Land Securement

raresites Eramosa River Conservation Corridor

Nature Guelph has donated $10,000 from their Land Trust Reserve Fund to help the rare Charitable Research Reserve (rare) purchase an ecologically significant property along the Eramosa River. Nature Guelph has also committed to match individual member donations up to an additional $10,000.

The land is an 87-acre swath of mature forests, floodplain habitats, and Provincially Significant Wetlands. It is the latest property to come under the stewardship of rare, an urban land trust and environmental institute that currently protects over 900 acres of ecologically sensitive lands in Southwestern Ontario.

rare will bring sustainable conservation activity to the Eramosa River lands, including science- and Indigenous knowledge-based stewardship and environmental research projects. They will also engage the Wellington/Guelph community and organizations like Nature Guelph in restoration, maintenance and educational opportunities.

With the recently finalized eco-gift to rare of the Reiner Tract property, 45 acres of swamp forest within the Roseville Swamp near Cambridge, rare’s total land under conservation is now over 1,000 acres. There is considerable ongoing activity looking at conservation lands in Wellington-Waterloo, mostly as eco-gifts or other donations, including in the Eramosa River Conservation Corridor. rare is also active in expanding understanding by local and regional councils of what it is trying to do.

For “Property 1” along the Eramosa River Conservation Corridor, the cropland section has been planted down to native meadow species since some of the funds supporting the purchase of this property came from an “offset” for land developed near Milton. The St. William’s Bobolink mix, mostly grasses and forbs, was selected since grassland birds were impacted by the Milton development. Work continues on conservation property acquisition in the Eramosa River Conservation Corridor; it is slow, complicated, expensive, and painstaking but increasingly successful work.

Sydenham River Nature Reserve Grows by 100 Acres

Excerpt from Ontario Nature’s Press Release

Ontario Nature is pleased to announce the expansion of its Sydenham River Nature Reserve. The newly acquired 100-acre property is part of the Carolinian Zone, a region that has more flora and fauna species than any other Canadian ecosystem but has lost 98 percent of its natural cover.

The property is teeming with life. Several species listed under Canada’s Species at Risk Act, such as the endangered cerulean warbler, red-headed woodpecker, and northern map turtle (special concern) have been identified on the property, which also includes mature Carolinian forest, treed swamp and an important tributary of the East Sydenham River.

This project was made possible by the Government of Canada through the Natural Heritage Conservation Program (part of Canada’s Nature Fund) and the Habitat Stewardship Program, the Ontario Land Trust Alliance and Government of Ontario through the Greenlands Conservation Partnership Program, Sydenham Field Naturalists, Lambton Wildlife Inc., Nature London, Essex County Nature, Ingersoll District Nature Club, Nature Guelph, the South West Woodlot Association, Aecon, St. Thomas Field Naturalists and many Ontario Nature members.

Click here to read the full news release from Ontario Nature.

Click here for more information about the Sydenham River Nature Reserve.

Habitat Restoration

Nature Guelph Wildflower

Since our inception, Nature Guelph Wildflower is pleased to have contributed to the protection of tallgrass prairie through the Prairie Patron Program, and to the preservation of natural habitat in Ontario through Ontario Nature and the Nature Conservancy of Canada. We have also established a wildflower garden outside the Botany Department’s greenhouse at the University of Guelph.