Peggy Revell
The Nature Conservancy of Canada is looking to dip its toes further into conservation efforts for Rainy Lake.
“We like to say that we have results you can walk on,” Chris Maher, regional vice-president of the Ontario Region of the NCC, told the roughly 40 people who attended the annual general meeting of the Rainy Lake Conservancy on Sunday at La Place Rendez-Vous here.
Heading into its 50th year, the NCC has acquired about 2.1 million acres across Canada, with 35,000 of those in Ontario to hold in trust for conservation efforts.
But this sort of land acquisition comes with a lot of planning before investing, Maher noted. As such, the NCC has been working over the past five years on a plan to direct its conservation efforts in the Rainy Lake and Lake of the Woods areas.
“It’s not a government plan, there’s no regulation or policy or procedure—it’s just a vision of what could be,” stressed Maher, referring to the plan that will be going to the NCC board for approval next month.
The report itself is a “sort of inventory” of the Rainy Lake ecosystem, Maher explained, adding they’ve benefitted a lot from the work the Ministry of Natural Resources and the RLC had done about three or four years ago.
Part of the report deals with the sorts of environmental threats which Rainy Lake and Lake of the Woods face, he noted—such as invasive species.
Other threats include development—an issue more prominent on Lake of the Woods than Rainy—but also dams, water management, and forest fires, Maher added.
As well, the plan focuses on management and recovery of some of the species in the watershed which are considered threatened.
At the end of the day, however, it’s also about land securement efforts, which depends on resources, funding, and working with local groups like the RLC.
“It’s a matter of being able to focus our efforts on where it’s really needed,” Maher said, explaining that with limited resources and funding, the focus is on securing the most environmentally-sensitive lands—the ones that are the most “ecological value.”
“The lake deserves special attention, and it’s good to see that a group with the profile of the NCC acknowledges that this basin is very, very special in all of Ontario,” remarked Stephen Challis, current president of the Rainy Lake Conservancy.
“It’s a chance for private lands to be protected when appropriate,” he said, though stressing this isn’t about blocking development or to say that all private lands be protected and not opened up.
Rather, the aim is to focus on certain places where conservancy and protection would be best.
“[The NCC’s] goals are very close to our own goals,” Challis added. “They just have way more capacity, and in some cases more resources, than we do.
“We have local knowledge and local passion. So it’s a useful relationship,” he reasoned.
The NCC’s plan is the final one of 18 it has put together for Ontario regions the group has designated as “most significant,” Maher explained.
Plans also have been completed for areas such as Long Point in southern Ontario, the Ottawa Valley, and the Lake Superior shoreline.
These plans don’t mean coming in and “taking over” from groups like the RLC, stressed Maher, noting it’s about partnering with local organizations.
“It’s not about who gets the credit, it’s about getting the work done,” he remarked.
One benefit in the area is that the RLC can hold lands in trust—meaning the NCC can work to purchase a property, which then can be transferred to the RLC for local stewardship.
“I think the key thing is for us—through the local groups—to acquire land. That’s really significant,” Maher said about what he hopes to see in the future with the plan.
“We’ve identified a number of properties, both on Rainy and Lake of the Woods, which have high potential. But we haven’t been able to operate there yet because we haven’t had the resources or the science base to do that.
“Fortunately, we’re there now.”
“But that’s where groups like this are key—because they have the local flavour, they know the opportunities when they come up,” Maher reiterated.
“And then for stewardships—it’s one thing to acquire the land, but a lot of it takes restoration, just looking after the properties,” he continued.
“It’s good to have a local partner that has a presence in the area that can do that sort of thing.”
These plans also are part of what is needed to secure further funding for conservancy efforts, Maher said.
“There’s always a next project, and the next project needs that money,” he explained, admitting funding has been a challenge in the past few years when it comes to the non-profit sector.
By having this plan, it’s easier to not only obtain federal and provincial funding, noted Maher, but also is a way to build a donor base as there will be research and science to back up which areas are in need of preservation.
“There are some deep pockets out there—that people that like what land trusts do, but we’ve got to show our results,” he stressed.
“We’ve got to show that it’s not just ad hoc, ‘Let’s buy this, let’s buy that, let’s buy this.’
“The plan that we [have] will give it a serious focus.”
As for the future, Maher said he hopes to see the NCC acquiring several thousand acres of “great ecosystem properties” on Rainy Lake.
“I’d like to see some more recovery on some of the endangered species—and I’d like to see a closer involvement with both the communities and the conservation communities,” he remarked.
Owning properties through the trusts takes away some of the threats of development, logging, and mining, he noted, compared to when the land is in private or corporate ownership.
But this also is just one step in the process.
“In parts of the province, maybe more so in the south than here, landscapes have changed in the last hundred years,” Maher said, pointing to how where he lives in southern Ontario, agriculture has been big and tobacco took over Carolingian forests.
“Part of it is restoring it to what it once was,” he explained. “Whether it’s tall grass prairies or planting Carolingian species, or doing some habitat restoration for certain species that we know inhabit there but we know are at risk,” he said about the stewardship work that’s been done, such as building hibernaculums for endangered snake species or nesting opportunities for some of the song birds.
With 227,000 acres of water and 3,000 km of shoreline, Maher noted the Rainy Lake area has the third-largest watershed in all of Ontario—covering some six million acres.
As the fifth-largest lake in Ontario, it has 2,200 islands—2,000 which are on the Canadian side of the border.
There also are 90 nesting bird species, 500 vascular plants, and 21 nationally rare species.
“So, of course, we want to focus on doing some good work in this part of the country,” Maher said.
“There’s huge opportunities out there—people’s mindsets are changing,” added Maher, referring to the opportunity to work with landowners to have their land used for conservancy efforts such as the ones the NCC and RLC are working towards.
Maher said there was a time when, if land was wanted to be used for such a conservancy effort, people would demand high prices for it.
Not anymore.
“More and more people are getting conservation ethics, so we do benefit from people that want to see their land put to good conservation use at the end of the day—either as gifts or sale at less than market values or easements on their property,” he noted.
“It’s amazing how many people will concede not to do things legally on their own property just because they want to see, at the end of the day, something good has happened to it.”
