A Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) worker says a funding announcement to help the non-profit care for a large area of land near here comes at the right time.
The province recently pledged $4 million to NCC to protect the Hastings Wildlife Junction. It’s a 10,000-hectre area, south of Bancroft, which NCC owns.
Program Coordinator Luke Ridgway says the area is home to some endangered species. The funding allows NCC to buy up more properties around the area, thus ensuring those animals have more room to thrive.
“You don’t have to go very far from this area just to see how much development pressure there is and how much that’s encroaching northwards from the more developed parts of southeastern and southwestern Ontario,” he says.
“In this area, we have a really unique opportunity to protect a very large swath of land. That opportunity doesn’t exist in many other places in Southern Ontario. It’s really a now-or-never chance to establish these sorts of conservation areas.”
Ridgway says the funding will also allow for the construction of more trails, so the public can access and appreciate the land in an environmentally responsible way.