Not using your piece of P.E.I.? The province is looking for land donations

A lot of new work is underway to reach the province's goal of having seven per cent of Island land protected by 2020, P.E.I.'s environment minister says.

The province protects less land per capita than any other province, according to the latest Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society report card, with 3.6 per cent of P.E.I. land under protection.

Hopefully we'll get a list of a number of people who own property that haven't been using it.— Richard Brown

The province is currently about halfway to that "top priority" target but Richard Brown said government hopes to use different methods to reach that 20,000 hectare (50,000 acre) goal over the next 18 months.

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"Since I became minister this is one of my top priorities here is to see if we can make those targets and we are working extremely hard," he said.

Brown said the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission is currently tasked with a major review to determine how much land is owned by non-residents. The findings are expected to be presented in the legislature this fall.

He said the province plans to send letters to third- and fourth-generation non-resident landowners who aren't using or developing their land to see if they'll donate land to the province, Island Nature Trust, The Nature Conservancy of Canada or Ducks Unlimited.

"There is a tax receipt so hopefully we'll get a list of a number of people who own property that haven't been using it," he said.

'Manage the forest for them'

The province is also approaching the P.E.I. Woodlot Owners Association to see if some of its members would put their land under public trusteeship.

Landowners who decide to protect their land would not have to pay property taxes on it, he said.

"If a person that owns woodlots want to give the province the right to the wood on their property we would then forego property tax and we would manage the forest for them," Brown said.

"That would result in wood stock for the biomass plants we are putting in. … We're just trying to determine now how much land we need and how much forest do we need in order to meet the biomass targets we're looking at in the Climate Change Action Plan."

Brown said discussions are also underway to bring more than 1,200 hecatres (3,000 acres) of private land managed by Ducks Unlimited into the calculation.

Large tracts of sensitive land and waterway buffer zones protected by P.E.I. farmers and watershed groups are also being looked at, he added.

"There are a lot of protections of P.E.I. land right now. It may not be in government's hands or it may not be protected under the Natural Areas Protection Act, but it is protected in other areas," Brown said.

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