Late last month, about 30 guests, including several board members of the Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy, joined June and Jim Macdonald as they cut a green ribbon to signify the opening of a new 121-acre reserve on the South Saugeen River, north and west of Given Road.
Deputy-mayor Judy Dirksen and councillor Barbara Burrows welcomed the crowd.
Jim Penner, of the Saugeen Conservation Authority, drove a hay wagon-load of people north to the top of the bluff where they walked through the cedars down to the water’s edge, then later rode the wagon a kilometre to the western boundary of the new reserve.
This Area of Natural Scientific Interest (ANSI) was severed from the 250 acre farm property in order to protect it in perpetuity as a natural area, free from development.
A reception which followed the tour gave everyone a chance to thank the Macdonalds and their family for their gift.
The conservancy was pleased to add its 94th reserve to its network of conserved lands, spanning 7,700 acres from Caledon to Manitoulin, home to 60 rare and endangered species and protecting not only 5 kilometres of the Saugeen, but also 12.5 kilometres of Lake Huron shoreline.
