Category: News

The Judson Family: Honoring their vital land donation for coastal headland conservation 

Ben Russell

Island Nature Trust (INT) relies significantly on land donations in protecting the natural landscapes of Prince Edward Island, particularly when these donations connect with existing protected areas. While financial support plays a crucial role in the Island Nature Trust’s mission to safeguard the island’s natural heritage, the donation of land stands as a testament and lasting commitment from individuals and families to protect the island’s ecological diversity.

We are excited to spotlight the remarkable generosity of the Judson family, who donated the 117-acre Judson Salt Marsh Natural Area in Alexandra. This donation aims to expand the already protected Crown Point headland, known as the 182-acre Crown Point – Wjikijek Natural Area. The latter faces threats of development due to its proximity to Charlottetown and Stratford, making it a focal point in recent conservation endeavors by the Island Nature Trust.

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INT Expands its ‘Corridors of Connectivity’ Mission with Generous Land Donation in Blooming Point

Ben Russell

Island Nature Trust (INT) has reached a major milestone in its conservation efforts. With the recent donation of 15 acres by Bruce and Patricia Craig (pictured), INT’s total acquisitions of ecologically important land now exceeds the 10,000-acre mark. This contribution located in Blooming Point on the Old Bedford Road, not only expands connectivity for wildlife, but also strengthens conservation efforts and promotes the preservation of surrounding ecosystems.

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INT seeks donations from PEI landowners through its Add A Patch campaign

Ben Russell

INT’s Add A Patch campaign launches with the hope to reach the goal of protecting10 per cent of PEI’s ecologically significant land, through generous donations of land. 

Since 1979, INT has been steadfast in its mission to acquire and protect ecologically significant land on Prince Edward Island. This is particularly challenging because 87 per cent of P.E.I. is privately owned, making it the highest per capita rate in Canada. 

This disproportionate ownership is the by-product of a 1770’s colonial land grab, where PEI, known then as the Island of St. John, was mapped and divided into 67 lots and townships. Hundreds of years later, these policy decisions continue to impact conservation efforts and stymie the Island Nature Trust’s overall goal of protecting 10 per cent of the Island’s land. 

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2022 Bank Swallow Review

Ben Russell

Bank swallows (Riparia riparia) are insectivorous songbirds with a distinctive dark brown breast band separating their brown upperparts from their white underparts. Known for their fast, agile flights, these small passerines can be seen buzzing acrobatically through the air along Prince Edward Island’s coasts during the spring and summertime. Bank swallows nest colonially in sandstone cliffs, till bluffs, high sand dunes, and sand pits. As they fly over nearby meadows, wetlands, and agricultural grasslands they forage on insects like beetles, wasps, bees, flying ants, and mayflies. Based on this feeding strategy, bank swallows belong to a guild of birds called aerial insectivores. Like many aerial insectivores, bank swallow populations in Canada are declining due to threats contributing to the loss of their breeding and foraging habitats: land use changes and associated agricultural intensification, and the practice of shoreline armouring. Bank swallow may also be indirectly impacted by pesticide use, which reduces the abundance and availability of their insect prey. In recognition of these threats, bank swallow was listed as a threatened species under the Species at Risk Act (SARA) in 2017. 

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Artificial Intelligence for Island Community Conservation

Ben Russell

In 2022 Island Nature Trust (INT) was awarded funding from RBC Foundation through RBC Tech for Nature to implement a technology-based project, “LandSteward: Artificial Intelligence for Island Community Conservation.” Through this project INT collaborated with Korotu Technology Inc. (Korotu) to create, launch, and pilot “LandSteward” – a cutting edge technology utilizing remote sensing data and artificial intelligence driven analysis tools to monitor changes in the landscape – allowing INT to explore ways that technology can help the organization achieve its vision of a network of protected areas across Prince Edward Island.

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Seed Tree Sponsorship

Ben Russell

In response to the damage created by post-tropical storm Fiona, and the anticipated long recovery process for INT’s forested areas, the Trust has recently launched an initiative aimed at protecting and stewarding important native seed trees. Through Seed Tree Sponsorship we are asking individuals and businesses to sponsor an identified seed tree in one of our natural areas. These trees, with their proven DNA, will be instrumental in the natural regeneration of their respective immediate landscapes, not to mention great seed providers for nurseries dedicated to ensuring a steady supply of native species for planting.

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Buote family donates legacy upland hardwood forest in New Glasgow

Ben Russell

It’s a crisp fall morning. The leaves crunching under our feet betray the silence as Rowena Lawlor and Faren Buote accompany me into the Buote Heritage Woods Natural Area in New Glasgow. The stand of old white pine trees greeting us at the entrance to the trail have a stoic presence. The forest is looking unusually skeletal for this time of year from the impact of Hurricane Fiona. Only a few isolated red and amber patches are visible, indicating some leafed branches were spared the intense winds that tore through the rest of the canopy a few weeks earlier.

‘This is the spot where my siblings and I came across a large owl last year,’ says Rowena, one of eight siblings who – as a family – donated the woods to Island Nature Trust in 2021. Her voice crackles with emotion. ‘Walking together in the woods it suddenly appeared ahead of us in the trees. It felt like the owl was our mother Clarice proudly looking down on us. She would have been so happy to know that this land is now protected, forever’.

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Thanking nature in the wake of post-tropical storm Fiona

Ben Russell

‘It could have been worse!’ This is the sentiment lingering in the minds of many Islanders after Hurricane Fiona hit the Island as a powerful post-tropical storm on September 23-24, 2022. Those who saw iconic sand dunes disappear and swaths of forested areas flattened by the winds witnessed the immediate impacts of one of the most damaging events in recent Island history. Nevertheless, the team at Island Nature Trust is striving for a more positive outlook and a regenerative way forward that can give hope to all Islanders.

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