The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is raising money to help protect two examples of Acadian Forest on P.E.I., including one in Prince County.
The properties are located in North Enmore and Howe Bay. The NCC, which buys ecologically important land and holds it in trust for the public, has already reached purchase agreements with the owners of both pieces of land.
The organization said both lots are “priority habitat areas for Acadian forest as well as several notable species.”
Some funding has already been secured but its goal is to secure another $30,000.
The Prince County parcel of land is known is Mossy Point and is a 75-acre site at the mouth of the Percival River. Half of the land is being donated, while NCC needs to purchase the remainder and cover stewardship costs. The organization has been working in that area since 2007 and has, to date, protected 665 acres of salt marsh, freshwater wetland and forest habitat.
For the second site, in Kings County, the group is also raising funds to buy 8.5 acres in Howe Bay, near Souris. The forested lands there would add a missing piece to NCC’s Elizabeth Walsh Nature Reserve and are near two wildlife management areas protected by the Government of Prince Edward Island.
“Salt marshes in Percival River provide critical wildlife habitat and foraging grounds, and act as buffers in absorbing the impacts of storm surges,” said Lanna Campbell, NCC’s P.E.I. program director. “In Howe Bay, securing this land will expand this nature reserve and eliminate the risk of it being lost to habitat fragmentation and development in a key forest area of P.E.I.”
