The Nature Conservancy of Canada and its partners applaud a new federally-funded $100 million program to safeguard essential habitats for species at risk. 

"So that funding will go to support protecting land in the most ecologically significant and most threatened landscapes in the country and benefiting species across the country," explains Cameron Wood, Director of Conservation of Saskatchewan. "It requires Nature Conservancy of Canada and other land trusts in the program to match every dollar invested by the Federal Government by an additional $2; So that $100 million investment will turn into $300 million of on the ground conservation lark. "

Ducks Unlimited, Wildlife Habitat Canada and Canada"s Land Trusts are the program partners that will make contributions to the Natural Heritage Conservation Program (NHCP). 

"In Saskatchewan, we determine where we use our funding with a science-based approach, and we look at like landscapes where species at risk and other things have similar habitat needs and similar threats, and we target those landscapes where our dollars will be most effective. In Southeast Saskatchewan, one of our targeted areas is the Moose Mountain and Souris Watershed Area. If opportunities come up for us to secure land that meets a lot of our conservation targets, then we would definitely pursue those using this funding."

Once the land is purchased, they spend a great deal of time doing an inventory to see exactly what is there and what kind of condition it is in. From there they determine what their management plan is. Natural Landscapes is their primary target, a lot of it has previously been used for grazing which is continued to do on the land. Often there is not a lot of clean-ups, but maybe just a few tweaks to the management to help improve the habitat quality for species at risk.

"This particular funding is mostly set aside for property acquisition, other than buying land outright. We also work with willing landowners to have conservation easements on their properties. What that means is they enter in an agreement with us that gets registered to their land title and basically commits to keeping the property as it is now, so committing to not breaking the land, draining wetlands or developing acreages, and that stays on the land title forever and we continue to make sure that it's being upheld. That is something we only do with willing landowners; we don't try to impose that on anyone who is not interested in it."

Wood also notes that if people are interested in getting involved with Nature Conservancy of Canada, there are many ways to, there are volunteer opportunities that run through the summer and into the fall and winter and they accept donations as well.