NCC – BIG

The Nature Conservancy of Canada is hoping to tap into the support of year-round residents and cottagers in Batchawana Bay to purchase and protect Lake Superior’s largest remaining privately-owned island.

Mid-April, the land trust revealed an opportunity to acquire Batchawana Island for $7.2 million. The purchase will extinguish the threat of cottage lot and resort development, as well as logging on the twin-lobed, 2,076-ha island with 27 km of shoreline, and contribute to the NCC’s existing protected areas on Lake Superior.

Local entrepreneur and long-time resident Frank O’Connor says the announcement is “such great news for the bay and all those who love this shore.” The view from O’Connor’s Voyageurs Lodge and Cookhouse, a popular waterfront attraction on the Trans-Canada Highway, is dominated by Batchawana Island’s sprawling form, which interrupts Lake Superior’s otherwise watery horizon.

The purchase “preserves the area’s natural heritage,” adds O’Connor. “It leaves the island rugged and wild and respects the history of the Indigenous peoples who have lived and have burial sites there. So many reasons make this special place worthy of protection.”

Why Batchawana Island is worth saving

Besides being the focal point of Batchawana Bay, Batchawana Island supports an ancient maple forest that’s estimated to sequester 3,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, the equivalent of almost 450 households’ emissions. The island is home to moose, black bears, gray wolves, and at least 36 species of provincially significant birds, including rusty blackbirds and bald eagles. Its sandy offshore waters support spawning lake sturgeon, an endangered species. But until now, the island was held by an American landowner and zoned to accommodate various forms of development.

“This is our best and possibly last chance to see this incredible island protected for the future,” says Kaitlin Richardson, the NCC’s northern Ontario program director. “The impact of conserving Lake Superior’s largest privately-owned island cannot be understated. The communities of plants and animals that rely on Batchawana Island are unique and precious. I can’t wait for the day when we can say they get to stay that way forever.”

How to help save Batchawana Island

Richardson says the conservancy has already raised 80 percent of the funds needed. With the deal set to close in early May, the NCC is seeking major gifts and launching a campaign in the local community to complete the fundraising. She says a plan for bridge financing is in place to extend the window for funding through the summer if the target isn’t reached by May 9.

The campaign will no doubt receive plenty of support from Batchawana Bay’s community of cottagers, who cherish island views, visit its sheltered coves by boat and kayak and have long worried about its future. “I am happy to know that Batchawana Island will remain wild,” says Tammy Story, a local cottager. “I have kayaked most of its diverse shoreline many times. There are some spots that are truly magical. It is a jewel that future generations will thank us for preserving.”

A voice from the wilderness

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The Hazel Bird Nature Reserve is expanding its hectarage thanks to a land donation made by a nature-loving southern Ontario man to the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC). The donation expands the reserve by one-third, or by 40 hectares, to more than 150 hectares.

In 1996, when John O’Neill and his late partner Colin Jones purchased their property, they did not understand its ecosystem, O’Neill says.

“We knew next to nothing about tallgrass prairie or oak savannahs.”

It was only after talking with local and provincial naturalists, including Hazel Bird herself, that the pair began to appreciate the rare and special ecosystem on their land in southern Ontario. Hazel Bird was a Canadian naturalist known for her work in restoring the bluebird population of Northumberland County.

“We observed firsthand how this rare ecosystem was threatened by expanding resource development and creeping urban sprawl, and by invasive non-native plant species,” O’Neill explained.

Rare tallgrass prairies are the result of wildfires, ensuing nutrient-rich soils and large mammals grazing, and the ecosystem is characterized by wildflowers and two-metre-tall, grass-like bluestem and switchgrass. An oak savannah is an open-canopy ecosystem, featuring fire-resistant oak trees.

“We agreed that we should somehow find a way to preserve it and protect it from development.” In 2011, when the NCC created the Hazel Bird Nature Reserve just south of Jones and O’Neill’s land, the idea of gifting the land to the conservation group came to them.

The Rice Lake Plains, where Hazel Bird Nature Reserve is nestled, covers more than 40,000 hectares of land, stretching from the eastern end of Oak Ridges Moraine and southeast of Peterborough.

Loss of this cornerstone habitat means biodiversity loss impacting already-threatened species like the monarch butterfly, the red-headed woodpecker, the Karner Blue and the milkshake.

“After Colin’s death in 2013, the issue of what to do with the land became more urgent for me,” O’Neill says. The degree of degradation from invasive species became more pressing, particularly when he compared his land to that of the Hazel Bird reserve.

“The defining moment for me,” O’Neill says, “was the day I walked to the highest point on the land, and my panoramic view of Rice Lake was completely blocked by [invasive] Scots pine.”

Man stands on top of cut Scots pine trees — NCC Ontario Board Chair Paul Genest stands next to a pile of non-native Scots pine trees that were removed from a property donated to NCC. Photo by Chelsea Marcantonio/NCC.

Historically, the Rice Lake Plains are home to tallgrass prairies and oak savannah, dominated by massive black and white oak.

Today, the oak savannah and tallgrass prairie of the Rice Lake Plains are badly fragmented and overgrown with non-native species, like Scots pine, the European Buckthorn and Giant Hogweed.

“Donating the land to the NCC during my lifetime seemed a logical solution,” says O’Neill. The contribution would allow the NCC to begin rehabilitation sooner, rather than later, letting O’Neill watch the ecosystem’s restoration unfold before his eyes.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada aims to accelerate conservation initiatives across the country, developing solutions to both biodiversity loss and climate change.

“I am very pleased that the NCC will be managing this land and bringing it back to something like it was before the settlement of southern Ontario,” O’Neill said.

With the NCC’s permanent and large-scale conservation efforts, the gifted land will always serve as a reminder of Colin Jones’ and John O’Neill’s long-lasting love of nature.

“The land will be protected forever from development and the native plants and animals will thrive on it.”