Cransley, Last Mountain Lake: 2009

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Protecting The Qu’Appelle Valley for the Ages

Today the Nature Conservancy purchased the remaining Qu'Appelle Valley property to the west and north of us and now Cransley at Last Mountain Lake is surrounded by protected wildlife habitat.

The following appears on their website:

The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), with its partners and supporters in Saskatchewan, is working to conserve critical areas of the Qu’Appelle River Valley and the surrounding valley slopes to sustain vital natural habitat.

NCC's Saskatchewan Region has conserved an additional 216 acres (88 hectares) as an extension to the 336 acre (136 hectare) NCC-owned Big Valley property. The combination of the now 552 acre- (223 hectare-) sized Big Valley property and the adjacent provincial Valeport Wildlife Management Area will provide more than 2,734 acres (1,106 hectares) of diverse natural habitat for numerous animal and plant species. Protecting this landscape is an important part of conserving Saskatchewan’s natural heritage.

The Big Valley property, located just north of Craven at the south end of Last Mountain Lake, is a biodiversity hotspot located within Saskatchewan’s Qu’Appelle River Valley. The diverse grassland and woodland habitats on the property provide habitat for a variety of mammals and grassland birds. The neighbouring Valeport Wildlife Management Unit, a large marsh at the south end of Last Mountain Lake, is an Important Bird Area and listed as a major concentration site for migratory birds. Its marsh provides breeding habitat for waterfowl, other water birds and riparian-nesting songbirds, and it is one of the only known locations of breeding Clark’s Grebe in Saskatchewan.

Habitat loss, the primary threat to biodiversity, coupled with habitat fragmentation and degradation, is regarded as the most significant threat to prairie grassland biodiversity. The protection of the Big Valley Property is a key part of NCC’s larger conservation plan for natural areas in the Qu’Appelle River Valley.

NCC is committed to managing the Big Valley Property for the long term. Now that the land is secured, NCC will need short term stewardship funding to plan for the careful stewardship of the land, including developing detailed management plans, compiling inventories of species and habitats, and completing a native grassland revegetation project. When NCC secures a new piece of land, we also raise 15 per cent of the cost of the property to build the Saskatchewan Stewardship Endowment Fund. This is our way of ensuring there will be funds available in years to come to help care for all our properties in perpetuity. If you would like to support this conservation initiative or others in Saskatchewan, please contact NCC's Saskatchewan Regional Office toll-free at 1-866-622-7285.