Nancy Ferrier left the 1,467 acre property in her will to the Nature Conservancy of Canada; her family had owned it since 1904
A 1,467-acre property along Gough Lake in central Alberta is now a conservation site under the auspices of the Nature Conservancy of Canada.
The property was donated by the late Agnes Isabelle Ferrier, known as Nancy, who passed away in 2015 and willed it to the NCC. The donation was officially announced Feb. 2, coinciding with World Wetlands Day.
Gough Lake is 125 kilometres east of Red Deer, 40 km south of Stettler and about 100 km north of Drumheller, said NCC Alberta communications co-ordinator Carys Richards.
It is in an area known as the “prairie pothole region” because of its rolling terrain and wetland areas that form habitat for multiple species of birds, other animals and plants.
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“The two species that have been observed on the property that are considered species at risk are the Baird’s sparrow and the Sprague’s pipit, but there are a lot of species that live on this property,” said Richards.
“A lot of the waterfowl and shorebirds that either nest or migrate through this region use (the pothole area) as stopover areas or permanent habitat. There’s also a lot of small mammals and ungulates.”
One-third of the property is native grassland.
The site is also near the 23,620-acre Rumsey Ecological Reserve and Natural Area and near three other NCC conservation easements. Ducks Unlimited owns eight other quarter sections of land nearby.
“There’s lots of people in the area that are trying to protect the landscape,” Richards said.
Though all NCC properties are open to the public for foot access, this one has no trail infrastructure, so although visitors are welcome, high numbers are not encouraged.
“The public, if they’re in the area and they want to visit the property, they’re more than welcome to, so give us a call,” said Richards, noting other NCC properties near Red Deer and Edmonton are more conducive to nature walks.
The Ferrier family has owned the recently donated property since 1904, when Ferrier’s father, John, and uncle, Tom, emigrated from Scotland and homesteaded on the Gough Lake shore. More family members followed, and they gradually acquired more land, established a farmstead and raised families.
Ferrier was the last surviving child of John Ferrier and willed the land to the NCC.
“The family is absolutely delighted,” Ferrier family member Sylvia Walters said in an NCC news release.
“John and Nancy, the children of the John Ferrier that settled here from Scotland, never had any children of their own, so this was their wish. This property has come full circle, from being homesteaded in 1904 to going back to nature the way it was in 1904.”
Alberta Environment and Parks Minister Shannon Phillips said the donation is an “amazing act of kindness (that) will advance our shared goal of protecting and preserving natural habitats for future generations.”
Federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said conservation like this will protect biodiversity and improve the landscape’s resiliency to extreme weather events.
On the same day as the Ferrier announcement, NCC also announced a new wetland project in Spring Creek, Sask., and two others in Quebec and Nova Scotia.
In Alberta, NCC now controls more than 280,000 acres of land.
