MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY – Since being established in 2013 and two years later putting into place its first-ever conservation easement in the Bergen area, a non-profit organization that endeavours to protect natural habitats for posterity’s sake has consistently continued to grow.
Run by a 12-member board of directors, many of whom call Mountain View County home, the Legacy Land Trust Society has brought into the fold thousands of acres that boast a wide variety of landscapes including old-growth forests and woodlands, native mixed-grass prairie, wetlands and agricultural lands.
To recognize these past successes while also offering a look ahead to what is yet to come, the society hosted on Saturday, Oct. 19 an 11th anniversary celebration at the Bergen Community Hall that was attended by approximately 40 people.
Rebecca Nielsen, the society’s executive director, provided some insight into what the organization is all about, while author and conservationist Lorne Fitch, a former Fish and Wildlife biologist with decades of experience, read some excerpts from his newest book, Travels Up the Creek – A Biologist’s Search for a Paddle.
“He’s a great storyteller,” said Nielsen, adding Fitch also co-founded a not-for-profit group called Cows and Fish.
“They’ve been a longtime partner of our organization; we’ve collaborated on a few different things,” she said.
“They’ve also provided some training in the past on riparian health assessment. So, their knowledge in that area can really help us to support the work we do.”
Attendees heard about the society’s progress and how the organization protects landscapes through what are known as conservation easements.
“Conservation easements are one of the tools that legacy uses regularly in the work that we do,” Nielsen told the Albertan on Wednesday, Oct. 23 during a phone interview, adding there are seven in the Bergen area alone including five more in progress.
“The Bergen area itself is one of the most important areas for Legacy Land Trust Society,” she said, adding the Halvorson conservation easement put into place in 2015 was the first the society legacy had signed with a landowner.
“Our presence in that Bergen area really has grown since then,” she said.
But it has also expanded and now includes properties that are on the Red Deer River with five that are either in place or underway on the Little Red Deer River.
“And then we have many that have wetlands or ponds,” she said, adding the society’s work involves regularly monitoring properties whose owners have signed up for a conservation easement," she said.
“To ensure that the conservation easement is upheld the way that the landowner envisioned it, we go out to those properties and check on them on a regular basis and connect with the landowner.
“One of the things that we try to do on a regular basis is to look at the wetlands or the water courses on the property, and just monitor the health of the riparian areas.”
The society also participates in stewardship activities that support its conservation objectives.
“This fall, we had the chance to do some stewardship work in the Bergen area as well,” she said.
“There’s a farm that has what we call an ephemeral watercourse, so a watercourse that runs during the spring season, and we did some tree planting along that watercourse – it empties into the Fallentimber creek,” she elaborated.
That project, which involved planting 540 tree seedlings along the creek’s riparian zone, was the result of a collaborative effort with Mountain View County’s Alternative Land Use Services and Agriforestry Woodlot Extension Society.
“The goal is to restore the riparian zone and develop wildlife habitat,” she said.
Additionally, the society is offering a three-phase program called Water Quality and You 2.0 that focuses on engaging landowners along the Little Red Deer River in voluntary conservation and stewardship practices on their land. The goal is to improve watershed resiliency, maintain or improve water quality and protect biodiversity, she said.
Overall, the society now holds 16 conservation easements representing a total of 3,422 acres with a further seven that are in progress and will add another 1,266 acres, she said.
“Two of those seven are new in 2024,” she said. “Looking ahead to next year, we would expect to sign two of those seven.”
As well, the society is optimistic about bringing onboard an eighth easement in 2025, she said.
When the group works with a landowner who is interested in placing a new easement, she said they are informed the project can from start to finish take approximately three years.
“Land trusts are organizations that most people don’t deal with on a day-to-day basis and conservation easements are a tool that is also often foreign to people who are first learning about our organization,” she said, inviting anyone who might be inclined to learn more about the process to reach out.
Visit www.legacylandtrustsociety.ca for more information about the organization. Alternatively, the society can be reached by sending an email to [email protected] or calling 403-556-1029.
