Submitted by The Men’s Breakfast
On July 15th of this year, The Men’s Breakfast hosted Esme Batten, who provided an invigorating presentation of biodiversity on the Saugeen Peninsula. Esme works as Program Director of Midwestern Ontario for the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) based in Stokes Bay. An ecologist, she arrived on the Peninsula approximately 9 years ago to work as a biologist with the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation’s Species at Risk Program.
The NCC has protected over 15 million ha of natural lands across Canada. The local office covers the area from Manitoulin south to Goderich with active programs and protected areas particularly focused on the Cape Hurd to Johnson’s Harbour area. This area is considered a biodiversity ‘hot spot’ having a wide range of natural habitats including our well known alvars, the largest contiguous forest in Southern Ontario, ancient cedars – especially on the face of the escarpment, coastal wetlands, a wide variety of rare plants, the endangered Massasauga rattlesnake, one of the largest populations of the Dwarf Lake Iris, and much more.
The NCC stewards over 5,000 ha in the North Bruce area, protecting greater than 13,000 ha. The question as to whether or not the NCC pays taxes on acquired properties was raised. Locally, the NCC pays about $4,000/year across about 11 properties. Some properties, or portions of properties, are enrolled in the Conservation Land Tax Incentive Program (CLTIP) due to provincially significant features/habitats. Private landowners can also apply to CLTIP for lands that have Provincially Significant Wetlands (PSWs) or Areas of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSIs). Taxes are reduced to zero for these areas.
In addition, over the past four years NCC has invested almost $1M in invasive species work on the peninsula including for roadside and private land management.
Program activities include ‘species at risk’ protection, invasive species management (especially phragmites control), under-road passageways for safe movement, and preventing/restoring habitat loss and fragmentation. Climate change, as we can all see is rapidly enveloping the globe, is a major threat to the health of many species and habitats. Esme outlined how we all can contribute to their work by using an app called ‘i-naturalist’ which enables citizen science simply by taking a photo of a plant, insect, animal, etc. that one may come across. The app documents the occurrence, including geo-locating the target. This, along with staying informed, volunteering (e.g., invasive species control), are all ways individuals can support the protection of our local important habitats.
Coming up breakfasts will include presentations by Rob Davis and Terry Milligan on the 125th anniversary of the school building housing the St. Edmunds’ Bruce Peninsula Museum (August 12th); and an information presentation by Lawrence Beagan on radon gas concerns and occurrence in this area (September 9th).
In October (14th), we are bringing back our popular “Ladies’ Breakfast” inviting spouses, girlfriends, and all interested ladies who may wish to see what it is we really do! The Tobermory Legion will be preparing the meal for this event and our guest speaker will be Brian Taylor with some exciting news of planned developments at the Golden Dawn Senior Citizen Home.
If you are planning on attending any of our events, it would be helpful if you could let us know, by contacting Martin at hogarth@auracom.com , no later than the Tuesday before.
