Category: News
Trail 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.
Read moreFresh water refuge for endangered spawning Atlantic salmon protected forever in Vernon River
Surrounded by an extensively farmed watershed, the ecologically diverse riparian forest provides a stable buffer for two headwater tributaries delivering spring water to Vernon River and Orwell Bay.
Read moreIsland Nature Trust announces new Executive Director
In November, Island Nature Trust began the search for an Executive Director who would be asked to focus more intently on organizational growth and development. Our incumbent Executive Director, Megan Harris has now moved into a strategic role focused on acquisition and stewardship as the Trust’s new Director of Conservation. Read this interview with Megan referencing the new role in our December newsletter. After conducting a thorough candidate search, Island Nature Trust is happy to announce that Bianca McGregor will be its new Executive Director.
Read morePenny’s Point Natural Area: Iconic coastline saved from development in Fortune Bridge
This beautiful yet fragile coastal headland will now be protected forever.
The peninsula, named Penny’s Point Natural Area, is located within the Rollo Bay Wildlife Management Area and is on the south point at the mouth of Rollo Bay. It was transferred to Island Nature Trust for perpetual stewardship in December, through a most generous and thoughtful donation. Land donors Tom Welch, Anne Lambert and Nancy Willis were resolved to see this coastline remain in a natural state forever.
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Indigenous Knowledge: The Key to Conservation for PEI
Abegweit or Epekwitk / Prince Edward Island has been afflicted by climate change for centuries by mismanagement of land and resources, as have many other Islands in the world.
With rising sea level, inadequate provincial adaptive measures, and 90% of the land on Epekwitk being privately owned, the ill-effects on the land are hard to ignore. It is up to the Province, the Abegweit Mi’kmaq First Nations, and small conservation groups like Island Nature Trust and watershed groups on Epekwitk, to not only conserve, but to sustain the biodiversity on this unique land.
Read moreAGM 2020 REVIEW: Hon. J. Angus MacLean Natural Areas Award & New Board Members Announcement
We had a great attendance both in person and online for this year’s Island Nature Trust Annual General Meeting at Beaconsfield House.
It’s now available to watch online for those who missed the event by clicking below.
Here’s a brief review of the highlights…
INT was delighted to award the 2020 Hon. J. Angus MacLean Natural Areas Award to nominee Ms. Jeanne Maki. Ms. Maki has spent her adult life working to safeguard one of PEI’s most important and threatened ecosystems: our forests. As a testament to her dedication, she recently designated close to one hundred acres of woodlands in the Pinette-Belfast area as protected natural area under the private stewardship option of the PEI Natural Areas Protection Act. INTRODUCING OUR NEW BOARD MEMBERS MARIE-ANN BOWDEN During her career at the College of Law, University of Saskatchewan, Marie-Ann actively pursued research and teaching in the areas of environmental law, property and water law. Since retiring Professor Emeritus from the College, she has returned to PEI and has joined the Board of the Upton Farmlands Trust and helped secure a new Water Act with her colleagues at the Coalition for the Protection of PEI Waters. 
TYLER COADY Tyler is a Canadian Armed Forces Veteran who has obtained a B.A. Psychology (Honours) at UPEI and an M.A. Military Psychology at Adler University, Chicago. He has several published research articles and has a strong background in behavioural sciences. Combined with work in peer support and crisis negotiations, Tyler helps other veterans reconnect with nature. 
ROGER E. COFFIN Roger spent 20 years in the private sector as a manager and entrepreneur, followed by a career in the public sector that included business support and aerospace recruitment. Roger has been involved with outdoor organizations mainly in the areas of hunting and fishing. Roger is a life member of Margaree Salmon Association, Miramichi Salmon Association and now Island Nature Trust. 
GORDON MACKAY Gordon, who has practiced law since 1980, comes to the Island Nature Trust with extensive personal and professional volunteer experience. He has served as a Commissioner on the Judicial Review Commission (PEI), the Treasurer of the Law Foundation of Prince Edward Island, and President of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada. He has also chaired the Red Cross Multi-Sport Relay and the Prince Edward Island United Way Campaign, as well as the Inspire fundraising campaign of the University of Prince Edward Island. 
HELP US SAVE LEWES INT is still appealing for secure funds for a stunning mature hardwood forest in Lewes, Kings County. Due to the economic repercussions of COVID, we have lost a previous corporate commitment for funds towards this purchase and are now shy of just $10,000.
Support has been outstanding with seventeen individuals donating close to $5000 towards its acquisition. Thank you to all those who have donated. Every little helps! $15,000.
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Plastic Not Fantastic: Join Us For Fall Beach Clean-ups
Of all trash, plastic rubbish has the greatest potential to harm the environment, wildlife and humans. It can be found floating at the surface, suspended in the water column, or on the bottom of almost all water bodies. It is transported by rivers to the ocean, where it moves with the currents, and is often eaten by birds and fish, concentrating toxic chemicals in their tissues, and filling their stomachs, causing them to starve. Plastic aquatic debris is much more than a mere aesthetic problem.
Please help us to remove this harmful plastic and other items of rubbish from our coastline. INT is targeting two properties in September. The first clean-up on Thursday 10th is the recently acquired Percival River property in Alaska. It is one of the least developed watersheds in PEI and the largest unbroken ribbon of saltmarsh in PEI – host to a rich and diverse habitat for vulnerable wildlife.
The other location is Poverty Beach in Murray Harbour with a clean-up scheduled to take place on Thursday 17th. Poverty Beach is home to the valiant but endangered Piping Plover. With several stresses experienced already by this well-loved bird species such as human encroachment, predation and climate change, let’s give our Piping Plover friends – now migrated South for the winter – a rubbish free nesting home ready for their return next Spring.
Please spread the word as we need all the help we can get!
Thank you for your support – The Island Nature Trust Team
