NEW PROTECTED PROPERTY CREATES CONSERVATION CORRIDOR
The Long Point Basin Land Trust is conserving a new 112-acre property in Norfolk County – the Fishers Creek Nature Reserve. The project completes a natural corridor along Fishers Creek to Lake Erie that provides more resting areas for migratory birds and adds more wild space for native plants and wildlife species to thrive.
The landscape of this property contains a mature native Carolinian forest along a pristine cold-water stream, replanted forest areas and an evolving oak savanna habitat.
The new Reserve is located between the Spooky Hollow Nature Sanctuary and the LPBLT’s own Strongman-Guiler Conservation Legacy and is adjacent to two Long Point Region Conservation Authority forest plots near the lakeside community of Fishers Glen.
“This property represents our new approach to land acquisition, which gives higher priority to lands near or connected to already-established protected areas,” notes Rick Levick, LPBLT executive director. “It’s better for biodiversity conservation, ecological restoration and controlling invasive species. As well, species-at-risk are more likely to thrive in larger corridors of conserved land.”
Fishers Creek is the fourteenth property secured by the LPBLT and the third largest nature reserve in the organization’s care. The conservation and restoration of this property will provide critical habitat for a wide range of federally identified species at risk. The property also lies within Birds Canada’s Important Bird Area for the Norfolk Forest complex and nearby Long Point Peninsula and Marshes. Notable species on the Fishers Creek property include: Louisiana Waterthrush , Black-Throated Green Warbler, Pickerel Frog, Eastern Flowering Dogwood and Tri-coloured Bat, Woodthrush, and Eastern Wood Pewee.
The property also represents LPBLT’s highest fundraising goal to date requiring $1.6 million to cover property acquisition, restoration and long-term stewardship costs. To help reach this goal, the MapleCross fund has generously offered to match donations to the project until November 29, 2023. “We have long been admirers of the Long Point watershed ecosystem, and we are excited to be involved in this unique project,” said MapleCross founders Jan Oudenes and Isobel Ralston. “Fishers Creek is the first property we have supported in the area and we hope that the matching funds will encourage more people to become involved with nature initiatives like this one.”
The LPBLT has ambitious goals to greatly increase its protected lands within the Long Point watershed to align with the Canadian government’s efforts to conserve 30 percent of Canada’s land and water by 2030. The Fisher’s Creek property brings the total property protected by the organization to 950 acres.
To support the property acquisition, visit the Long Point Basin website at www.longpointlandtrust.ca/donate.
