Ecological Gifts: Donor Profiles - Québec
Here are the profiles of several donors who have generously accepted to share their ecogift stories. Select the heading below to read their full story.
- DIANE AND ALAN ALDRED
An Ancestral Land and its Natural Pastures Preserved in Perpetuity - ELISABETH AND VICTOR FRANK ALLISTONE
A Century-old Forest Safeguarded in the Sutton Mountains - JOYCE BOOTH
An Emotional Purchase Translates into an Ecological Gift - FRANCES AND DOUGLAS MCCALLUM AND PATRICIA AND HORACE GILBERT
Four Friends Bring Forest and Wetlands under Protection - RUTH EDNA KERR NEVILLE
A Family Saves a Bog and a Fern Species - THE ESTATE OF WILLIAM OLIVER
Ecological Gift in the Laurentians: A Legacy to Nature - MARCELLE CORDEAU PARENT
Part of the Great Marsh of the Rivière des Mille Îles is Protected Forever - CATHERINE SPILLANE REED
The Mont Saint-Hilaire Green Belt Gains Protection - JOHN SAURO
Buys Land and Donates It to Ensure Its Protection - STANSJE PLANTENGA AND ANNE SHEPHERD
Landowners Find a Way to Save their Magic Valley
1. DIANE AND ALAN ALDRED
An Ancestral Land and its Natural Pastures Preserved in Perpetuity
Donor Profiles: DIANE AND ALAN ALDRED (PDF Version, 354 KB)
Alan and Diane Aldred in their Ghost Hill Farm house in 1997
Photo: © Alan Aldred
When Elizabeth Lusk Hay was a child, she saw something that "looked like a huge, golden moon wafting its way around the corner of the hill" where she lived. Then it just vanished. The beautiful will-o'-the-wisp might have resulted from the spontaneous combustion of marsh gases, or from one of the numerous phantoms said to live on Ghost Hill Farm, a piece of land located in Pontiac, near Gatineau. The 440-acre property (178 hectares) was settled and inhabited by five generations of Lusks, all descendants of Joseph Lusk and Esther Balmer, who immigrated to the region from Ireland around 1820. The first three generations struggled hard to clear the forest so as to grow crops, hay, livestock and orchard fruits. They probably never imagined their descendants would one day give their land back to nature, but Diane Aldred, Mrs. Lusk Hay's daughter, did just that. In fact, she gave it to nature rather than leaving it to development pressures closing in from the cities of Gatineau and Ottawa and to changing agricultural practices that would degrade its old pastures.
The magnificent natural pastures of the property donated by the Aldreds
Photo: © Benoît Jobin, Canadian Wildlife Service
Mrs. Aldred, a high school teacher and a writer-historian, grew up on the family farm. Young Diane's huge playground comprised wetlands, natural pastures, maturing hardwood forests, dense cedar groves, a 36-m steep limestone shale cliff, and the Breckenridge Creek and its estuary on the Ottawa River. Her heart was with this land and her parents knew it. In 1993, they bequeathed her their half of the farmland, the other half being owned by her aunt. Mrs. Aldred and her husband, Alan, then moved into the limestone house built in 1880 by one of her ancestors atop the haunted hill, which offers a beautiful view of the Ottawa River. Since the 1930s, the grasslands had been used only as summer pastures and the couple carried on the tradition by renting it to neighbouring farmers, who grazed their cattle there. Mr. Aldred, a forest management consultant, managed the property's woodlots and shared his wife's passion for the place. They loved the whole property and enjoyed the shoreline by the river, the big, wonderful maples, ashes, and elms, flooded each spring in the creek estuary that reminded them of the Everglades, and the beaver pond, against the cliff, teeming with ducks and numerous water birds.
In the early spring, the Western Chorus Frog's distinctive call can be heard. Barely 3 cm long, this tiny amphibian breeds in temporary and shallow ponds, precarious sites that can easily be destroyed by land drainage and levelling.
Photo: © Raymond Belhumeur
Soon after moving in, the Aldreds started to think about the future of this ancestral land, whose ecological value, they felt, probably equalled its historical value. The property's varied features provide habitats for a great diversity of animals and plants, some of which, like the Western Chorus Frog and the Wild Leek, are vulnerable in Quebec and its creek estuary shelters some of the rare Cork Elm and Black Maple forest stands in Quebec. In 1997, motivated by friends who had donated a piece of land that became part of a provincial park in British Colombia, Mrs. Aldred contacted Environment Canada's Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS) to find out if their property was worthy of protection. The CWS then contacted the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) in Quebec, who conducted several biological surveys on the property over the next few years to document its diversity and richness. In 2001, NCC acquired Mrs. Aldred's aunt's undivided half interest of the land and a few months later the Aldreds started to work on a donation agreement for their part. They both felt that to be connected to nature was very important for human beings and wanted the farmland to be permanently protected as a nature preserve. In the course of the donation process, they learned, among other things, that their pastures dotted with hawthorns offer a suitable environment for the Eastern Loggerhead Shrike, an endangered bird in Canada. The population of this species has greatly decreased during the past decades and an experimental reintroduction program has recently started in the hope of helping its recovery.
Diane Aldred
Photo: © Alan Aldred
Diane Aldred unexpectedly passed away in 2003, before her precious legacy to future generations was completed. But the year after, according to her wish, her husband made the ecological donation of the ancestral land to the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) and to the Province of Quebec Society for the Protection of Birds (PQSPB), two private non- profit organizations dedicated to nature protection. The donation was made according to Environment Canada's Ecological Gifts Program, which provides a tax break and a reduction in the taxable capital gain for gifts of ecologically sensitive land or partial interests in land. "For us, the tax benefits were not so important, since we had no gain in capital to pay, but this program is a wonderful thing, because it encourages people to make a donation," Mr. Aldred explains.
With its contrasting plumage, aerial displays and inimitable song, the male Bobolink, a common field species, does not only attract the attention of the females it is courting.
Photo: © Samuel Belleau
Diane Aldred's favourite thing was to walk the homestead. She was especially concerned with the fate of its natural pastures and the myriad of animals that live or hunt there, be they a Western Chorus Frog, an Eastern Meadowlark, a Bobolink or a Red-tailed Hawk. "I could not live with the knowledge of the wholesale destruction that would follow in the wake of a bulldozer,"
she once wrote. Thanks to the unfailing support of her husband Alan, her dream to protect Ghost Hill Farm's beautiful landscapes, varied habitats and numerous wild species was accomplished. Her ancestors can rest in peace, since the pastures left by their many decades of backbreaking work will be preserved as well as the ghost-creating marshes.
2. ELISABETH AND VICTOR FRANK ALLISTONE
A Century-old Forest Safeguarded in the Sutton Mountains
Donor Profiles: ELISABETH AND VICTOR FRANK ALLISTONE (PDF Version, 394 KB)
Elisabeth and Victor Allistone in the old-growth forest safeguarded through their ecological donation
Photo: © The Nature Conservancy of Canada
City dwellers, country weekenders, and dedicated full-time country folks: this roughly summarizes Victor and Elisabeth Allistone's path to nature. Arriving as emigrants from England in 1956, they settled in Montréal, where they spent their entire working lives. In their free time they enjoyed exploring the beautiful Quebec countryside. During one of their occasional weekend trips, they discovered the Sutton Mountains area of the Eastern Townships. "The forest-covered mountains, the large herds of dairy cattle grazing in the undulating pastures that provided a lush foreground to the high mountaintops ... No wonder that dreams of owning a little corner of this bucolic paradise were dancing in our heads,"
the Allistones once wrote. One day in 1961, at a bend in the road, they saw an old farmhouse, a barn and a former schoolhouse that sat on a 10-acre piece of land at the foot of Mount Echo and Mount Gagnon. Although the buildings were in bad condition, the couple fell in love with the place and bought it, hoping they could live there someday.
The Sutton Mountains of the Eastern Townships
Photo: © The Nature Conservancy of Canada
Over the next twenty years, the Allistones spent most of their weekends and vacations at their Sutton property, renovating the house and learning new skills, patience, and the ways of the seasons. "We were not exactly what you might call country people, but being in such beautiful surroundings, planting trees and working in our rubber boots, we soon developed a close link with nature," they say. In the 1970s, worried about encroaching development, the couple were fortunate to acquire a large area of forested land adjacent to their property and located on the northern flank of mounts Echo and Gagnon. They later became interested in woodlot management, took some extension courses at Macdonald College of McGill University, and eventually were recognized as a certified tree farm by the Association forestière des Cantons-de-l'Est (Eastern Townships Forestry Association). It was then that they settled permanently in the scenic countryside. In the late 1990s, they began to do selective cutting under a forest management plan. "One day, François Pelletier, the supervising forest engineer, told us he had found something quite extraordinary on our property. On the mountain, he had come upon a deep ravine with a clear, swift-running brook, bordered by very tall hemlocks. There he discovered a stand of Sugar Maples, beeches, and Yellow Birches more than one hundred years old. Since old-growth forests like this are rare in the Sutton Mountains, Mr. Pelletier said it was a real ecological find that should be preserved,"
the Allistones recall.
The Spring Salamander lives in the clear, cold streams of the mountains and forests of southern Quebec. Habitat modification is the main threat to its survival.
Photo: © Clément Robidoux
The couple didn't need to be convinced. Not only were they willing to protect their forest and the brook, they wanted this land to remain forever wild. A friend put them in touch with the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), a private organization dedicated to protecting natural areas.
In 2002, the Allistones decided to donate their 32-acre (13-hectare) tract of old-growth forest to the group. The donation was made through Environment Canada's Ecological Gifts Program, which provided them with special income tax benefits. During this process, the couple learned that the property's many intermittent and permanent brooks are home to three species of salamanders, including the Spring Salamander, a salmon-coloured amphibian of special concern in Canada. They also learned that the Wild Leek, a vulnerable plant in Quebec, grows in this mature forest, which also shelters a variety of bird species including the American Redstart, the Ovenbird, the Wood Thrush, and the Scarlet Tanager. In addition, many of the forest's beeches have scratches left by Black Bears that climb the trees in search of the nutritious beechnuts.
The Wild Leek grows mostly in maple forests. Loss of habitat and overharvesting have caused a significant decline in its population in Quebec.
Photo: © Clément Robidoux
Since they came to Canada some fifty years ago, the Allistones have demonstrated their strong attachment to their adoptive country in many ways. The couple, who were already members of several local conservation and nature associations, recently helped to found the Mount Echo Conservation Association. They firmly believe that grassroots initiatives can go a long way toward ensuring stewardship of the land. Furthermore, they hope that their ecological gift will encourage other people to get involved in voluntary conservation through a donation of land or a servitude. Besides preserving a valuable portion of the Sutton Mountains, the Allistones' donation adds to other private protected areas of the Appalachian Corridor, an initiative aimed at preserving a wide strip of unfragmented forest between the Eastern Townships and Vermont. When asked what motivated their generous gift, they simply say, smiling,"We were very happy to give something in return for the many wonderful years we have spent in Canada."
3. JOYCE BOOTH
An Emotional Purchase Translates into an Ecological Gift
Donor Profiles: JOYCE BOOTH (PDF Version, 426 KB)
Joyce and Avery Booth were upset by a whole mountainside clear-cut near Sutton.
Photo: © Cynthia Ross
In the 1980s, Joyce Vaughan Booth, a teacher, and her husband Avery, a factory clerk, used to drive from Lennoxville to the Sutton Mountains area where Mr. Booth's family lived. One day, they saw a whole mountainside clear-cut near Sutton. It upset them. "I was angry inside myself for a long time after I saw that,"
Mrs. Booth remembers."Some time later, we learned that there was a 55-acre parcel of land for sale in that area. There were a lot of big beeches on it. I had inherited some money from my parents and I decided to buy it right away so I would have a piece of land nobody could buy and spoil. My husband and I didn't even walk to the top of the property before I bought it,"
she recalls, laughing.
The Moose, the largest member of the deer family, limits its activity in winter to save energy.
Photo: © Pierre Pouliot, MRNF
The property, located in Mansonville, had been partly logged by the former owner. Except for a logging road that ran part way up the hill and just reached the border of the tract of land, there was no other access. "We didn't get to know the land very well, but we would go hiking, biking or skiing there a few times a year. I remember walking along the road very early one morning in September, and reaching a spot where I suddenly found myself in the midst of about thirty Black-throated Blue Warblers. One other time, I saw Moose tracks in the hard, slippery crust of snow. I could tell that the poor Moose had been struggling through the snow. One day, I also observed a Scarlet Tanager attacking a robin, which is yet a larger bird. I guess the robin was in the wrong territory,"
Mrs. Booth recalls with pleasure.
Mostly found in southwestern Quebec, the Scarlet Tanager prefers to nest in the high and dense deciduous forest canopy.
Photo: © Michel Lamarche
In 1998, her husband passed away unexpectedly. Mrs. Booth didn't feel like going to her land by herself anymore. She considered leaving it to her three children or selling it, but the access was too difficult, she thought. More than anything, she wanted to make sure that nobody would come and cut the trees. As a member of the Ruiter Valley Land Trust (RVLT), she knew about the possibility of donating land to this private organization dedicated to protecting the valley. So in 2002, she made an ecological donation of her 55-acre property in the Sutton Mountains to this conservation group. Her donation was made through Environment Canada's Ecological Gifts Program, which provided her with a substantial tax credit. "I didn't think about it at the time, but it certainly was worthwhile. It was wonderful since for a few years I didn't have to pay income tax!"
she says. "I know that not everyone can buy a piece of land to save it, but if people inherit some land they don't need or want, rather than just ignoring it or selling it to developers, they should consider donating it to nature."
The Black-throated Blue Warbler frequents mixed or deciduous forests like the ones covering the land donated by Joyce Booth.
Photo: © Rafy Rodriguez
In keeping with Mrs. Booth's wishes, there won't be any tree harvesting on the newly protected forestland; however, scientific research activities will be allowed. The many small streams that run through the property are potential habitats for different salamander species, which, like all amphibians, are especially threatened by pollution and habitat loss. Besides ensuring that her property will be protected forever, Joyce Booth's ecological donation adds to the gifts provided by Stansje Plantenga and Anne Shepherd in the Ruiter Valley and will help to preserve one of the few remaining areas of unfragmented forest in southernmost Quebec; this is a legacy that generations of warblers, struggling Moose and intrepid tanagers will certainly appreciate.
4. FRANCES AND DOUGLAS MCCALLUM AND PATRICIA AND HORACE GILBERT
Four Friends Bring Forest and Wetlands under Protection
Donor Profiles: FRANCES AND DOUGLAS MCCALLUM AND PATRICIA AND HORACE GILBERT (PDF Version, 414 KB)
From left to right, Frances and Douglas McCallum and their friends Patricia and Horace Gilbert proudly pose in front of the new reserve named after them.
Photo: © The Nature Conservancy of Canada
It all began in 1972, when Frances and Douglas McCallum, together with some associates, acquired a 215-acre tract of forest in Bolton-Centre, at the foot of the Sutton Mountains, in order to build a housing development. With the goal of creating a pleasant natural setting and preserving the natural habitats of this property located near the Missisquoi River, they commissioned a team of landscape architects and surveyors to draw up a residential development plan using detailed aerial and terrestrial surveys. It was the McCallums' wish to set aside some wetland and forest areas at the eastern end of the property in order to preserve them in their natural state.
The donated property includes forest and wetlands, such as this beaver pond offering choice habitat for many species of waterfowl, reptiles and amphibians.
Photo: © Canadian Wildlife Service
Because of some differences of opinion with their associates, the couple decided to find partners who shared their vision and their love of nature to join them in the project. This is how Patricia and Horace Gilbert, with whom they often skied in the area, got involved in the project in 1976. The four friends, originally from different places--British Columbia, Scotland, the Gaspé Peninsula and the Eastern Townships--ended up settling in Bolton-Centre themselves some ten years later.
Today there are some 20 homes scattered in the western part of the vast woodland. From an airplane, it would be difficult to distinguish the houses, were it not for the access road carving a big H through the forest. The eastern part of the property, consisting of 81 acres of wetland and forest, remains intact, despite the fact that over the years several developers have tried to buy it. This land, so dear to the two couples, harbours mixed stands of deciduous and coniferous trees, including maples, birches, spruces, pines, American Beech, Eastern White Cedar, and Eastern Hemlock. The understorey shelters many species of wildflower, such as the Red Trillium, the Painted Trillium, the Yellow Clintonia, and the Stemless Lady's-Slipper. The forested hills, where Frances McCallum likes to go walking, overlook a magnificent beaver pond. The pond and surrounding wetlands contain choice habitats that waterfowl use for migration and nesting. These areas are also home to various reptile and amphibian species, including the Common Garter Snake, the Yellow-spotted Salamander, the Bullfrog, the Green Frog, and the Leopard Frog. In the spring and summer, courting frogs join together in a unique chorus that Patricia Gilbert enjoys listening to in her house, which is near the pond.
The Barred Owl is found mostly in mature forests close to wetlands. It seems that wild areas are essential to the conservation of its population.
Photo: © Rodolph Balej
Several years ago, after talking with their friend Steward Hopps, the McCallums and the Gilberts decided to take steps to protect their beloved land forever. A biologist friend told them about the possibility of making an ecological donation to a conservation organization. The foursome's dream came true in December 2003, when they transferred their 81 acres (33 hectares) of natural areas to the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), a non-governmental organization that will protect the land in perpetuity. Their donation was made under Environment Canada's Ecological Gifts Program. The two couples already attached a great deal of importance to these wild areas, but it was during the donation process that they came to discover the enormous ecological value of this piece of land. In addition to providing quality habitat for a variety of plant and animal species, the donated property is now part of a conservation initiative aimed at protecting a corridor of unfragmented forest connecting the Eastern Townships and Vermont. This corridor will provide favourable habitat for species like the Bobcat, the Moose and the Barred Owl, which require large expanses of wilderness for their survival. In November 2004, the four friends proudly attended the inauguration ceremony for the McCallum-Gilbert Natural Reserve, a protected area in which construction, hunting and resource harvesting are henceforth prohibited. Horace Gilbert died the following year, glad that their project had finally come to fruition after 30 years of effort and, like his wife and the McCallums, hopeful that this important gesture would inspire others.
The Northern Saw-whet Owl is the smallest owl in Quebec. This discreet nocturnal bird frequents coniferous and mixed forests as well as wet woodlands.
Photo: © Pierre Bernier, MRNF
In the McCallums' home, right beside the protected habitats, one can see framed photos of a Northern Saw-whet Owl and a Barred Owl that were taken in the yard. The owls were both captured on film as they cautiously eyed the goings-on at some birdfeeders. Few people ever get the chance to see these two forest species, let alone from their kitchen window. What a wonderful reward for the McCallums and the Gilberts, who chose to embrace nature by preserving their land and providing a legacy that future generations will be able to enjoy.
5. RUTH EDNA KERR NEVILLE
A Family Saves a Bog and a Fern Species
Donor Profiles: RUTH EDNA KERR NEVILLE (PDF Version, 389 KB)
The tree generations of Nevilles
Photo: © The Nature Conservancy of Canada
As a child, Ruth Edna Kerr used to spend her summers at Missisquoi Bay, on Lake Champlain, where her family had bought land and built a lakeside cottage, as had many Montrealers after the Great Depression. There, she met Vincent Neville, who lived nearby on his family's farm, in what is now Venise-en-Québec. Ruth Edna Kerr and Vincent Neville got married in 1947 and settled in Montréal, where the young man learned the upholstery trade and started a furniture business. In 1973, Vincent Neville and his sister inherited from their parents the farm originally acquired by their Irish ancestors in 1846. Mr. Neville later bought his sister's share of the farm. Although pieces of the original farmland have been parcelled off over time, some 200 acres remained in family hands until recently, when the Nevilles decided to give away a large part of it.
The property donated (in yellow) by the Neville family, near Lake Champlain, is part of the Venise Ouest bog.
Photo: © The Nature Conservancy of Canada
The story of this gift goes back to 1962 and takes place in the woods and wetlands behind the farmhouse where one of the Nevilles' sons, Peter, spent most of his time hunting while visiting his grandparents. One day, the boy ran into a group of students from McGill University who were doing a plant survey. He learned with surprise that a rare plant species, the Bog Fern, grew there. When he got home, young Peter shared this news with his family members, who were also surprised to learn that the homestead sheltered an unsuspected treasure. About twenty years later, another study group came onto the property to transplant some Bog Ferns in the hope of saving them from the environmental changes expected to result from a drainage and road-raising project. The works were intended to prevent flooding from the lake and provide better drainage conditions for the local farmers. "We didn't want our land to be affected by this project, so we suggested other ways of preventing the flooding and we tried in vain to stop the process. The works went ahead and wiped out the beaver dams and a flooded area where I used to hunt ducks, and I still miss them a lot today,"
Peter says.
Years later, in 1997, Peter was reminded of this rare fern species and the road project at a talk on conservation. He attended a Rotary meeting that featured a speaker from the Nature Conservancy of Canada who described the various ways to preserve the biological integrity of a piece of land, one being to donate it to a conservation group that will provide permanent protection. Peter liked this idea and discussed it with his family, who found it interesting. Vincent Neville thought it was a good idea, but he passed away soon afterward, leaving the homestead to his wife Ruth Edna. After several months of discussion, three generations of Nevilles agreed to part with a large portion of their heritage in order to safeguard it. Several biological surveys were undertaken to evaluate the ecological value of the property, which was ultimately considered to be worthy of protection. In March 2003, Ruth Edna Kerr Neville, acting with the consent of her children and grandchildren, made an ecological donation of 148 acres (60 hectares) of the family's farmland to the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC). This non-governmental organization will ensure that the biodiversity and environmental heritage of this property located in the Venise Ouest bog are preserved in perpetuity. The donation was made through Environment Canada's Ecological Gifts Program, which provides donors of ecologically sensitive land or partial interests in land with special income tax benefits.
The Bog Fern grows in the shady areas of treed bogs such as the Venise Ouest bog. This species, listed as threatened in Quebec, occurs only in the most southerly part of the province.
Photo: © Gildo Lavoie, MDDEP
The Bog Fern has since been listed as a threatened species in Quebec. Only three small populations are known to grow in the province. Thanks to the Nevilles' generous gift, one of them is protected forever and so are the many other wildlife species living in what is now the Neville Nature Reserve. More than 20 years after the drainage project was carried out, Peter Neville is still upset about it: "I really wanted to see the area preserved. The donation ensures that the natural treasures of our land will be safeguarded and can be cherished by humanity for a long time. The cost of taxes, surveillance and upkeep is now in the hands of the NCC. As for us, we still enjoy the area, but we are assured that if some project threatens to affect the nature of things, the NCC will be in a better position to provide the necessary protection."
The three generations of Nevilles who agreed to give away to nature a large portion of their ancestral land. (Ruth Edna Kerr Neville is in the front row, on the left, and her son Peter is in the second row, third from the left.)
Photo: © The Nature Conservancy of Canada
6. THE ESTATE OF WILLIAM OLIVER
Ecological Gift in the Laurentians: A Legacy to Nature
Donor Profiles: THE ESTATE OF WILLIAM OLIVER (PDF Version, 414 KB)
Barbara and William Oliver at their Sainte-Agathe property in 1996
Photo: © Mary Gibson
In 1892, the "petit train du nord" stopped for the first time at the new station in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, a Laurentian village north of Montréal. The region had been more or less forest and agricultural land up until then, but from that moment on it became much easier to get to for resort vacationers. James R. Walker, a Montrealer on the lookout for a fishing site, arrived in Sainte-Agathe five years later on board this very same train. He bought land there, on the shore of Lac Brûlé, where he built a country house. Every summer he stayed there along with his wife and his children, who eventually bought some land around the lake for themselves.
Barbara Walker Oliver on the plateau overlooking Lac Brûlé
Photo: © Christiane Foley
So it was that Barbara Walker Oliver, James R. Walker's granddaughter, grew up between the neighbourhood of Westmount, in Montréal, and Lac Brûlé. She was a nature lover, fond of the forest, and got a great deal of pleasure from accompanying her grandfather as he forever opened up new paths inside the forest. This rather quiet rhythm of life was interrupted by the Second World War. Having reached adulthood, she married a soldier, who lost his life in active service in Italy a few months after their wedding. Following this personal tragedy, the young woman joined the Red Cross and served with them in Europe until the end of the conflict. She shortly after worked for the Canadian Red Cross in Calgary. On her return to Quebec, in search of tranquility, she acquired some wooded land on a rocky plateau overlooking Lac Brûlé. It offered a peaceful view of the undulating contours of the Laurentians and on to Mount Tremblant in the distance. William Oliver, whom she married ten years later in 1955, also preferred the peace and quiet of the mountains to the more intense activity of the lake. The newlyweds wasted no time in building their residence on the plateau. Later on they acquired a portion of the family land and a neighbouring piece of land. Their property then covered a whole mountainside right down to the Rivière Noire Valley in the south.
The Black River and its valley, Mrs. Oliver's favourite place
Photo: © Canadian Wildlife Service
Fifty years later the Olivers' property is a natural area consisting of forests and uncultivated farm lands. All around them, however, there have been developments. Roads, houses and tourist areas have increasingly encroached on the forest. Being over 80 years old and childless, deeply concerned over the fate of their beloved land, the Olivers decided to protect it in perpetuity. At the suggestion of a friend, they talked to the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), a private non-profit organization dedicated to preserving natural habitats, that visited their property and then helped them to make their project a reality. The Olivers thus discovered that their little corner of nature had an ecological value that was even more significant than they had imagined.
The huge property is made up of four distinct habitats. It is partly covered with a Sugar Maple-American Beech forest and also a Balsam Fir-White Birch forest. These forests represent a potential habitat for Bobcat, Canada Lynx and Eastern Wolf, three species whose status is vulnerable in Canada or in Quebec. The property also includes uncultivated farm lands used as feeding area for birds of prey. The Rivière Noire, bordered by spruces, alders, and Eastern Larch, meanders through the valley and offers a staging area for waterfowl. These last two habitats are also home to various animals such as beaver, Mink, hare, Black Bear and Moose. To ensure their survival, some of these species need extensive wooded territories and such spaces are becoming more and more rare or isolated in this area of the Laurentians.
The Olivers' ecological donation protects forests that are potential habitats for species such as the Canada Lynx (picture), the Bobcat and the Eastern Wolf.
Photo: © Luc Farrell
Satisfied with their decision, the couple then agreed to bequeath most of their property to the Nature Conservancy of Canada. Mr. Oliver passed away in 2002, a short while after drawing up his will, and the ecological gift of their property was made according to his wishes as part of Environment Canada's Ecological Gifts Program. This land is henceforth a protected area with limited public access. Although the specific tax benefits of the Program certainly helped the Olivers to make this important gesture, their decision was much more motivated by a wish to give back to nature a land that had been their haven of peace for so many years. Through their generous donation, they have left the wildlife of the Laurentians with a legacy of natural habitat that it sorely needs.
7. MARCELLE CORDEAU PARENT
Part of the Great Marsh of the Rivière des Mille Îles is Protected Forever
Donor Profiles: MARCELLE CORDEAU PARENT (PDF Version, 399 KB)
Mrs. Cordeau Parent at the ceremony honouring her ecological donation, held on the bank of the Rivière des Mille Îles in 2005.
Photo: © Jean Lauzon
This river does not contain a thousand islands, as its name suggests, but there are still around a hundred islands and islets, whose number varies with water levels. Starting from the Lac des Deux Montagnes, the river makes its way over 40 kilometres, through nine municipalities, and then flows into the Rivière des Prairies. The banks of the river are largely urbanized, but many of the islands remain uninhabited and are among some of the last bastions for wildlife in the Greater Montreal metropolitan area. Around thirty islands and a few shore sites are protected and make up the Parc de la Rivière-des-Mille-Îles.
The donated property (in red) has expanded the Parc de la Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, one of the last bastions for wildlife in the Greater Montréal metropolitan area.
Photo: © Robert Bisson
In November 2004, this 990-acre park was extended by 15 acres (6 hectares) thanks to an ecological gift made by Marcelle Cordeau Parent to Éco-Nature de Laval (only in French), a non-governmental organization that protects and manages the park. For this Laval citizen, the gesture was a hugely significant one, as it meant she was giving up her family assets. "My mother was born and grew up in Sainte-Rose, a neighbourhood of Laval, in a nice house that was built by my great-grandparents near the river. I never lived there personally--I was brought up in Montréal--but I spent part of my childhood there and have many happy memories of the times with all my cousins. We could leave the house to swim and take a sloop out among the islands and onto a property that my grandfather called "the islet." When we sailed through the flooded woodlands in the spring, we could imagine that we were in the Louisiana bayous," Mrs. Cordeau Parent remembers. "When they passed away, my maternal grandparents bequeathed part of the land to each of their four children and one of my grandmother's cousins. My mother inherited one-twelfth of the land, which she left to me in the 1960s. Over the years, I managed to buy the eleven other parts. I wanted to keep a connection with this place. I am just as fond of Sainte-Rose as my mother was and I want to be buried there with my husband, who passed away two years ago."
Mrs. Cordeau Parent hoped to leave the piece of land to her children and her grandchildren in their turn. However, as it is a floodplain and cannot be reached by road, one of her sons suggested that she should rather give it to an organization that would be able to protect it. She was very interested in this idea, as she didn't want to sell her property off or divide it up. Her two other children also agreed to the plan. After a few years of mulling the idea over, she made her decision.
The Silver Maple grows in wet habitats and tolerates flooding. This tree species dominates the floodplain in this sector of the Rivière des Milles Îles.
Photo: © Rodolph Balej
Her accountant put her in touch with Éco-Nature de Laval, to whom Mrs. Cordeau Parent donated her land as part of Environment Canada's Ecological Gifts Program. This Program has enabled her to protect forever the place that is so dear to her, while also receiving some tax benefits.
The flood land is covered with huge aquatic grass beds and swamp forests, where one can find cattails, lilies, rushes, willows, and Silver Maples. It also includes an islet, two ponds, and a small stream, known locally as the Ruisseau du Diable (Devil's Stream). In the spring, when the level of the river rises by two or three metres, the grass beds, the islet and the ponds are submerged, and only the maples and the willows can still be seen above the water. The area is of great ecological value and doesn't house any devils, but rather various animal species such as the Longnose Gar--the last representative of a large family of fossil fish--the Snapping Turtle, the Mink, various species of ducks, the Common Tern, the Osprey and the Red-shouldered Hawk, a bird of prey that is a species of special concern species in Canada. As with all wetlands, the marsh acts as a sponge and a natural filter. Most of these habitats have been filled in or drained in the Montréal region, which makes the ecological value of this particular great marsh all the more important.
The Longnose Gar lives in grassy, shallow areas of the lakes and large rivers of southwestern Quebec. Its ability to breathe by gulping air at the surface allows it to survive in warm, stagnant waters.
Photo: © Louis Bernatchez*
Mrs. Cordeau Parent recently visited the Rivière des Mille Îles for the first time in many years. Accompanied by her great granddaughter and other children, she rediscovered her river and her marsh. "Along with naturalists, we sailed among the waterlilies in a rabascaw and we observed "prehistoric" fish, turtles and a large variety of birds. When I saw all this natural beauty so close to Montréal, and canoeists who were enjoying it, I knew that now everyone, not just my children and my grandchildren, could learn about nature thanks to my marsh. I hope that my gift will allow future generations to enjoy all the beauty that nature holds."
* L. Bernatchez and M. Giroux. 2000. Les poissons d'eau douce du Québec et leur répartition dans l'est du Canada. Éditions Broquet. 350 pp.
8. CATHERINE SPILLANE REED
The Mont Saint-Hilaire Green Belt Gains Protection
Donor Profiles: CATHERINE SPILLANE REED (PDF Version, 425 KB)
Catherine Spillane Reed with her son Tim and her granddaughters on the summit of Mont Saint-Hilaire, overlooking the Richelieu River.
Photo: © Centre de la Nature du Mont Saint-Hilaire
It was Pier 21. Or was it 23? Catherine Spillane Reed doesn't exactly remember, but she does recall that it was on a pier in Halifax that she set foot on Canadian soil for the first time some 50 years ago. The young Australian had left her native land a few years before to visit her grandmother in Ireland. One meeting leading to another, she had travelled all over Europe and ended up in Oslo, Norway. There she had met Owen Reed, a New Zealander who later immigrated to Montréal, where he found a job as an actuary. So there she was on this day in 1955, coming to rejoin the man who would become her husband.
The maple stand covering the property donated by Mrs. Spillane Reed is a forest environment characteristic of Mont Saint-Hilaire.
Photo: © Centre de la Nature du Mont Saint-Hilaire
Every weekend, the newlyweds would cycle to the Mont Saint-Hilaire region on the south shore of Montréal. They liked this Monteregian hill and its surroundings. One day, they saw a forested piece of land for sale on the southwestern mountainside. It offered a beautiful view of the Richelieu River and Montréal. The couple bought it in 1957 with the idea of building a house, but the soil was solid rock and it would have been a lot of trouble to build there. So they left it in its natural state and settled in nearby Otterburn Park instead. They would go walking their piece of land once in a while. "It was a nice place with lots of birds. The trilliums were beautiful in springtime. I liked the big rocks that had tumbled down the mountain,"
Mrs. Spillane Reed says. Later, with their three children, they often went hiking, jogging or snowshoeing on the mountain trails.
The White Trillium often forms large colonies in the maple forests of southern Quebec. This slow growing plant takes seven to ten years to produce its first flower.
Photo: © Léo-Guy de Repentigny, Canadian Wildlife Service
In 1980, the Reeds moved to Toronto. As they got older, they began to think about the future of their land. The whole family loved the mountain and still remembered it very fondly even though they were far away. It held a special place in their hearts and they never thought of selling it. When Mr. Reed died suddenly in the mid-1990s, his wife and children thought the land should belong to an organization that would care for it and offer the protection it deserved. This had also been Mr. Reed's wish. In 2003, Mrs. Spillane Reed donated their forested parcel of land to the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), a private organization dedicated to safeguarding natural areas. She was helped in the process by the Centre de la Nature du Mont Saint-Hilaireand by McGill University. Her donation was made through Environment Canada's Ecological Gifts Program; this allowed her to get some tax benefits, which certainly added advantages to the donation, although her gift was not motivated by this.
Nearly extirpated from the St. Lawrence Valley in the 1970s, the Peregrine Falcon population is slowly recovering. Each year, a pair of these falcons nests on a cliff at Mont Saint-Hilaire.
Photo: © Gordon Court
Ever since the construction of highways in the 1960s shortened the distance between Montréal and Mont Saint-Hilaire, residential developments have been spreading at the foot of the mountain. The Reeds' forested land forms an oasis of green in this residential area. A Peregrine Falcon couple is known to have nested once on the tumbling-rock cliff that overlooks the property. The land also shelters two species of plants that only grow in the shade of the rich forests of southern Quebec: the White Trillium Mrs. Spillane Reed enjoyed so much, and the Bloodroot, which produces a blood-red latex. Both species, and the Peregrine Falcon, are listed as vulnerable in Quebec. The bird of prey is also listed as threatened in Canada. The legacy of this one-acre (half-hectare) property will certainly help in protecting these species and maintaining the precious green belt around the mountain. "My grandfather had a big property in Sydney, Australia. It had cliffs and woods and was bordering a marsh. I spent my childhood there. It was a land I loved, a place of beauty. When my grandfather passed away, his daughters sold it to a developer who levelled it and filled it with houses. He destroyed it. It was heartbreaking. I cried when I saw what he had done to it,"
Mrs. Spillane Reed sadly recalls. The roots of this Australian-born Canadian made their way from her home country to Mont Saint-Hilaire and to Toronto, where she still lives. Her Australian place of beauty is gone, but her Canadian piece of land on a mountainside near Montréal will never meet with the same fate.
9. JOHN SAURO
Buys Land and Donates It to Ensure Its Protection
Donor Profiles: JOHN SAURO (PDF Version, 407 KB)
John Sauro watches as dusk descends on the two ponds he saved from destruction in 1982.
Photo: © Christiane Foley
Buy in order to protect: John Sauro knows exactly what that means. To date, he has spent over $200,000 on the purchase of 360 acres of marsh, bog and forest in Venise-en-Québec, near Lake Champlain. What for? Well, for no reason other than to relieve the land of the man-made pressures that were threatening it. He bought his first lot in 1982: two beaver ponds that had been drained to make a golf course and a residential area. In order to save this small piece of nature, the 23-year-old man had to cash in his Canada Savings Bonds and borrow money from his mother and one of his brothers. Around ten years later, after paying off his debts, Mr. Sauro managed to acquire four additional lots adjoining the first one, including a mature pine forest that was in imminent danger of becoming a housing development. He remortgaged his home three times to get the necessary money to buy these pieces of land.
This "marsh-lover" was actually brought up far from nature. His father, an Italian miller whose business was ruined during the Second World War, immigrated to Montréal in 1949. His mother arrived the following year, along with their first three children and a huge trunk, full of Italian food. In 1953, the couple bought a modest home in Ville Saint-Michel, which has since become a district of Montréal, and raised their seven children there. John Sauro had never ventured far from this urban neighbourhood before he took part, at the age of 12, in a camping trip north of Montréal that was organized by three teachers from his school. When the bus left the city, the boy couldn't believe what he was seeing-a whole new world of trees and mountains. The next day, as he was out hiking, he wandered away from the rest of his group to better discover the silence and the sounds of nature: the wind in the leaves, the rushing water and the birds all around. Some fish were swimming upstream. Were they trout? He had no idea, but he was sure of one thing: nature would be a part of his life from then on.
One of the beaver pond bought by Mr Sauro
Photo: © Canadian Wildlife Service
Some thirty-five years on and it is hard to believe that at one time John Sauro couldn't recognize a trout. He is now a wildlife management technician and a keen hunter, fisherman and a strong advocate for wetland protection. The two drained ponds that he acquired in 1982 have been reflooded and are used each year by thousands of ducks and other waterfowl, by different species of frogs and turtles, and by mammals like Beaver, River Otter and Fisher. He operates a duck banding station there in partnership with the Canadian Wildlife Service.
A few years ago, Mr. Sauro began to think about the future of his land. He wanted it to be set aside for wildlife forever. After discussing the subject with his notary, he chose to donate his land to a conservation group rather than to his children. And so it was that in 2001, he transferred most of his land to the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), a private non-profit organization, and in 2003, he made the ecological gift of his 12-acre (5-hectare) pine forest to the same group as part of Environment Canada's Ecological Gifts Program.
The donated property offers suitable habitat for the Pileated Woodpecker, a crow-sized bird. Mature forests and dead trees are essential to the survival of this species.
Photo: © Léo-Guy de Repentigny, Canadian Wildlife Service
This forest, located by the two ponds, is largely made up of a White Pine-Red Maple stand, a forest community that has progressively disappeared from the Great Lakes- St. Lawrence Lowlands region since the beginning of colonization. It offers a rich habitat for various animals, such as Pileated Woodpecker, Great Horned Owl and White-tailed Deer, and is an important buffer zone between populated areas and the bogs of Venise Ouest. These bogs, as well as filtering the waters of Lake Champlain, shelter a large variety of plants, including Pitch Pine and Bog Fern, two species that are listed as threatened in Quebec and are only found at two other locations in the whole province. The Ecological Gifts Program thus ensures the protection of a forest that is highly significant ecologically for these wetlands. It also made it possible for Mr. Sauro to receive a tax credit, a financial relief that was welcomed by this man who has made so many sacrifices during his lifetime to protect the lands that he loves so much.
The Venise Ouest bog shelters one of the three known Pitch Pine populations in Quebec. Mr. Sauro's ecological gift will preserve a buffer zone between this bog and populated areas.
Photo: © Christiane Foley
His school teachers Clem Prioletta, Frank Buffa and Walter Ninzatti surely never imagined the effect that a camping trip could have had on one of their students back in 1971. They only learned about it a few years ago, when Mr. Sauro called them each individually to thank them for the trip that had changed his life. John Sauro received a Phénix de l'Environnement Award in 2002, marking his many years of hard work dedicated to the protection of the Lake Champlain bogs and his other individual conservation achievements. His most generous donation has ensured, once and for all, that his efforts will not have been in vain.
10. STANSJE PLANTENGA AND ANNE SHEPHERD
Landowners Find a Way to Save their Magic Valley
Donor Profiles: STANSJE PLANTENGA AND ANNE SHEPHERD (PDF Version, 416 KB)
Thanks to Stansje Plantenga, another part of the Ruiter Valley is protected forever.
Photo: © Anne Shepherd
In the Sutton Mountains portion of the Appalachians, in the Eastern Townships, a narrow valley winds its way through mounts Echo, Singer, West and Clark, which range in height from 460 to 770 metres. The Ruiter Valley has a brook of the same name that flows from Fullerton Pond to the Missisquoi River. In the early 1960s, this lost paradise drew Robert Shepherd, a Montréal psychiatrist who loved to camp, canoe and rough it in the woods. This father of three bought an old farm in Mansonville, on the eastern slope of the valley. "My father had us planting trees at an early age as his initial plan was to develop a tree farm,"
his daughter Anne says. "I remember carrying heavy buckets of pine seedlings for the men to plant during black fly season. Now, that was a labour of love!"
Mr. Shepherd later bought other properties in the valley and constructed log buildings to house a living community for healing schizophrenics. One day, Stansje Plantenga, a Dutch-born woman who grew up in Montréal, visited the community. A bank teller and artist who had graduated from the École des Beaux-arts de Montréal, she had long been interested in working with schizophrenics. And ever since she had arrived in Quebec at the age of six, she had been fascinated by the province's wild and untamed nature. It is not surprising that a year after her first visit to the valley, she moved there and worked in the community as a therapist and art teacher.
Anne Shepherd in the pine forest planted by her family
Photo: © Stansje Plantenga
After a few years, Mr. Shepherd and Mrs. Plantenga, now married, made a big change in their lives. The region's once numerous farms had gradually been abandoned and forests had reclaimed the land in many areas. The couple hoped that these areas would one day be covered with old-growth forests. To them, the valley was magical. They wanted to save it from logging and development, but they didn't know how. They embarked on a long journey of research, meetings, fund-raising work and legal issues that led to the creation of the Ruiter Valley Land Trust (RVLT), in 1987. Mr. Shepherd donated a core area of 400 acres of land to this new conservation group, whose goal was and still is to protect the integrity of this valley located in an area of relatively unfragmented forest, one of the last wilderness regions in southernmost Quebec. Later on, he transferred a 10-acre parcel of land to each of his children. Robert Shepherd succumbed to cancer in the fall of 1990; he passed away convinced that helping to set up the Trust and save large tracts of forest was one of the best things he had ever done.
One of the valuable wetlands of the Ruiter Valley
Photo: © Christiane Foley
Mrs. Plantenga continued the work they had started together. In 2001, she decided to make another generous donation to the RVLT, this time through Environment Canada's Ecological Gifts Program, established in 1995. She made an ecological gift of an 80-acre (32-hectare) forest, consisting mostly of maple and poplar stands, on the eastern side of the valley. Among various species, the donated land shelters Wild Leek, a vulnerable plant in Quebec. Although Mrs. Plantenga knew the Ecological Gifts Program would provide her with tax benefits, she was agreeably surprised at the tax credit she got. "It was an unexpected gift that made life easier for me for a number of years."
Thanks to this woman's unshakable faith in nature, another part of the magic valley is now protected forever and so are its diverse plant and animal species. After 25 years in the area, this nature-lover has recently developed a new relationship with the land: she helps to coordinate a volunteer-based animal tracking program that has already identified part of the Ruiter Valley as a core habitat for Black Bear, Fisher and Moose, and that will be a useful tool for scientists, administrators and planners concerned with wildlife preservation.
Part of the Ruiter Valley is a core habitat for Black Bear and several other mammal species.
Photo: © Stansje Plantenga
Robert Shepherd's daughter, Anne, now lives in Toronto, where she works as a psychotherapist and psychoanalyst. In 2002, inspired by her father and by Stansje Plantenga, she decided to make the ecological donation of the 10-acre (4-hectare) forested piece of land her father had given her years earlier. The property is located close to Mrs. Plantenga's donated land in an area that is home to many species of wildlife such as the Northern Dusky Salamander, the Two-lined Salamander, the White-breasted Nuthatch, the Pileated Woodpecker, and the Winter Wren. Although the tax benefits offered by the Ecological Gifts Program certainly encouraged Ms. Shepherd to make this donation, her motivation ran much deeper than that. "Stansje has allowed me to understand the ecological value of the land in the valley and communicated her profound interest in the survival and future of the animal life there. I love walking the trails with her and visiting the spot where my father's ashes are buried by his beloved trees on the mountainside. The pine seedlings are now a towering grove and represent our work as a family and our desire to replenish the Earth and conserve it for future generations. I hope my children and their children will be able to walk under these same trees. I know my father would be proud of my having given back in a meaningful way."
Stansje Plantenga and Robert Shepherd in their magic valley in 1983.
Photo: © Noel Salmond
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