About Us
The basics
The land conservancy preserves habitat in our region by owning land and holding conservation easements on land to keep the land in its natural state. We are working to ensure that protected areas, such as provincial parks, conservation areas, and lands held by land trusts, will remain connected so that wildlife corridors will exist forever.We are a federally-incorporated not-for-profit corporation, established on June 23, 2004.
The Land Conservancy is managed by an 11-member board of directors. Elections for half the board members are held at our Annual Meeting, which traditionally takes place in April.
Revenue from membership fees covers all our operating expenses with a bit left over to put into our land acquisition account. Annual operating expenses include
| Ontario Land Trust Alliance membership fee | $450 |
| Canadian Land Trust Alliance membership fee | 100 |
| Annual General Meeting costs | 300 |
| Post Office Box rental | 150 |
| Conference attendance / training expenses | 1,000 |
| Contribution to other charities | 100 |
| Insurance: property and directors and officers | 1,200 |
| Corporation Annual Summary fee | 30 |
| Miscellaneous (bank fees, postage, stationery, web site, etc.) | 780 |
| Total operating expenses | $4,110 |
Habitat preservation
The Land Conservancy owns four properties that protect a total of 91.7 hectares (226.74 acres).| Property | Hectares | Acres |
| Meyer Woods | 75.3 | 186.00 |
| Arthur Nature Reserve | 16.2 | 40.03 |
| Snake Island | 0.2 | 0.46 |
| Salmon Island | 0.1 | 0.25 |
We also hold a conservation easement on another 71 hectare (177.5 acre) property, and we have monitoring responsibilities for a 13 hectare (32 acre) property on behalf of Ontario Heritage Trust.
The cost to own, steward, and monitor these properties is approximately $3,000 a year, core cost components being liability insurance ($700), property taxes ($1,300), monitoring ($500), and stewardship ($500).
Thank you to our funders
Funders have given us almost $25,000, making it possible for us to undertake some special projects and reduce the cost of land acquisitions.Ontario Land Trust Assistance Program ($3,943 in 2010, $3,522 in 2012)
Through
this program we received funds to cover
acquisition costs (survey, appraisal, and legal expenses) for Snake and
Salmon islands, the
Arthur Nature
Reserve and our easement property. The Ontario Land
Trust Assistance Program is a Ministry of Natural Resources initiative
in partnership with the Ontario Land Trust Alliance. The program assists land trusts to help conserve
Ontario's biodiversity.
TD Canada
Trust
Friends of the Environment Fund
($434
in 2010)
This
grant
covered the costs of advertising
and hosting our 2009 annual meeting, held on April 28, 2010.
TD Canada
Trust
Friends of the Environment Fund ($1,550
in 2009)
This grant allowed us to hire a forester to cut identified trees in the Meyer Woods plantation area and leave them in place, creating habitat and allowing for forest regeneration.
Community
Foundation
of Kingston & Area ($950 in 2008)
This
grant
covered the costs of hiring a wood
lot expert to advise us about the best way to manage a White Spruce
plantation in
Meyer Woods.
The Land
Between ($9,300 total from 2006 through 2008)
We
hired a
student to contact all nine
municipalities within Frontenac and Lennox and Addington counties to
identify
any municipally-owned lands specifically set aside for conservation
purposes.
This work completed the picture of protected lands in the counties as
federal
and provincial Crown lands, Nature Conservancy of Canada lands, Ontario
Heritage Trust lands, etc., are already known and mapped. The Land
Between
funding also supported board members attending an Ontario Land Trust
Alliance
meeting for training purposes, provided the funds for us to host a
regional
meeting of conservation organizations, and helped cover the costs of
information materials and mapping and outreach work.
Community
Foundation
of Kingston & Area ($750 in 2006)
We
hired
someone to build the infrastructure
for our web site with this fast-track grant and purchased software
to use in web site management.
HIVA
Environmental
Fund
($6,000 in 2005)
We
were
able to hire students from the Rotman
School of Business, University of Toronto, to develop our first
Business Plan.
This work assisted us in preparing our current strategic
plan. The
funds were also used to develop and print our brochure and other
materials in
our first year after incorporation.
TD Canada Trust Friends of the Environment Fund ($1,500 in 2003)
This
funding allowed us to send a board
member to a national land trust conference in Victoria, British
Columbia, an
important training and networking opportunity
as
we were getting
started.
The Ontario Land Trust Alliance has also helped us to cover participant costs at a few of its annual gatherings.
Media reports
Read articles about us or about land trusts in general.
October 11, 2011 note in the Kingston Whig Standard announcing the Ontario Land Trust Alliance award for Anne Robertson in recognition of her contributions to the land trust community.
April 5, 2011 coverage in Kingston This Week announces an important property donation to our land conservancy.
An article in the December 29, 2009 Kingston Whig Standard also described this property donation.
Alec Ross's article in the February 2010 Vista specifically speaks to a donation to our land conservancy.
Wood Gundy (Kingston)'s newsletter in January 2009 ably captured the basic concepts around land trusts.
Our logo
The bird in our logo is an Eastern Loggerhead Shrike. It is a rare bird in more ways than one. It is the only song bird that is also a bird of prey.
In 2011, there were only 7 wild pairs left in the Napanee Plain and only 11 additional wild pairs in the rest of Ontario. A recovery program is in place.
The bird symbolizes and reminds us of the urgent need to protect habitat to ensure the survival of many declining species in this area. (Photo courtesy Chris Grooms.)
