Precipice Fall 2015

Number 38

Newsletter of the Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy Protecting the Niagara Escarpment World Biosphere Reserve

Visit our Website www.escarpment.ca

Now…. EBC owns

101 reserves!

HOBSON We have an opportunity to acquire a new property at Alvar Bay near Tobermory. This will link together three existing EBC reserves and add to our 11 reserves which protect over 1,000 acres. The opportunity:

94 acres

1,200 feet of Huron shore

5 km trail access

Owner donating 30%

Missing Pieces On April 9th we acquired the

Landsmann property with its 50 acres surrounded by our Alvar Bay reserve. Thank you to everyone who contributed so generously! The ancient cedars are now safe with us and part of our main 409 contiguous acres reserve...seven separate acquisitions. The six Harkins lots at Zinkan Cove were donated with 300 m of shoreline on July 10th….see page 2 That makes two longstanding projects done!!!

You can Help (please) Every donation

toward Hobson goes a long way….we need $13,000*

A foot of shoreline $ 10

An acre of land $ 200

4 metres of trail $ 10

* The remaining cost is based on an owner donation

of $40,000 and two grants for $82,000. EBC has budgetted for a

further $25,000 to cover expenses like stewardship, trail, appraisal and legal costs.

145 reserves overall

New Reserves: Landsmann…………..50 ac Page 2 Harkins………..………..8 ac Page 2 Edwards Chatsworth.39 ac Page 3 Edwards Kemble......100 ac Page 5 Kritsch ………….…….6 ac Page 6 Stephens …..…….…….8 ac Page 6

Budd…………….……..80 ac Page 6 and

Events ……………...…………Page 2

Tobermory

See us next year This fall we visited the Ripley Fair and Pumpkinfest at Port Elgin. Before that we were at the Windfall Festival in Newmarket, the Greenbelt Festival in Dundas and our Monarch Festival in Tobermory. We appreciate meeting old friends and helping new people find out about land trusts.

Our next events are: Grey Bruce Farm Week…..Monday January 11, Elmwood Green Living Show in Toronto at the Convention Centre on Front Street April 15-17.

Let us know about fairs and events where we could present our display table.

If your group has an event, let us know. We appreciate the opportunity to speak at service clubs and community organizations. Our message: Only 4.37% of Southern Ontario is protected as a park or nature reserve. You can be part of the movement to correct this problem. Steward a reserve or introduce us to your friends who care about their land. Your investment in land is probably your best charitable investment.

You can visit a reserve any time. Visit our web site for directions or give us a call. The map on the web site will help you find reserves near you.

The Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy is a registered charity whose mission is: a) To establish, maintain and manage a system of nature reserves in the area of the Niagara Escarpment (including the Niagara Escarpment World Biosphere Reserve), including the maintenance of physical features of scientific and/or ecological, cultural, historic or scenic interest; to maintain, enhance or restore areas of native species or natural habitat; and to encourage and support scientific research and educational services related thereto; and b) To educate the public about conservation and preservation of the landscape, ecology and wildlife of the Niagara Escarpment partly through providing low impact, ecologically sustainable recreational opportunities which complement and do not

substantially conflict with this objective.

Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy - Contact List For help with... Please contact... Land, general Bob Barnett (416) 960-8121 Chair Robb McGuigan (416) 599-5446 Secretary James Murdoch (416) 518-5850 Newsletter Bob Barnett (416) 960-8121 Land Stewardship Bill McMartin (416) 757-7795 Vice Chair Gunter Springer (519)-794-4002 Treasurer Tim Watson (416)-960-8121 Freer Point Roy Jeffery (705)-368-3377 Telecom Anna Barnett (416) 960-8121 Events Morgan Roblin (416)-960-8121 Fax (416) 960-9460

Niagara Escarpment Views features an

article by Bob Barnett in each quarterly issue reaching 30,000 people along the Escarpment. Last issue featured how you can “green” your investment portfolio by donating to Nature’s Benefit Fund and the next issue will feature species at our Alvar Bay reserve.

WWW.ESCARPMENT.CA Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy

503 Davenport Road, Toronto, Ontario M4V 1B8 tel: (416) 960-8121 toll free: 1-888-815-9068

email: rbarnett@escarpment.ca website: escarpment.ca

Facebook.com/Escarpment BiosphereConservancy

Precipice - Newsletter of the Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy - Fall 2015 - Number 38 Page 2

EBC’s New Web Site

Take a look! Our bold new format has arrived, more or less. We’re still putting up pictures and directions to our reserves, but its coming along pretty well.

Landsmann purchased

After a great deal of back and forth we finally purchased the 50-acre property surrounded by our Alvar Bay Reserve for $75,000. We thank all those donors who helped fill in this big gap. This property protects ancient cedars and prevents a potential cottage development

with its loss of habitat. Our bear and massassauga rattlesnakes will appreciate this addition to our reserve. You may remember this property

projected a full kilometre into our 297-acre reserve.

Harkins Six lots worth $480,000, four members of the

same family have donated a beautiful fen, alvar and 300 metres of shoreline packed into 7 acres. We appreciate the family’s generosity and the hard work of Patty Harkins to

pull it all together.

Ancient Cedar

On the Huron shore near our Sadler Creek Reserve and just north of Lindsay Road 20

Keep in touch let us know if you want Precipice

by email and/or want email updates every month.

Precipice - Newsletter of the Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy - Fall 2015 - Number 38 Page 3

Linda Edwards has donated her wetland

right in downtown Chatsworth. If you know the war memorial, this 39-acre property runs from that fence to the west as far as the natural gas easement...almost a kilometre. We hope to build a loop trail from the park around the perimeter of the property. There is an old White Pine plantation on part of the property, but most of it is a deciduous wetland. We welcome this opportunity to create an “urban” park with its recreational opportunities. We hope to cooperate with the Town just as we have at Heathcote where we jointly own a “park” with the Town of the Blue Mountain and in Hanover where we own a big property beside the rail trail.

Toronto Dominion’s Friends of the Environment Foundation

granted EBC funding to prepare access trails in our Bruce Peninsula reserves and provide baseline reports for our work on Manitoulin. This grant came along at the perfect time. We got new access signs made up by our friend Peter Jennings to announce “Biosphere Trails” access points. Then we got Don Graham and Morgan Roblin working on baseline reports for our new reserves. I was pleased to report that we’d accepted 16 new reserves during the course of 2014 with 1,466 acres. As I was reporting on our success with their grants, I had an idea that they might help printing our next edition of the hiking maps for Manitoulin. We’ll ask and see what happens. EBC prints free maps to help Manitoulin’s visitors get out into nature, extending their stay on the Island. Thank you TD!

Butterfly Festival Our Fifth annual

Monarch Festival was a big success. We tagged and released 34 Monarchs….the most we have ever managed. Two years ago there was only one. The kids really loved the idea of a butterfly talikg off from their nose and going all the way to Mexico. Morgan Roblin and new board member Thanushi Eagalle pulled together 12 volunteers. Richard Aaron, Daryl Cowell and Bob Barnett led nature walks. Lenore

Keeshig Tobias from the Park and Audrey Armstrong were a big help as usual.

Ontario’s Cap and Trade Minister Glen Murray invited Bob Barnett to meet his team at the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change to discuss the role forests can play in carbon sequestration. Major carbon emitters will be forced to reduce their pollution below certain levels or “purchase” carbon credits to stay within their limit. EBC encouraged the Ministry to permit forest credits to count as offsets. We will discuss this idea further with staff at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. Such credits are anticipated by the Western Climate Initiative to which Ontario is a signatory. EBC hopes to be a big player as we work together to control the planet’s carbon.

Your new Board

We thank Malcolm Silver, stepping down as chair to travel and increase his life bird list. Malcolm’s land donation near Rocklyn is well underway. Robb McGuigan has agreed to chair our activities and has stepped in to lead our fundraising. Robb lives in Duncan and has graduated from the Bay Street trading world.

Invest in nature.

Every $1 invested returns $18 every year. We hope investors will take a small fraction (say, 5%) of their investment returns and use it to protect nature’s services like air and water cleaning, and the tourism, recreation and education nature brings us. That helps everyone in the community. Nature’s Benefit Fund is a great way to

Precipice - Newsletter of the Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy - Fall 2015 - Number 38 Page 4

A doe from Bob and Anna’s Thanksgiving excursion with the grandchildren to Gatineau’s Lac Philippe. It thought we were pretty interesting and walked up within about twenty feet. Eventually it and the fauns wandered off. We saw six deer close up. The kids loved it!

Bob created this graph to illustrate the increasingly important role land trusts are playing in Southern Ontario’s land conservation picture. The bars illustrate the number of square kilometres protected by the province’s 30 biggest conservers (out of 70 overall groups). The biggest is the Grand River Conservation Authority. In green are the land trusts led by Nature Conservancy. Then comes Bruce Peninsula National Park. Not too far behind is our Escarpment Conservancy with 44 sq km. We expect to pass four more conservation authorities in the next year as we reach 50 sq km. Note that Ducks Unlimited and Ontario Nature are part of this big picture.

You can be a big part of this picture Since most of our work is to accept land

donations, your donation protects a lot of land. A typical 100-acre donation costs us between $5,000 and occasionally $15,000 to accept.. That’s about $100 per acre. Last year we spent $110,000 to accept over 1,400 acres or less than $80 per acre.

$100 protects: an acre of land which represents $1,800 of ecological services annually (cleaner air, water, flood protection, recreation, pollination and good old fasihioed rare species which need some space amid all the houses and farms).

Precipice - Newsletter of the Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy - Fall 2015 - Number 38 Page 5

Current Projects Near Tara: A 193-acre wetland with Arran Lake shoreline.

Near Mt. Forest: 100-acre agreement with Fairchild Creek Near Varney: 42-acre agreement Near Chatsworth: 175-acre conservation agreement with a big waterfall. Wiarton: 600 acres with forest and wetland

Facebook EBC has reached over 600 “friends” thanks

to a great effort by Morgan Roblin to keep our site current. Get regular updates. Visit us at Facebook.com/EscarpmentBiosphereConservancy

We need Stewards….call Bob Barnett

Gord Edwards Gord has donated this 100-acre

property on Kemble Mountain. Right on the Niagara Escarpment, it has outcrops, Hart’s Tongue Fern and many other important escarpment species. Gord put a conservation agreement on this property in 2010. He tore down the house here and on another property nearby and prevented rebuilding. He’s planted thousands of trees. Gord has conserved two nearby properties on the Lindenwood Road with 280 acres and supported EBC’s acquisition of the nearby 73-acre Van der Ploeg Reserve. Between Gord and Linda, they have protected 500 acres.

Bighead tributary waterfall

Gord and his daughter on top of the Escarpment

Pictures of our new Kemble Mountain Reserve. Thank you Gord!

Mike Colle Liberal MPP introduced a private member’s

bill to exempt landowners with conservation agreements from property taxes on Oct 27, Thank you Mike, for helping landowners meet Ontario’s Biodiversity targets. We need private landowners help increasing the 4.37% now protected.

Dr. Joan Budd left us a posthemous gift of

80 acres in South Baymouth. Already covered by Manitoulin’s first conservation agreement, we have now been given the title itself. This is the start of Manitoulin’s escarpment, just north of Lakeshore Road and just east of Highway 6. Joan was an avid botanist, travelling Manitoulin with her friends after her retirement from Guelph University. She died last February at 103. See her video on our web site. What an inspiration!

Stephens

Precipice - Newsletter of the Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy - Fall 2015 - Number 38 Page 6

The Stephens Family have

donated another two properties right along the Mad River in Glencairn. We completed the severance for two more and hope to register the last two in October. Thank you!

William Kritsch and his father

Tom donated a great reserve right on the Beaver River and right beside our Heathcote reserve. This will protect almost a kilometre of river frontage. Visit this reserve for a quiet place to start your bike trip up the Valley or rent a canoe and see Ontario’s farmland up close. We appreciate the family’s effort to keep this land natural. It’s a beautiful place for a stroll along the River. Come to Heathcote...visit the bakery...see Old Baldy and visit the Malcolm Kirk Side Trail. This is apple country. Spend time in Ontario….no need to get on a plane.

Any Time: Visit an EBC reserve, just call us for

directions or visit the web site. Help us list the birds and plants found there. Get the kids out on a