News from June 2010

EALT News Roundup, June 2010

June 15, 2010

A lot has been happening at EALT in the last few months. Please look through our short newsletter, and enjoy reading about the following topics:

• EALT Acquires Title at Golden Ranches
• Volunteer Opportunities at the Hicks Property
• Summer 2010 Field Season
• EALT Facebook Pages
• EALT’s Culture-Conservation-Connection
• Ghost Bird: Film Showing Event, Sept 23rd
• Gordon Steinke & Don Iveson Co-Chair EALT’s Fall Campaign

Please circulate to friends and colleagues!

EALT Acquires 3 Quarter Sections of Important Lands

June 1, 2010

The Edmonton and Area Land Trust is proud to announce that we’ve acquired three quarter-sections of land east of Edmonton!

Productive shore and uplands
The lands are part of the Golden Ranches, the largest working ranch in the region. They are located in the Cooking Lake Moraine, at the junction of North and South Cooking Lake. The entire ranch is 1,500 acres, and has 8 kilometres of shoreline, so the lands are highly productive. Besides the various waterfowl, there are moose, white-tailed and mule deer, coyotes, falcons, ospreys, and other wildlife. The ranch also has open pastures and mature forestlands.

Creates a conservation corridor
The Ranch is in the Cooking Lake Moraine, which has been designated a high priority conservation area, as well as being within the North American Waterfowl Management Plan program area. Golden Ranches is a key link tying together Elk Island National Park, the Blackfoot Grazing Reserve and the Ministik Lake Game Bird Sanctuary, in one unique conservation corridor.

EALT’s first sole title to conservation lands
Pam Wight, ED of EALT, says: “it’s wonderful that after only a couple of years of being in operation, EALT can show the results of our conservation efforts. Of course, none of this would be possible without our partners. We’ve been working with a donor who bought the ecological lands on our behalf; and we’ve been working with a partnership of conservancies. TD’s Friends of the Environment Foundation has also funded some of the professional costs we have incurred. Working together, we and our partners have made great strides for conservation”

The Golden Partnership
The move to purchase the ranch was initiated through a consortium of partners. EALT, together with other land trusts (AFGA, ACA, NCC, DU), Strathcona County and the Beaver Hills Initiative, all form the Golden Partnership. The partners are aiming to buy the ranch, which is comprised of a dozen separate legal parcels, and each partner is contributing in its own way to secure the entire 1,500 acre ranch.

The current ranch owners support conservation, want the ranch conserved intact, have agreed to hold sale of other parcels for a limited time, and are enabling the partners to work to acquire the entire ranch. Everyone is keen to see a conservation corridor built in the Moraine area. See: http://www.ealt.ca/media/uploads/Golden_Ranches_map.pdf

Celebrate success and contribute to the future
As Environment Week has just ended, where government celebrates action projects bringing us towards a greener future, it is worth celebrating the concrete steps that can be made by organizations working towards conservation, and how working together, they can make a difference.

For those individuals or corporations wanting further information on how to help with Golden Ranches conservation project, please contact Pam Wight, at (780) 483–7578.

Edmonton and Area Land Trust