Last year, five parcels were donated to the Add a Patch campaign to be protected in perpetuity. The largest of these properties was donated by the MacKay family in 2021 – sitting next to Strang Road in Haliburton, Prince County – it features a sizeable area of carbon absorbing peatland and bog. The habitat is known to support Canada warbler, while housing several uncommon, tracked flora such as royal fern, Vermont blackberry, white fringed orchid and rose pogonia.
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Islanders & INT conservation partners team up to successfully raise $600K for natural area protection in PEI
Futures Protected: Island Nature Trust announces first major campaign fundraising success as conservation partners quadruple donations from Islanders
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Island Nature Trust protects land and wildlife with donation from PEI liquor stores
A five-year agreement with PEI Liquor Control Commission and partnering suppliers, has helped the Trust acquire natural areas in Alexandra and significantly accelerated its protection program.
First of its kind donation sees American family return forest and wetland back to Islanders
A game-changing cross-border partnership between Island Nature Trust and American Friends of Canadian Conservation – launched to help American landowners donate their land for conservation purposes – is celebrating its first win.
American ownership is approximately 3.5% of the total land on PEI, yet for many years, American landowners interested in donating land for conservation purposes have experienced disproportionate legal and financial barriers. However, thanks to INT and American Friends initiative forged in 2018, significant tax relief is now secured for American donors.
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Donor Profile: Phillips Agri Services
Island Nature Trust is enormously grateful for the long-term partnership with Phillips Agri Services.
What started as selling bags of bird seed on the back of a truck has evolved to become an all-year round fundraising alliance.
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An Introduction to Ecosystem Services
By Janell Smith
What are ecosystem services and why are they important?
Ecosystem services are the benefits that nature provides to humans and are often categorized into provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural. You may be most familiar with provisioning ecosystem services – including food from forests, fields, and oceans; lumber for timber and firewood; drinking water; and even natural gas and oil. Other provisioning services include plants for clothing and materials, as well as natural medicines.
Regulating services provided by natural ecosystems include climate regulation, pollination, purification of water, erosion control, flood control, and carbon storage. Supporting services include the processes that often go unseen but are fundamental to human health, such as soil formation, nutrient cycling, and water cycling. Cultural services are the non-material benefits provided by nature through spiritual enrichment, inspiration, recreation, and aesthetic value (as you can see, ecosystem services are vital to our everyday lives!). As with all life, the categories of ecosystem services are interconnected. For example, fruit trees (provisioning service) rely on the soil (supporting service) and pollination (regulating service) to thrive.
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Island Nature Trust secures significant carbon sink in its largest single acquisition to date
136 hectare (337 acre) property in Forest Hill contributes to a sizeable unfragmented block of rich lowland forest in PEI and is home to C02 absorbing fen peatland – a natural combatant against global warming
Read moreTrail Code of Care
Island Nature Trust currently owns seven properties with maintained public footpaths and we welcome you to visit these Natural Areas. Please be mindful of the natural environment and read, download, or print our Trail Code of Care before venturing out to one of our natural area trails. This Code of Care is also posted at the entrance to each of our maintained footpaths.
INT is celebrating spring by teaming up with PEI liquor stores for the ‘Let’s Protect Our Island’ campaign
After a one-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the ‘Lets Protect Our Island’ collaboration between Island Nature Trust and the PEI Liquor Control Commission is now entering its fifth year. The campaign running from April 1st to May 18th with participating suppliers of beer, wine and spirits donating up to $1 from their sales of participating products at PEILCC retail outlets to Island Nature Trust. Signage promoting this initiative – including the featured products – can be found in all 18 PEI Liquor retail outlets across the province.
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Announcing the Trust’s first Honorary Patron
An interview with Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island: Antoinette Perry
By Ben Russell – Communications Manager
The Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island Antoinette Perry is a respected educator from Tignish and a proud Acadian. Before her retirement from teaching in 2009, she enjoyed a distinguished 32-year career at Tignish Consolidated Elementary School where she taught Music and French. She serves as an organist and church choir director at St. Simon and St. Jude Parish and as a co-coordinator of the Parish’s Summer Organ Recital Series.
Becoming an honorary patron to Island Nature Trust made perfect sense to the Honourable Antoinette Perry. She recalls that from a young age ‘environmental consciousness’ was instilled in her while growing up in a small Tignish community. There she was exposed to a sentiment that resonates with her to this day – to respect each other and the environment we live in.
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