is just through land acquisition. So somebody will sell or donate or leave a property in their will to NCC.
We own it and it’s up to us to care for it and make sure that the habitat is maintained to the best of our abilities.
The other way we work, primarily with ranchers in Southern Alberta, is the conservation easement. And this is a tool for land owners that want to retain ownership of their land but are still invested in long-term conservation.
Can you tell us about the initiatives to conserve certain species?
One of the reasons that this particular area was identified as a focus for our conservation work is because Waterton Lake is right in the middle of a huge wildlife corridor that stretches through protected spaces.
Protected parks in Waterton, Castle-Crowsnest area, Kananaskis, Banff, Jasper – there’s this huge corridor through the mountains that all these wide-ranging carnivores like grizzly bears, cougars, wolves, Canada lynx [use]. They all need a lot of connected habitats and so by ensuring that these landscapes aren’t going to be fragmented we’re making sure that the animals that live here are able to pass through and migrate at will.
Why is this work important?
It’s important for Canadians to step up and conserve our nature. Because if we don’t do it, who is going to? We’re extremely lucky as Canadians and here in Alberta, we have so many different landscapes around us. I think we really kind of take it for granted and we think that, oh, all these big wild spaces are always going to be there.
But I don’t think that’s the case and if people don’t get involved now and help us to conserve what’s left – I mean our landscapes are vanishing at an alarming rate. The Belly River property, two-thirds of it is native grassland and I don’t think a lot of people realize that Canada’s grasslands are actually one of the world’s most endangered ecosystems. It’s vanishing quicker than coral reefs or the rainforest in Brazil.
And if we lose this really iconic Canadian habitat it’s going to have global implications.
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