Another big chunk of Cockburn Island now protected forever

The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is marking Earth Day by announcing the protection of two new nature preserves.

An additional 105 hectares of thriving forests and alvars has been protected, including an additional 40-hectare property that will be added to existing conservation lands on Cockburn Island — west of Manitoulin Island — and 65 hectares of Sturgeon Bay forest near Wiarton.

NCC describes Cockburn Island as "remarkably undeveloped." Several hundred people vacation there, but its year-round population is only 1 to 4 people depending on the year.

Several species at risk have been documented there and it contains alvars, an unusual habitat type characterized by shallow soils and areas of exposed bedrock that supports several species thought to have originated when the climate was warmer and drier than today. 

"Building upon the network of existing conservation lands on Cockburn Island ensures the long-term protection of sensitive alvar habitats and the species they support, while also cleaning our air and water to ensure people continue to thrive," said Esme Batten, NCC's program director for midwestern Ontario.

The Sturgeon Bay Forest on the Saugeen (Bruce) Peninsula has expansive, intact forests, providing high-quality habitat for many species.

"The Saugeen Peninsula is world-renowned for the diversity it supports, and the forests at Sturgeon Bay Forests are no exception, providing habitat for wide-ranging mammals, such as American black bear, and habitat for breeding and migratory birds along the Niagara Escarpment," Batten added.

Below is the full news release from the Nature Conservancy of Canada:

Midwestern Ontario is home to some of the Great Lakes region’s most important biodiversity hot spots, supporting an exceptional abundance of species
and habitats, and today an additional 105 hectares of thriving forests and alvars have been protected forever. The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is announcing the protection of two new nature preserves to mark Earth Day: Sturgeon Bay Forest, located on the Saugeen (Bruce) Peninsula near Wiarton, and an additional 40-hectare property added to existing conservation lands on Cockburn Island, west of Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron.

The 65-hectare Sturgeon Bay Forest features expansive, intact forests that provide habitat for many species and support biodiversity. These forests also provide important ecosystem services for nearby communities, such as cleaning air and filtering water, while storing carbon within their trees, roots, soils and wetlands, and helping to slow the pace of climate change.

This project builds on existing work by NCC and other conservation partners in the area. These collective protection efforts help ensure sufficiently large tracts of land on the peninsula are available to support species throughout their life cycles. The deciduous, mixed and coniferous forests at this site provide high-quality habitat for wide-ranging species, such as American black bear. 

Meanwhile, the additional 40 hectares protected on Cockburn Island contain alvars, an unusual habitat type characterized by shallow soils and areas of exposed bedrock that supports several species thought to have originated when the climate was warmer and drier than today. Several species at risk have been documented here, including Hill’s thistle. The property also contains pockets of diverse forest communities.

At the greater landscape scale, the forests and alvars at these two newly protected nature preserves will safeguard important habitat for at-risk bird species, including eastern wood-pewee and wood thrush, as both sites are found along a major migratory bird route.

The protection of Sturgeon Bay Forest and the additional 40 hectares on Cockburn Island are the latest in NCC’s land conservation efforts in the Saugeen (Bruce) Peninsula and Manitoulin Island Archipelago natural areas. Together with its partners, NCC has protected over 35,000 hectares of ecologically significant land in these regions.

These projects were made possible in part by the Government of Canada, through the Nature Smart Climate Solutions fund, and the Government of Ontario, through the Greenlands Conservation Partnership Program. NCC also thanks the many private donors across Ontario who supported these projects.

Conserving nature helps ensure healthy futures for wildlife and people, bolstering our ability to thrive in a changing world. In the past two years alone, NCC has influenced the protection of more than one million hectares (almost twice the size of Prince Edward Island), coast to coast to coast. Over the next few years, the organization will double its impact by mobilizing people and delivering permanent, large-scale conservation. In the face of rapid biodiversity loss and climate 
change, nature is our ally. There is no solution to either without nature conservation. Nature makes it possible.