The Nature Conservancy of Canada announced Friday it is working with Crosbie Group Ltd. on a major conservation project near St. John’s.
According to the Nature Conservancy, Crosbie Group offered to donate its 243-acre property in Freshwater Bay for community use as a hiking and recreation destination. The East Coast Trail runs through the property on the way to Cape Spear.
“The Nature Conservancy of Canada is thrilled to have this opportunity, thanks to Crosbie Group Limited, to conserve a beautiful part of the Avalon Peninsula, minutes from St. John’s, that has a well-developed trail,” Megan Lafferty, acting program director for NCC in Newfoundland and Labrador, said in a news release. “This is an incredible ecological and recreational gift to the community, and we hope to conserve it by next fall.”
But Lafferty said the not-for-profit land trust needs to raise $500,000 in order to guarantee the long-term care of the land before it can take ownership and protect it.”
The Freshwater Bay property is mainly coastal forest made up of mixed native species and provides an important land buffer for nearby seabird colonies of black-legged kittiwakes, black guillemots, herring gulls, and great black-backed gulls, which nest along the cliffs between Freshwater Bay and Sprigg’s Point, the Nature Conservancy said.
“I am delighted to be working with the Nature Conservancy of Canada to make sure the Freshwater Bay property will never be developed,” Crosbie Group president Rob Crosbie said in the news release. “This is a very peaceful place with stunning views and our family was happy to provide access to the East Coast Trail several years ago. Now, because of the partnership with the Nature Conservancy of Canada, we hope this land will always remain as it is, for present and future generations to hike on and enjoy nature.”
The Nature Conservancy of Canada has been working in Newfoundland and Labrador since 1996, and has helped conserve more than 13,000 acres of wilderness across nine sites, including one in Maddox Cove.
