Neighbourwoods Spring Tree Talk – Review

Neighbourwoods 2019 Spring Tree
Talk: “raresites: Land Conservation in the 21st
Century”

On March 26, our guest speaker Tom Woodcock gave
us an in-depth look into the ‘what, where, when, why, and how’ of the
rare Charitable Research
Reserve.

What is
rare?
The Reserve is an area of over 900 acres, on the
Grand River between Kitchener and Cambridge. Its mandate is to preserve and
steward ecologically significant land in Waterloo and Wellington Counties. A
sampling of the 24 different habitats under protection include old-growth
Carolinian forest; floodplains; meadow and prairie; bird and turtle breeding
grounds; and stops along bird migration routes.
Rare’s
conservation activities comprise three
areas:

• Conservation: including tree planting,
  management of invasive species, and trail
  maintenance
• Scientific research: a living laboratory that
  hosts environmental research projects and
  monitoring
• Education: public events, environmental
  education programs, volunteer opportunities, and recreation such as hiking
  trails, to enable the public to learn about and value their natural
  surroundings.

Rare is a
non-profit organization that depends on volunteers and is funded mainly by
donations, and some funding from the region for specific projects.

Why
does rare do what it does?
We are all familiar with the
threats to land and forests from an increasing human population: consumption
of living space, food, water, and resources; climate change; loss and
degradation of habitat; and pollution.

From one
perspective, ‘undeveloped’ land can appear to be inactive, inert, and of
no value until a commercial developer comes along to build something on it.
From a more accurate perspective, natural landscapes actively provide a huge
variety of ‘ecological services’, including water filtration, flood and
erosion control, removal of air pollutants, recycling of nutrients and
renewal of soil, pollination, absorption of greenhouse gases, and support for
the biodiversity that makes this all possible. These ‘services’ of course
benefit not just humans, but all other species on which we and the earth’s
ecosystem depend.

To get a sense of how valuable these
services are, ask yourself for example: how do I get clean water? Ecoservices
are ‘free’, but they require the space and time to do their jobs. If
ecoservices disappear, replacing them comes at a cost. Consider for example
the costs of building a water treatment plant, paying for flood insurance or
damage, healthcare costs due to air and water pollution, or the need for more
and more fertilizers and pesticides to compensate for diminishing soil
quality.

The message is that we are depleting the earth’s
natural ecoservices at an unsustainable rate – we are using more than the
environment can provide. ‘Half Earth’ is a concept proposed by Harvard
biologist E.O. Wilson, which states that we need to set aside and protect one
half of the earth’s natural habitats in order to maintain the biodiversity
that is essential for the earth’s ecoservices to be
sustainable.

What are some
solutions?
The answer to the question ‘why conserve
land?’ became clear. We need to achieve a balance between usage and
preservation of natural resources. Rare supports this goal
by:

• Stewarding land that is already under
  protection, in perpetuity
• Reconnecting fragmented
  landscapes so that habitats are not disrupted and species have increased
  chances of survival
• Acquiring more lands for
  preservation, through purchase or donation. For example, a current project is
  underway to build a conservation corridor along the Eramosa River, that would
  extend from Eden Mills through Rockwood, Guelph, and the Eramosa Valley. This
  project has the potential to almost double the area of land under protection
  by rare.

Underpinning all of these efforts is
the need to engage and educate the public as to the value of natural
landscapes, not only for their ecoservices but for the enjoyment and
well-being they provide.

In case all of these problems seem
too large to resolve, we can remind ourselves of Tom’s decription of
ecological activity as: ‘little actions or processes happening an
unimaginable number of times’.  With
that in mind, the small efforts of each of us can potentially add up to a
large turnaround in the ways we use and preserve our natural
landscapes.

For more reading:
https://raresites.org/
https://www.half-earthproject.org/

Neighbourwoods
thanks our 2018-19 Tree Talk Sponsor, the Elora-Salem Horticultural
Society,
for their support.