REGINA — The Nature Conservancy of Canada has successfully named an area of natural habitat along Chaplin Lake as a conservation site, to preserve grasslands and shorebird habitats.
The Mackie Ranch conservation project, so named in recognition of generations of stewardship by the Mackie family, is now under the protection of the NCC thanks to the federal Heritage Conservation Program, under the Nature Fund.
The NCC has cordoned 646 hectares of temperate grasslands and wetlands for preservation, which are the rarest and most at-risk ecosystems in the world.
“Conserving grasslands is important for our health and the wildlife they sustain,” said Michael Burak, the NCC’s southwest Saskatchewan program director.
Saskatchewan has lost more than 809,000, or 2 million acres, of native grassland in the past 25 years, with less than 25 per cent of remaining grassland habitats still intact.
Mackie Ranch is located a few kilometres off the Trans-Canada Highway between Moose Jaw and Swift Current, along the eastern shoreline of Chaplin Lake.
Chaplin Lake plays host to more than half the world’s population of sanderlings during spring migration patterns, alongside other species including sandpipers, red knots and piping plovers which are a protected species.
Mackie Ranch’s mix of grasslands and wetlands are home to numerous species of plants and animals in need of protection, including Saskatchewan’s provincial bird, the sharp-tailed grouse.
Also on the property are at least two active mating leks, and species listed under Canada’s Species At Risk Act including the threatened chestnut-collared longspur and ferruginous hawk, and the long-billed curlew noted as of special concern.
“It’s a beautiful natural area with an incredible diversity of wildlife. Many of these species are under significant threat,” said Burak.
This area also falls within the boundaries of the Chaplin-Old Wives-Reed Lake region of the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network, an important migration stop to thousands of shorebirds every year.
The grasslands within Mackie Ranch will continue to be used for cattle grazing, to keep the ecosystem healthy, said the NCC.
The NCC has successfully helped to protect 14 million of endangered habitats across the country since 1962, as a private not-for-profit organization, with 198,219 hectares of ecologically in-danger lands and waters in Saskatchewan.
