Features
Our area of interest
Our
mandate is to preserve habitats in two counties – Frontenac
County and Lennox
and Addington County. The region stretches from the islands in Lake
Ontario
through the limestone plains to the boreal forests in Canadian Shield
country to
the north.
The
south part of Frontenac County is cottage country and many lakes and
marshes
dot the landscape. Further north, the land becomes more rugged with
granite
outcrops and a more rocky terrain. Given the lack of good, deep soil in
most
places, farming was never easy here. Much of the land was logged but
otherwise
undeveloped.
Lennox and Addington County has a gentler topography with fewer lakes and more rivers, notably the Napanee, Salmon, and Skootamatta. The central Napanee Plain is a large area of limestone, alvar, grasslands, and wetlands that provides habitat to at least 19 species at risk. The northern most part of the County is Crown land and mostly dense coniferous forest. The transition zone between the limestone plain and the granite of the Shield is species-rich. This zone, now referred to as The Land Between is the northern limit for some species -- for example, White Oak, Yellow-throated Vireo, Chorus Frog, and Common Crow -- and the southern limit for others -- for example, Grey Wolf, Moose, American Raven, and Jack Pine.
High species diversity characterizes the overlapping of the two geologically different areas and makes this part of Southeastern Ontario ecologically significant.
Our region includes part of the UNESCO-designated Frontenac Arch Biosphere Reserve and the Algonquin to Adirondack conservation focus area.
Species at risk
Habitat
protection is crucial to the preservation of a variety of species,
including
many species at risk, which live in the two counties for some or all of
the
year. For example, birds such as the Eastern Loggerhead Shrike, the
only
predatory song bird, and the Cerulean Warbler, a song bird that eats
mostly
insects and winters in South America, require specific habitats for
feeding and
breeding. Unless their habitats are preserved these birds will continue
their
decline and soon disappear.
These
are species at risk that have already been sighted on the properties
protected
by the Land Conservancy:
Butternut
tree Juglans cinerea
Black Rat Snake Elaphe
obsoletae
Five-lined Skink Eumeces
fasciatus
Blanding's
Turtle Emydoidea blandingii
Red-shouldered
Hawk Buteo lineatus
Common
Nighthawk Chordeiles minor
