NCC Magazine, Summer 2023

SUMMER 2023 

The big 

picture 

TKTKTKTKTKTKT 

Embracing technology and innovation to 

make transformational changes in conservation 

natureconservancy.ca 

WINTER 2021 1

SUMMER 2023 

CONTENTS 

Nature Conservancy of Canada 

4 Fragile beauty 

At-risk plant species of Canada’s 

Prairie grasslands. 

6 Nebo 

Spectacular landscapes abound 

where the boreal forest meets the 

Prairie grasslands in Saskatchewan. 

7 Big Backyard 

BioBlitz 

Connect with nature, and with 

each other. 

7 Nature’s lure 

Fishing, and the call of the water, 

is a constant draw for Kimberly Orren, 

executive director of Fishing for Success. 

12 Native grassland 

specialist 

Sprague’s pipit, an indicator of 

prairie health. 

14 A way with words 

Jane Gilbert, NCC’s chief storyteller, 

empowers nature’s heroes. 

16 Project updates 

IPCA collaboration, NB; Haley Lake Nature 

Reserve, NS; Reginald Hill Conservation 

Area, BC; tackling phragmites, QC. 

18 Dancing in the dark 

Esme Batten on chasing the aurora 

borealis with her camera. 

8 At the forefront 

Innovation and bold thinking are helping 

accelerate conservation. 

Digital extras 

Check out our online magazine page with 

additional content to supplement this issue, 

at nccmagazine.ca. 

Nature Conservancy of Canada 

245 Eglinton Ave. East, Suite 410 | Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 3J1 

magazine@natureconservancy.ca | Phone: 416.932.3202 | Toll-free: 877.231.3552 

The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is the country’s unifying force for nature. We seek 

solutions to the twin crises of rapid biodiversity loss and climate change through large-scale, 

permanent land conservation. NCC is a registered charity. With nature, we build a thriving world. 

The Nature Conservancy of Canada Magazine is distributed to donors and supporters of NCC. 

TM 

Trademarks owned by the Nature Conservancy of Canada. 

FSC is not responsible for any calculations on 

saving resources by choosing this paper. 

Printed in Canada with vegetable-based inks by Warrens Waterless Printing. 

This publication saved 27 trees and 24,924 litres of water*. 

CREATED BY: CALCULATEUR.ROLLANDINC.COM. PHOTO: SEAN FEAGAN/NCC STAFF. COVER: GATES CREEK, BC: ALEX NEWALL. 

* 

2 FALL 2022 natureconservancy.ca

Sharp-tailed grouse 

on The Yarrow, AB. 

Featured 

Contributors 

CHRISTIAN BLAIS. 

Dear friends, 

In my work for the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) 

in Quebec, I’m often struck by how the biggest successes 

come from the most unlikely places. Take our collaboration 

with Groupements forestiers Québec (GFQ), for instance. Five 

years ago, I couldn’t have imagined how NCC could work successfully 

with landowners whose primary activities included timber 

harvesting. But we decided to think outside the box, and we 

launched the Quebec Ecological Corridors Initiative, which brings 

together landowners and countless other partners to conserve 

natural areas that are connected by ecological corridors. Five 

years later, along with GFQ, we’ve developed a conference and 

training program that encourages more than 600 woodlot owners 

to foster ecological connectivity on their land. 

NCC’s belief in the importance of embracing new ideas and 

innovation to help accelerate the pace of conservation showcases 

how, if we are to truly address the dual crises of biodiversity loss 

and climate change, we must go beyond our areas of expertise, 

work with new partners and collaborators and develop or embrace 

new tools. In this issue of the Nature Conservancy of Canada 

Magazine, writer Jimmy Thomson explores three NCC projects 

that are doing just that. 

This issue illustrates how thinking big also means being ambitious: 

daring to try new things, working at larger scales and at 

a faster pace than ever before to conserve diverse, high-quality 

areas. Other times, like in the case of Reginald Hill in BC (Project 

Updates, page 17), it can also mean embracing big opportunities 

in the smallest area. 

By working together, we can all appreciate our role in building 

a thriving natural world. Because when nature thrives, we all thrive. 

Yours in conservation, 

Kateri Monticone 

Kateri Monticone 

Director of strategic conservation and innovation – Quebec 

Jimmy Thomson 

is a nationally recognized 

environmental 

journalist whose work 

has been published in 

The Narwhal, the Globe 

and Mail, The Walrus and 

others, and he has 

taught journalism and 

writing at UBC and UVic. 

He lives in Victoria, BC. 

He wrote “At the 

forefront,” page 8. 

Remie Geoffroi 

is an Ottawa-based 

illustrator. His clients 

include MIT, Wall 

Street Journal, 

Billboard and ESPN. 

He has illustrated 

titles from Martha 

Stewart and Tim 

Feriss. He enjoys 

travel, yoga and sport 

fishing. He illustrated 

“At the forefront,” 

page 8. 


SUMMER 2023 3

COAST TO 

COAST 

Fragile beauty 

The richness and diversity of some of Canada’s prairie plant 

species are at risk 

If variety is the spice of life, then grasslands are like a chef’s palette. Canada’s Prairie 

grasslands are home to dozens of species at risk. Iconic wildlife like burrowing owl, 

greater sage-grouse and swift fox are found here, as well as several fascinating and 

beautiful at-risk plant species. 

Grassland areas themselves are diverse. Sand dunes, badlands and wetlands intersperse 

areas of grassy habitats, and each creates its own micro habitat. They also contain hundreds of 

types of plant species, including mosses, herbaceous plants and shrubs. These species epitomize 

the incredible variety of plant life found across the Canadian Prairies — from the fescue 

grasslands of Alberta’s foothills, to the tall grass prairie of Manitoba and the mixed-grass prairies 

in between. Sometimes this diversity is obvious — like when the flowering lupines, balsamroots 

and paintbrush cover the foothills in purple, yellow and red. At other times, it takes a hand 

lens and a discerning eye to appreciate. 

Whether common or rare, these plants benefit both people and ecosystems. Many flowering 

plants support pollinators, while others fertilize the soil by converting nitrogen in the air to 

forms that are usable by other species. 

Despite their importance, some of these grassland plants are now at risk. Some are naturally 

rare or have a limited range in Canada. Others are dwindling as more and more Prairie grasslands 

are lost or invaded by exotic species. 

The following are some of the at-risk plant species that you are helping protect by conserving 

Canada’s Prairie grasslands. The plants thank you, and so do we.1 

Western prairie 

white-fringed orchid 

When you hear the word orchid, 

you can’t help but picture something 

stunning, and the western prairie 

white-fringed orchid is no exception. 

This gorgeous, white-flowered 

plant found in Manitoba’s tall grass 

prairie grows in wet, calcium-rich 

prairies and meadows. Manitoba’s 

population of this endangered 

species, which includes half of its 

global population, is the northernmost 

of its range. A perennial species, 

western prairie white-fringed orchid 

can reach heights of 40 to 90 centimetres, 

and attains peak bloom from 

late June to mid-July. 

LETA PEZDERIC/NCC STAFF. ILLUSTRATIONS: JACQUI OAKLEY. 

4 SUMMER 2023 natureconservancy.ca

Tiny Cryptantha 

Found in river valleys in southeastern 

Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan, 

this small, hairy plant has tiny 

white flowers with yellow centres. 

Canadian populations of this threatened 

species, which is also known as 

little cat’s-eye, are separate from the 

rest of its population, with the closest 

being about 200 kilometres to the 

south in Montana. Found in sandy 

upland areas and sand dunes, tiny 

Cryptantha is threatened by habitat 

loss and degradation. 

Western blue flag 

A native iris, western blue flag is a 

federal species of special concern found 

in Alberta. Its sword-shaped leaves 

produce stalks with two to four pale- to 

deep-blue flowers. It most commonly 

grows in the transition area between 

grassland and streamside habitat. A 

primary threat facing western blue flag 

is competition from invasive species. 

Western spiderwort 

This threatened plant is found on 

sand dune ridges, typically those 

that are steeper and south-facing. It 

has been observed at a handful of 

sites in southeastern Alberta, southern 

Saskatchewan and southwestern 

Manitoba. Blink and you might miss it; 

western spiderwort blooms from May 

to July, with each of its eye-catching 

purple-blue flowers lasting for only 

a single day. This plant is pollinated 

mainly by sweat bees. 

Small white 

lady’s-slipper 

Found in the tall grass and mixed-grass 

prairie of Manitoba, small white lady’s-slipper 

generally lives in areas affected by 

natural disturbances, such as wildfires, light 

grazing and mowing. Without these 

disturbances, tall vegetation and woody 

plants will outcompete these tiny orchids. 

Small white lady’s-slipper is named, aptly, 

after its slipper-shaped flower, which blooms 

from May through June. 

Hare-footed locoweed 

A threatened member of the pea family, 

hare-footed locoweed is found in the fescue 

grasslands of southern Alberta. The first 

part of this species’ name refers to the fuzzy 

outer part of the flower, which some think 

looks like a rabbit’s foot. This low-growing, 

purple-flowered plant is being threatened by 

habitat loss and competition from invasive 

species, particularly crested wheatgrass. 

Soapweed 

Also widely known by its genus name, 

yucca, this threatened plant is found on 

coulee slopes in southern Alberta and 

Saskatchewan. It has stiff, pointed leaves 

and a group of creamy-white flowers that 

emerge from a flower stalk that grows up 

to 100 centimetres tall. Soapweed supports 

several specialized moth species, which 

are endangered in Canada. 



BOOTS ON 

THE TRAIL 

Township Road 500 

 

N 

Ordale Road 

Nebo 

Nebo 

Spectacular landscapes abound in Saskatchewan, 

where the boreal forest meets the Prairie grasslands 

Worries fade as you explore the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s (NCC’s) 

Nebo property, located approximately 70 kilometres from Prince Albert, 

Saskatchewan. The geography here is spectacular, with rolling hills 

ending in secluded forest-fringed wetlands. As you hike along a remarkable transition 

zone that bridges boreal forest with Prairie grasslands, you may come across 

NCC’s forest restoration work that began on-site in 2017; more than 32,000 white 

spruce seedlings have been planted with the generous support of Tree Canada. 

As you look over the hills, you may spot wildlife such as deer, moose, songbirds and 

many waterfowl.1 

LEARN MORE 

natureconservancy.ca/nebo 

LEGEND 

-- Railbed Trail 

-- Cutblock Trail 

SPECIES TO SPOT 

• American badger 

• American black bear 

• barn swallow 

• black-and-white warbler 

• boreal chickadee 

• Canada jay 

• Canada warbler 

• common nighthawk 

• great crested flycatcher 

-- West Trail Connection 

-- East Trail Connection 

• green-winged teal 

• hooded merganser 

• horned grebe 

• moose 

• northern long-eared bat 

• olive-sided flycatcher 

• rusty blackbird 

• western grebe 

• yellow-headed blackbird 

MAP: JACQUES PERRAULT. PHOTOS L TO R: MIKE DEMBECK; MIKE DEMBECK; MIKE DEMBECK; MIKE DEMBECK; LETA PEZDERIC/NCC STAFF. 

6 SUMMER 2023 

natureconservancy.ca

ACTIVITY 

CORNER 

BACKPACK 

ESSENTIALS 

L TO R: BRIANNA ROYE; EMILY WILLIAMS. 

Big Backyard 

BioBlitz 

Connect with nature, and with 

each other 

Bioblitzes are community science efforts to 

document as many species as possible within 

a specific area and time period, using your smartphone 

or tablet. The Nature Conservancy of 

Canada’s (NCC’s) Big Backyard BioBlitz is a five-day, 

go-at-your-own-pace event to document the 

creatures around us. The bonus is that your 

observations can help conservation experts take 

stock of local biodiversity, track rare species and 

tackle invasive ones. Here are four ways to make 

it fun for all: 

FAMILIES 

Make it a scavenger hunt for kids and adults, 

and team up to see who can spot the largest 

number of critters. 

FRIENDS 

Because the BioBlitz is done using your phone and 

then uploaded to a global database, it doesn’t 

matter whether your friends are near or far. Make 

a game of it and challenge them to see who can 

submit the most species observations. 

NATURE LOVERS 

Learn a handful of fun facts about a plant, animal 

or insect you’ve observed, so you can share them 

with other nature lovers. 

NEXT-LEVEL ENTHUSIASTS 

Capture the sounds of a bird or insect on your next 

walk. Notice the different sounds birds make in 

urban areas compared to more natural areas. 

Turn your gaze to nature over the August long 

weekend and join thousands of other nature lovers 

who’ll be contributing to valuable science data. 

Big Backyard BioBlitz: August 3–7 

Sign up to participate at backyardbioblitz.ca. 

Nature’s lure 

Kimberly Orren, executive director of Fishing for Success, is 

guided by the sounds and stories found at the ocean’s edge 

While I can’t bring a boat in my backpack, I would definitely want to make 

certain that my wanderings bring me to the water. Whether it is a stream 

or a pond, a lake or waterfall, or, as so often in my favourite places to 

hike in my province, to the ocean’s edge! 

We are fortunate in Petty Harbour-Maddox Cove to have the East Coast Trail, 

which runs along some of the most beautiful coastlines in Newfoundland and Labrador 

and passes through a Nature Conservancy of Canada property, part of the fog forest. 

This brings me to my favourite spot here: a magic tree! Sitting beneath it, you can 

hear the waves crashing below and tell stories about weather lore and how the sound 

of waves changes with the wind direction or intensity. Beneath the crashing, you 

might hear another rhythm of the swells that hint at tomorrow’s weather that is pushing 

just beyond the horizon. 

There are barriers to nature access, and they are multiplied when it comes to 

the ocean or learning traditional fishing skills. Fishing is part of the human experience; 

a shared heritage that predates agriculture. The experience of fishing is 

transformative. It is deeply personal and drives creative thought. Many scientists 

even cite an experience at the beach or a fishing trip with a parent as the moment 

that sparked their interest in the natural world. 

Every child should be provided with this activity as a building block to their 

education about the natural world. As land dwellers, we forget that we cling to less 

than 30 per cent of the Earth’s surface. Our very existence depends on the health of 

aquatic ecosystems. I urge you to plan a hike to any water’s edge, perhaps sit beneath 

your own magic tree, and listen to the water as it makes its way out to the ocean.1 



At the 

forefront 

Using bold thinking, innovative approaches 

and new technologies to accelerate conservation 

BY Jimmy Thomson, journalist and journalism teacher 

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES. 

ILLUSTRATION: REMIE GEOFFROI. 


ALBERT LAW. 

The view from PKOLS; 

Aerin Jacob. 

The wind is pummelling the top of PKOLS as 

I reach the summit, trailing behind the Nature Conservancy 

of Canada’s (NCC’s) science and research director, Aerin 

Jacob. It’s a rare day of extreme wind on the southern tip 

of Vancouver Island; a day when the ocean below seems bent on overtaking 

the shoreline, and the occasional drops of rain, even up here, taste 

every bit as salty as sea spray as the coastline’s discrete parts blend 

together in the maelstrom. 

The squat hill, also known as Mount Douglas but now increasingly 

recognized by its original name in the local SENĆOŦEN language, may 

feel like a high mountain peak on a day like this, but it’s only 225 

metres high. Still, this municipal park provides a stellar vantage point 

from which to see the blurry lines delineating the landscape below: 

farmland that bleeds into golf courses; leafy residential streets that disappear 

into parks; and in the middle distance, the dense tangle of the 

provincial capital, which itself falls off at jagged edges into the ocean. 

If this landscape was a mosaic made up of individual tiles, Jacob 

explains, each tile would have its own role to play in the region’s ecology. 

Here on PKOLS, a bald eagle makes use of the wind to ride a little 

higher above the bending Garry oaks. The oaks themselves are draped 

in lichens like tinsel — a sign of good air quality, I’m told — and further 

down the slope, grand old cedar and Douglas-fir trees shade moist soil 

and streams. It’s the very picture of an urban protected area. 

By contrast, it’s tempting to think of the farmland and residential 

areas on the plain below as sacrifice zones, less important to the goals 

of conservation — but that would be a flawed assumption that doesn’t 

encompass how nature works and what biodiversity and people need. 

“We know that the number and severity of threats facing nature and 

the pace of change are expanding rapidly. We have to learn from and 

expand on tried-and-true approaches, like securing and stewarding private 

land,” Jacob says. “We need to make transformational changes at 

landscape scales, changes that help nature and people, now and years 

from now. We need to think big and embrace innovation.” 

When unprecedented biodiversity decline and climate change are ripping 

at the interwoven fabric of ecosystems everywhere, Jacob argues, it’s 

not enough to do what we can and hope for the best. Big, ambitious goals, 

like NCC’s determination to double support in the next three years and 

double its impact by 2030, demand a bold approach — where no method 

is taken for granted, and neither successes nor failures go unanalyzed. 

New tools are needed: financial tools that attract private sector 

investment to conserve nature, next-generation technologies 

to make smarter use of data, and planning technology that 

tracks, understands and communicates changes on each 

of those little tiles spread out below us, but on a national 

scale. A bird’s-eye view can help shrug off modes of 

thinking that risk falling short of the transformative 

conservation outcomes that are needed. 

As an example, Jacob explains that she’s working on 

new ecological connectivity research that will evaluate 

the linkages between protected areas across Canada. The 

project will show how each protected area contributes to 

overall connectedness, and how the network as a whole 

can be enhanced by new conserved areas or restoration. 

“We have to speed up conservation and make it stronger. 

We need to get much better, more specific, at understanding 

what works, in which places, and for whom,” Jacob says. “And 

the best ways you can do that are to be open to new collaborations 

and ideas, try new things and test them to see if they're working 

as intended.” 



Richard Schuster; Boreal Wildlands, ON. 

All of it — the bold thinking, the innovative 

approaches, the new technologies — 

needs to be brought to bear in the light of day 

so that people understand what’s happening 

to nature around them and why. 

Digital impact 

The point where conservation enters the 

digital era is Richard Schuster’s wheelhouse. 

Schuster is NCC’s director of spatial planning 

and innovation, having made the jump from 

academia after growing excited about the 

possibilities for putting his ideas into action. 

The Conservation Technology Project 

he’s heading up is working to create decision-support 

tools that can help governments 

and organizations make better-informed 

choices about how to use land. 

“We need to be more strategic about 

where we work and what we do,” he says. 

That means doing more with what we have 

— information and land, naturally, but also 

community buy-in. Good intentions and 

strong policy don’t amount to much when the 

policies are ultimately rejected by confused 

and upset stakeholders. 

Thanks to the project, real-time discussions 

can happen with actual data and analysis. 

Members of the public, landowners or partners 

can see what impact different decisions 

will have with the click of a mouse, rather 

than speaking in abstractions and goals. For 

example, if decision-makers want to know 

how climate change will affect a landscape, 

they can turn on that information in the tool, 

which allows users to predict the impacts of 

climate change on current or future conservation 

areas and the species that live in them. 

This helps identify conservation actions that 

can help mitigate these impacts. 

“The groundbreaking part to me is that our 

tools allow people to interact with complex 

conservation data, ideas and algorithms that 

are part of the tool in a straightforward way, 

and actually do it more or less live,” Schuster 

says. “Even three years ago, nobody in the 

world was able to do that.” 

That’s a revolutionary tool in a space 

where conversations can be limited by different 

levels of access to high-quality information 

or the ability to picture the likely 

outcomes of different decisions. 

When the public and decision-makers 

see the results of good conservation policy, 

that can help gain buy-in for a new round 

of beneficial policies — a feedback loop that 

makes it essential to be able to measure 

success and be able to communicate it in 

precise terms. 

That communication piece is something 

Schuster’s project can help with, too. 

Satellite-based observations can help NCC 

and partners monitor sites (even remote 

ones) from a distance and understand 

changes over time as action is taken. 

“That makes it more practical to ‘visit’ each 

place every year,” Schuster explains. “If we 

implement a restoration activity, it will also 

help us track over time what kind of impact 

the activity has.” 

Some of that work can also be helped by 

harnessing people’s eagerness to understand 

nature — community science tools like 

iNaturalist and eBird are constantly adding to 

their databases with real-life observations, 

and Schuster’s team is using those open data 

sources to better predict where species can 

be found. 

ADAM BIALO/KONTAKT FILMS; PHOTO COURTESY RICHARD SCHUSTER. ILLUSTRATION: REMIE GEOFFROI. 



MIKE DEMBECK; PHOTO COURTESY ADAIR RIGNEY. 

Artificial intelligence (AI), perhaps the 

most revolutionary technology space of this 

era, has potential in conservation as well. Decision-making 

and monitoring programs benefit 

from “machine learning,” with first-of-theirkind 

AI systems making complex math tools 

more accessible to more users. 

“They can be used anywhere in Canada 

and use the best available information on 

biodiversity, nature's contributions to people 

and threats like climate change and human 

impacts. This will allow users to determine 

where to act and what to do to help nature 

thrive,” Schuster says. Because it’s all about 

creating opportunities to deploy better information 

to make better decisions, those tools 

are available not just to NCC staff but to anyone 

who wants to use them — from other 

land trusts and community organizations to 

all levels of government and landowners. 

But it can’t just be a matter of allowing 

algorithms to make those decisions for us. 

Joe Bennett, an associate professor at Carleton 

University who supervised Schuster’s 

postdoctoral fellowship before he made the 

jump to NCC, stresses that transparency in 

how the decisions are made is critical to 

achieving good results. 

“What happened in previous cases was 

somebody chooses a place, or a group of 

people choose a place, and nobody else really 

knows why,” he says. “Transparency is very, 

very important, and in the future will help to 

alleviate some conflict.” 

Transparency, Bennett said, may even 

mean going as far as sitting down with stakeholders, 

laptop open, and showing how 

outcomes change as different needs and values 

are weighted above others. That’s something 

NCC’s decision-making tools can do. 

Innovative funding 

Big, bold ideas don’t always cost money. 

Sometimes, they can be harnessed as a way 

of generating funding that can support the 

work that needs doing. 

Floods can cause billions of dollars in damage 

to cities and farmland, and we know that 

they’re made worse by the loss of wetlands. 

Governments, landowners and insurance 

companies all know what’s at risk. 

“Insurance companies are incredibly aware 

of the increasing costs that they are paying out 

in Canada for climate-related impacts,” says 

Adair Rigney, who is the director of projects 

and innovation for NCC’s Nature + Climate 

Projects Accelerator (the Accelerator) team. 

Conserving wetlands is one way to minimize 

those costs in the long term. There’s 

a growing recognition that the benefits of 

protecting nature accrue beyond satisfying 

our fondness for wild places and creatures: 

nature provides direct benefits to humans, 

with financial implications. And there is a tremendous 

amount of work going on right now 

to figure out how to measure those benefits 

and find ways to attract private-sector investment 

to support their conservation. 

“Protected areas are not just about 

nature for nature’s sake; they actually provide 

crucial benefits to people near and 

far,” Rigney says. The same thinking can 

apply to other nature-based solutions. 

“It’s about showing how our conservation 

projects provide nature-based services to 

society, and monetizing them.” 

Now NCC is trying something new for the 

organization: restoring forested areas in Manitoba 

by combining habitat restoration with 

carbon credit markets to attract more investment 

to its work. NCC is considering restoring 

degraded forests and planting new trees 

between Riding Mountain National Park and 

Duck Mountain Provincial Forest. These projects 

could generate carbon credits, which 

represent the amount of carbon dioxide that 

the trees will absorb from the atmosphere 

over their lifetime. The revenue generated 

from the sale of carbon credits can be used to 

support other conservation work, creating 

a positive feedback loop. 

“If this pilot project ends up being viable, 

and we proceed, there is a high potential this 

could be applied to other NCC lands requiring 

some reforestation efforts — to hopefully 

recoup some costs and/or attract interested 

partners or conservation-minded investors,” 

Rigney explains. 

It is an opportunity to try something big 

and important, and to learn from it. 

It doesn’t need to stop there. Think of the 

benefits that pollinators provide all of us when 

we protect their habitat, or how salt marshes 

protect coastlines from erosion: nature is our 

safety net, and any thought of replacing the 

benefits that people get from nature with engineered 

solutions sets the mind reeling at the 

cost alone. The Accelerator team is working to 

better understand the value of these services 

and attract investment in nature, so we don’t 

need expensive engineering solutions. 

Adair Rigney; Point Escuminac Nature Reserve, NB. 

Hearts and minds 

Jacob and I last only a few moments in the 

stiff bluster at the peak of PKOLS. We’re 

practically alone up there, maybe for good 

reason. On a calmer day, this hill would be 

swarming with nature lovers — young 

couples, active seniors, dog walkers, maybe 

even iNaturalist-wielding birders incidentally 

contributing to NCC’s data program — but 

today, most of our fellow Victorians have 

better sense than to venture up. 

Those people’s care for the world around 

them is critical for all of this work to succeed. 

Even with the growing recognition of nature’s 

financial importance, its intrinsic and 

emotional value retains its pull for most of us. 

When hard tradeoffs need to be made, with 

help from data analyzed by sophisticated 

computer models, the actual decisions still 

rest in human hands and the outcomes still 

rest on human shoulders. 

If NCC is to meet its ambitious goals, it 

will take both sides of that coin — hearts and 

minds — to fight the headwinds.1 



SPECIES 

PROFILE 

Sprague’s pipit 

This native grassland specialist is an indicator of landscape-scale prairie health 

GLENN BARTLEY. 



APPEARANCE 

Finding Sprague’s pipits on the ground 

in their native prairie habitat is challenging. 

Both males and females of this medium-sized 

songbird have a slender bill and brownish tan feathers 

that aid with camouflage among soil and dried 

vegetation. However, during the breeding season, males 

announce their presence as they circle high above their 

territories while singing a series of cascading, twinkling 

notes. The song is paired with an aerial display that 

includes wing fluttering, a series of glides, and the 

flash of white outer tail feathers. The exhibitions 

often continue for 30 minutes or more and 

end with an impressive nose-dive held 

until just a few metres above 

the ground. 

RANGE 

This species can be found 

from southern and central 

Alberta to southwestern Manitoba, 

to southern Montana, northern South 

Dakota and northwestern Minnesota. 

In winter, Sprague’s pipits can be 

found in the central southern 

U.S. and northern Mexico. 

What NCC is doing 

to protect habitat for 

this species 

The Nature Conservancy of Canada 

(NCC) owns and protects several 

properties where Sprague’s pipit 

has been found. In Manitoba, these 

include Fort Ellice, Maple Lake and 

the Yellow Quill Prairie Preserve. 

In Saskatchewan, this species has 

been observed on projects in the 

Missouri Coteau, Milk River basin, Upper 

Qu’Appelle, Saskatoon Prairie and 

Lower-Qu’Appelle-Assiniboine-Quill 

Lakes natural areas. 

In Alberta, Sprague’s pipit has been 

found on all of NCC’s grassland natural 

areas, including Haugan, Ridge and 

Sandstone ranches. 

Most of NCC’s projects supporting 

Sprague’s pipit are grazed by cattle or 

bison. Grazing is an important tool for 

managing grassland vegetation. Without 

grazing, the plants would become too 

tall and dense, excluding the species 

from otherwise usable habitat.1 

HABITAT 

These native grassland specialists 

breed in large, nearly treeless expanses 

of short- and mixed-grass prairie. During 

migration and while overwintering, Sprague’s 

pipits rely on open grassland areas, including 

pastures, haylands and agricultural fields. 

Because this species requires large blocks of 

intact native grasslands, it is a useful 

indicator of landscape-scale prairie 

health and connectivity. 

• 

Breeding range 

in Canada 

CALVIN FEHR. 

HELP OUT 

Help protect habitat for 

species at risk at 

natureconservancy.ca/ 

donate. 

THREATS 

The Committee on the Status of 

Endangered Wildlife in Canada has 

assessed Sprague’s pipit as threatened. This 

species is threatened by the loss and fragmentation 

of its native prairie habitat throughout its 

breeding and winter range and pesticides, which 

can reduce insect prey densities. Within the species’ 

breeding range, threats also include haying 

during the birds’ nesting period, overgrazing, 

increased nest predation, and intensified 

drought and wet periods caused by 

climate change. 



FORCE FOR 

NATURE 

A way 

with 

words 

How NCC’s chief storyteller empowers nature’s heroes 

BRIANNA ROYE. 


While chasing stories across the country 

as a broadcast journalist, Jane Gilbert 

would watch from her airplane window 

as Canada unfurled below her like a patchwork quilt. 

She was awed by the colours, the tufts of forests 

abutting farm fields, the seams of dark blue rivers 

and grey roads stitching together each section. 

BRIANNA ROYE. 

But shortly into her role as the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s 

(NCC’s) chief storyteller, she was struck by a new and sobering 

thought: “I realized that’s what fragmentation looks like. In between 

those places below me, the species couldn’t communicate anymore.” 

She saw the need to bring those places and their stories back together. 

Since 2008, Gilbert has worked to connect NCC supporters, partners 

and the public with the stories of those natural places. Along 

the way, she has shifted NCC’s own narrative from one of earnestly 

thinking the need for conservation might one day diminish, to one of 

urgency and ambition, centring each story around the people who 

make nature conservation possible. 

And now, as she prepares to leave NCC for what she calls 

“rewirement,” Gilbert reflects on the challenge of turning the 

intimidating story of nature loss into one of hope and possibility. 

“It struck me that if people can’t see themselves in the picture, 

they can’t see the opportunity to be part of the solution,” Gilbert 

says of her early days with NCC. “The key to it all is the hero. If you 

don’t have a hero in the story, you don’t have a story.” 

Flip through the chapters of NCC’s own tale and you will find 

a swelling cast of characters today. “We have 500,000-plus heroes 

who work with us now,” she says, referring to NCC’s supporters. 

“And more joining every day. That’s in addition to our amazing staff.” 

It struck me that if people can’t see 

themselves in the picture, they can’t see 

the opportunity to be part of the solution. 

The key to it all is the hero. If you don’t 

have a hero, you don’t have a story. 

The bear tracks stamped into the mud of a trail, the muscle aches 

felt after a day of clearing invasive garlic mustard from a forest — 

“to our staff in the field, it is part of the everyday. To us [our team of 

storytellers], it is phenomenal,” Gilbert says. “And when we know 

about it, we can celebrate it.” That’s why Gilbert has spent 15 years 

repeating a trademark phrase, empowering NCC colleagues to find 

(and sometimes even be) the heroes in their own stories: “Your 

ordinary is everyone else’s extraordinary.” 

Gilbert’s own NCC life has been punctuated with trips to some of 

NCC’s most impressive vistas — the jagged coasts along the Atlantic, 

the aromatic sage-swept Prairies, the mountain tops in the Rockies. 

Closer to home, she has watched the power of nature unfold outside 

her office window each time a breeding pair of peregrine falcons 

(a conservation success story in their own 

right) raised their young outside her window. 

But she knows few people will be able to 

experience those moments first-hand. 

So instead, Gilbert has seamlessly brought 

humans and nature together in NCC’s story, 

encouraging everyone to see themselves 

as people who can make a difference — as 

heroes and as part of nature. NCC’s voice is 

stronger today as a result of her insight and 

guidance, which have shaped the stories we 

share, and the way we understand our connections 

to nature and conservation. 

“It’s really easy, sitting in our concrete 

canyons and urban centres, to lose sight of 

that, but we’re here because the rivers and 

the wetlands on the outskirts of our communities 

are providing the clean water for us to 

drink, and the forests are storing carbon and 

helping cool the climate,” Gilbert says. 

“Nature is us,” she says, be it the gardener 

she watches plant sunflowers on a balcony 

in the middle of Canada’s largest city or the 

volunteer pulling invasive plants at an NCC 

nature reserve. By centring human heroes in 

NCC’s story, Gilbert has helped stitch together 

the fates of humans and nature, trying to 

mend the disparate patchwork quilt of a landscape 

she saw 15 years ago.1 



PROJECT 

UPDATES 

1 

NCC collaborates on IPCA 

SOUTHEAST NEW BRUNSWICK 

2 

THANK YOU! 

Your support has made these 

projects possible. Learn more at 

natureconservancy.ca/where-we-work. 

Protecting the Arch 

“My great-grandfather bought land on a lake north 

of Kingston, Ontario, in 1930. As I grew up in Montreal, 

I thought that that area was a relatively undiscovered 

gem; my friends had cottages in the Laurentians or 

Eastern Townships of Quebec, and people I knew in 

Toronto all headed to the Muskokas and places north. 

I soon learned that this special area in Ontario had 

a name: the Frontenac Arch. 

“My wife and I became aware of NCC’s activities in the 

Arch, and soon started contributing to its efforts to purchase 

strategic parcels of land. Today, NCC owns and manages 

over 2,760 hectares in the Arch and has assisted with 

the protection of an additional 2,985 hectares of habitat. 

“It’s interesting that the Arch has always been very popular 

with Americans, due to its proximity to the border and 

myriad of recreation activities. The Frontenac Arch is one 

of nature’s most important corridors between our two 

countries, connecting the Canadian Shield with the Appalachian 

Mountains. My wife and I are now dual citizens, 

domiciled in the USA, and I serve as chair to the board of 

American Friends of Canadian Nature, helping Americans 

support Canadian conservation through funding and 

land donations to NCC and other organizations.” 

~ Tim Gardiner has been an NCC donor since 

2006, a board member of the American Friends of 

Canadian Nature (AFCN) since 2018, and Board 

Chair of AFCN since 2022. 

3 

1 

4 

Through a collaboration with Mi’gmawe’l Tplu’taqnn Inc., a 

Mi’gmaq rights-based organization and the Nature Conservancy 

of Canada (NCC), the land’s original stewards are plying their 

expertise while renewing their connections to the land at the newly 

created Simogwik Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) 

in southeast New Brunswick. 

NCC transferred the 44-hectare parcel last fall to Keki’namuanen 

Msit Wen Wlo’tmnen Nmaqami’kminu, a Mi’gmaq land trust that aims 

to maintain the land’s ecological integrity and conserve biodiversity, 

while also promoting Mi’gmaq heritage, culture and language. 

The Simogwik IPCA is small, but vibrant, and is home to white 

birch and snowshoe hare, golden-crowned kinglet and other birds. 

Its forests and wetlands protect these species and support a people’s 

profound connection to the land. 

“With its bounty of waterways and access to both the Northumberland 

Strait and the Bay of Fundy, Simogwik was both an important 

communal area and a well-travelled trade route,” said Chief Rebecca 

Knockwood of Amlagog (Fort Folly) First Nation. 

“We are honoured to partner with Mi’gmawe’l Tplu’taqnn Inc. in creating 

this IPCA,” added Paula Noel, NCC’s program director in New 

Brunswick. “Conservation that supports Indigenous leadership and cultural 

connections to the land is an important form of Reconciliation.” 

With this project complete, the lands, waters, plants and animals of 

the Simogwik IPCA will be protected for the next seven generations. 

White birch, 

a culturally 

important 

species to 

the Mi'gmaq 

people, is 

abundant on 

the IPCA. 

ANDREW HEREYGERS. 

AFCN is an IRS registered 501(c)(3) charity in New York State, 

whose mission is to support the identification, preservation 

and management of lands in Canada by working with key 

16 WINTER conservation 2023 partners and the support of U.S. funders. 


4 

Newly established 

reserve 

PORT L’HEBERT, NS 

FERNANDO LESSA; FIONA BROOKS/NCC STAFF; CAROLINE DKS/NCC STAFF. 

Reginald Hill Conservation Area, BC. 

2 

A win for the 

West Coast 

SALT SPRING ISLAND, BC 

NCC is protecting some of 

British Columbia’s rarest woodland 

ecosystems on more than 

160 hectares on Salt Spring 

Island, off the coast of Victoria. 

Reginald Hill Conservation Area 

is full of life, nurturing a maturing 

Coastal Douglas-fir forest, mossy 

rock outcroppings, Garry oak 

plant communities, rocky bluffs 

and wetlands. 

Coastal Douglas-fir ecosystems 

make up only 0.3 per 

cent of the province’s land base. 

Despite its rarity, the habitats 

found within it are essential to 

the survival of some of BC’s most 

at-risk species, like sharp-tailed 

snake and a lichen known as 

peacock vinyl. 

This conservation area also 

adds to a network of already 

established parks and other protected 

lands to create a larger 

connected area for wildlife to 

thrive and move freely. 

Read more at: 

natureconservancy.ca/reginaldhill. 


3 

Rolling up the 

shirt sleeves 

ÎLE AUX GRUES, QC 

Located in the heart of the 

St. Lawrence River, about 

80 kilometres east of Quebec 

City, lies Île aux Grues. It is recognized 

as a high biodiversity 

site in Quebec — over 200 bird 

species nest or stop to refuel 

here during migration. 

But Île aux Grues is also 

home to a formidable invader: 

phragmites, also known as common 

reed. This invasive plant 

degrades the quality of wetlands 

by depriving wildlife of their 

habitats and by crowding out 

native plant species. 

As profiled in the 2022 summer 

issue of the NCC magazine, 

staff recently began a project to 

tackle the invader. After mowing 

an area measuring two hectares, 

staff and local experts then used 

an industrial sewing machine to 

connect large tarps together. Placing 

the tarps over the colonies 

blocks out sunlight and causes 

the plants to die. Staff continue 

to monitor and maintain the area, 

and plan to plant native species 

here in a few years, helping the 

rich biodiversity here thrive. 

The Haley Lake Nature Reserve 

provides critical habitat for 

several species at risk, including 

the globally rare boreal felt lichen. 

It is an essential stopover 

site for migratory birds. Haley 

Lake is located within an Important 

Bird Area in the community 

of Port l’Hebert, on Nova Scotia’s 

south shore. This newly established 

reserve is comprised of 

610 hectares of healthy and intact 

Wabanaki forest, coastal barrens, 

freshwater wetlands and 

lake shoreline. The reserve is 

near four federally established 

migratory bird sanctuaries that 

support thousands of breeding 

and overwintering waterfowl. 

The area’s forests are home to 

significant populations of uncommon 

and rare lichens, including 

Nova Scotia’s official lichen: blue 

felt lichen. 

NCC is working collaboratively 

with partners of the Kespukwitk 

Conservation Collaborative to 

conserve at-risk species here. 

Established in 2017, the 

Kespukwitk Conservation Collaborative 

includes Mi’kmaq First 

Nations, non-government organizations, 

academic institutions, 

and federal and provincial government 

departments.1 

Boreal felt lichen. 

Evening primrose, 

Hastings Wildlife Junction, ON. 

Partner Spotlight 

Intact Financial Corporation is 

helping the Nature Conservancy 

of Canada (NCC) deliver 

nature-based solutions in 

response to biodiversity loss 

and climate change. 

With its five-year commitment, 

Intact is investing in the 

protection and restoration of 

wetlands and other critical 

ecosystems across the country. 

This partnership is already active 

in Ontario (Hastings Wildlife 

Junction), New Brunswick 

(Wolastoq [St. John] River Valley) 

and Quebec (Quebec City 

Watershed - Leclerc). 

Intact is also supporting 

the development of a 

made-in-Canada protocol for 

wetland-based carbon offsets. 

Once available, the protocol 

will be a tool to increase 

conservation-based investments 

in Canadian wetlands. 

Intact is also supporting NCC's 

work to improve metrics and 

quantify the benefits that 

wetlands provide to Canadians. 

This partnership highlights 

NCC’s accelerated pace of 

conservation in Canada, as 

well as Intact’s commitment 

to NCC and supporting 

nature-based solutions.

CLOSE 

ENCOUNTERS 

Dancing in the dark 

By Esme Batten, program director – midwestern Ontario, NCC 

When I would hear about the aurora 

borealis, I always imagined seeing 

it in northern Canada or on a trip 

abroad to somewhere like Iceland or Finland. 

I never imagined that I would have the privilege 

of seeing it here at home on the Saugeen 

Bruce Peninsula in southern Ontario. 

Shimmering aurora borealis, or aurora 

australis in the southern hemisphere, are 

caused by activity on the sun. A specific type 

of solar storm, called coronal mass ejections 

(CME), emits electrified gas and particles 

into space. When these charged particles 

reach and enter Earth’s magnetic field, typically 

three days after the CME event, this 

is when we see the aurora. Due to the shape 

of the Earth’s magnetosphere, or system of 

magnetic fields, some of the charged particles 

that make it through the magnetic field are 

directed to the poles down magnetic field 

lines. This is why we often see the lights at 

the poles, where these charged particles enter 

our atmosphere. When there are particularly 

strong solar storms, we start to see the 

lights at lower latitudes. When these charged 

particles interact with gases in the 

atmosphere, they produce differently coloured 

lights in the sky depending on the altitude 

where the particles collide. Green light 

is produced when the particles mix with oxygen 

at lower altitudes, and red at higher altitudes. 

Pink and red occur at low altitudes 

when particles collide with nitrogen, and hydrogen 

and helium shine purple and blue. 

In late March, I was watching the aurora 

forecasts released by the National Oceanic 

and Atmospheric Administration to see if 

I had a chance to see the aurora at home. 

Since falling in love with astrophotography 

in 2019, I have had several opportunities to 

capture the movement of the aurora as a faint 

glow along the horizon, but these forecasts 

were predicting stronger storms than I had 

ever witnessed. Driving home with my partner 

that evening, we started to see the aurora 

before the skies were fully dark. My excitement 

was building. I rushed home to grab 

my camera gear and threw on some warm 

clothes before running out the door. I had 

been dreaming of shooting the stars in a cave 

along Georgian Bay, and knew that I needed 

to shoot the aurora there. 

I rushed along the Bruce Trail to the 

shoreline, dodging icy patches under the light 

of my headlamp and the stars. Once I reached 

the cave, I took a minute to turn off my headlamp, 

and I closed my eyes to let them adjust 

to the dark. When I opened them, I could not 

believe what I was seeing. The lights were 

dancing all around and above me with vibrant 

greens not typically seen this far south. 

Usually, the lights look like faint grey bars 

moving along the horizon, and colours can 

only be seen through a longer exposure image 

captured with a camera. I laughed hysterically 

in excitement and awe at nature’s 

beauty while I set up my camera. A friend 

joined me and we sat for hours, often just 

looking up at the sky without words. When I 

finally made it to bed around 4 a.m., the lights 

were still dancing. It still doesn’t feel real. 

We are likely to experience increased solar 

activity with more frequent and intense solar 

storms until mid 2025, meaning that the aurora 

will become more common. So, keep 

your eyes to the north in the coming months 

and hopefully you will also get to experience 

the majesty of the aurora.1 

ESME BATTEN. 


LET YOUR 

PASSION 

DEFINE 

YOUR 

LEGACY 

Your passion for Canada’s natural spaces defines your life; now it can define 

your legacy. With a gift in your Will to the Nature Conservancy of Canada, 

no matter the size, you can help protect our most vulnerable habitats and the 

wildlife that live there. For today, for tomorrow and for generations to come. 

Order your Free Legacy Information Booklet today! 

Call Jackie at 1-877-231-3552 x2275 or visit DefineYourLegacy.ca

YOUR 

IMPACT 

Conserving 

coastal 

habitat 

Your support has 

ensured the conservation 

of an additional 

14 hectares at the 

Dr. Bill Freedman 

Nature Reserve in 

Nova Scotia. Located 

along the popular 

High Head Trail, this 

new area features 

undisturbed coastal 

habitat, including 

barrens and rocky 

coastline. This natural 

area is an important 

stopover for migratory 

shorebirds that forage 

on the barrens’ plentiful 

crowberries. The 

exposed granite barrens 

are ideal habitat 

for rare coastal plants. 

Big win for the Great Lakes 

Dr. Bill Freedman Nature Reserve, NS. 

Lake Superior’s largest privately owned island has now been protected, thanks to 

your support. Batchewana Island’s 27 kilometres of shoreline encircle more than 

2,000 hectares of mature and intact forests and wetlands. The work to steward the 

property continues. To learn more and donate to help care for the island property, 

visit natureconservancy.ca/batchewana. 

Batchewana Island, ON. 

Thank you for all you do for nature in Canada! 

ANDREW HERYGERS/NCC STAFF; GARY MCGUFFIN. 

TOP TO BOTTOM: PAUL ZIZKA; BRENT CARVER.

NCC Magazine, Summer 2023

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