Home of rare lichen, migratory birds on Nova Scotia's South Shore to be protected

A large swath of land that's home to rare lichen and migratory birds on Nova Scotia's South Shore will now be protected.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada announced the new conservation area on Wednesday. 

The 608-hectare area is near Sable River and will form the Haley Lake Nature Reserve in Port L'Hebert.

This newly protected land will add to the nearly 1,000 hectares already protected by the conservancy in that area, for a total of more than 1,600 hectares.

Jaimee Morozoff, the Nova Scotia program director with the Nature Conservancy of Canada, spoke with CBC Radio's Jeff Douglas.

Their conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Tell us about this protected area.

This is a really unique spot and we're really excited to be announcing this new protection area. This is a very large piece of land for the South Shore. It's a bit over 600 hectares, which is over 1,500 acres.

It's comprised of really beautiful old growth, intact Wabanaki or Acadian forest. There's coastal barrens, we have freshwater wetlands and streams, there's a lake shoreline, as well as coastline that's protected in the site and it supports a whole host of species.

What kind of species are in there?

One that we're really excited about and we're really trying to get everyone else excited about are lichens. This property is host to a lot of globally rare lichens and ones that are listed federally and provincially as endangered.

Lichens are just such unique organisms and they're really important in the environment because they really do serve as kind of that umbrella species. By protecting the lichens and their habitat, you're really helping to protect a whole host of other species in there too, and they're great indicators of how the forests are doing.

What are you calling this reserve?

We're calling this the Haley Lake Nature Reserve because it's sandwiched kind of between the Sable River Migratory Bird Sanctuary and also the south shore of the Haley Lake Migratory Bird Sanctuary, so we're going on with the Haley Lake.

How does the Nature Conservancy of Canada get land and get it protected?

We work with the landowners in a lot of different ways. Landowners approach us and maybe they have a piece of land that is really special to their family, they want to keep it wild, they love watching the birds and the animals out there. They can give us a call and we can have a conversation and see if it might be a good fit for conservation. 

This property in particular was actually a great example of how far you can go when you work together. NCC is one of the many member groups within an organization called the Kespukwitk Conservation Collaborative, which is really focused on conservation initiatives in southwest Nova Scotia, the Kespukwitk area, and it was through our partners that this property was actually identified as really high value because of all these lichens and migratory birds that are there. 

We were able to get in contact with the landowner, who actually is a gentleman that lives in Germany, and through that collaboration network, we were able to make a deal with the landowner, and also through the government of Canada's Priority Place program, we were able to help fund the portion of the property to get it done, along with a lot of our other donors that helped get this going. It's really one of those great [situations], of when you work together, you can get a lot more done.

So this was a single landowner?

It was a single landowner. It was about eight parcels, I believe, but it was purchased over the years and we were able to protect the entire thing, which is really fantastic.

When you call a single landowner, does it take a bit of convincing?

It's a mix of everything. A lot of landowners we work with, they love their land. They have history there and they want to make sure it's going to be protected in the future. 

Sometimes we buy land that's on the open market or from a landowner who just has land and bought it for an investment, but usually once we start talking and sharing that the land's going to be there for the people that live in the area, for the animals that live in the area, usually they come on our side and we're able to to work together, especially if they have that drive to protect the lands and keep it there forever.

Do you end up having to sort of bid against the market or do owners typically give the conservancy a bit of a break on a price?

It really depends on the specific property. We have some landowners that do a full donation to get the tax benefits of donating to a charity. Sometimes we end up paying market value.

We are, as a nonprofit, bound by appraised land value, so we're not out there to be speculators and raise prices in communities, but if we need to, we'll pay full price.

Obviously, as a nonprofit, as a charity, we appreciate when people make a donation or or give us a bit of a discount, but some lands are important and we'll do what we can to purchase the lands, secure the lands, without impacting the communities negatively.

There's already a considerable amount of land in the area being protected, about 1,000 hectares, right?

Yeah, with this one it's 1,600 hectares, so that includes on the Port L'Hebert peninsula near Johnstons Pond kind of, to the south part.

And then also in the Port Jolly area, kind of north and south of Thomas Raddall Provincial Park, has really been a key focal area for us. We have had a lot of great community partners that just love the land, love the area and they want to see it protected and and we've had a really strong relationship to build in those areas and create this great connected network for the species that live there.

What is the dream for the Nature Conservancy of Canada down there?

I mean in this area, if we can fill in some of the gaps to create that connectivity, that's really going to have the biggest impact on the protected lands. Ultimately, our goals, we want to help the rest of Nova Scotia reach our protected area targets of 20 per cent by 2030 and really protect the most important, the most valuable pieces of Nova Scotia while we still can and that way they're going to be there forever.

My kids go out and walk on the properties that we work together to protect, and I love that part of my job and knowing that it's going to be there forever.

Do you know what species are in there? Have you done a full survey of the land or is that yet to come?

We've had some surveys. Through some of our partners, there's been some work done on the land, but we do know, for example, that some of the lichens have been reported there.

But now that we have ownership of the land, we will be going out and doing a full baseline assessment to see what's out there. Hopefully, maybe we'll find out there's other rare species or important species that we didn't even know were there, but because they're in the area, we'll have benefited them as well. Then once we do that, we'll be doing some management plans to make sure we're taking care of the land properly and then it'll be there for everyone to enjoy.