Land donated to the University of Alberta in 2010 was covered under a conservation easement March 9, providing $3.8 million to the university to continue grasslands research.
The 12,000-acre Mattheis Ranch near Duchess, Alta., is now under permanent protection by the Western Sky Land Trust, a conservation organization that concentrates on property in and around the Calgary region.
The easement ensures that the U of A Rangeland Research Institute-Mattheis Ranch will never be developed.
A news release about the easement said Western Sky used funding from the Alberta Land Trust Grant program to make the payment.
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The provincial government program aims to conserve ecologically important areas, maintain biodiversity and preserve native landscapes. It makes grants available to land trust organizations to buy such lands.
The conservation easement is one of the largest ever signed in Alberta.
The U of A said it will use the en-dowment to promote rangeland research, train personnel, maintain databases needed by researchers and provide for ranch management.
“I’m pleased with the guarantee the conservation easement provides with respect to conserving the land forever,” Edwin Mattheis said in a news release.
He and wife, Ruth, donated the ranch to the U of A after owning and operating it for more than 30 years.
Jerry Brunen, executive director of Western Sky Land Trust, said the deal “will support research and knowledge sharing and showcase how a working ranch can be well managed using field-proven, science-based practices.”
The 20 research projects already under way at the ranch include those involving grassland ecology, wildlife management, carbon sequestration, climate change impacts, forage production, land reclamation and water resource management.
The property is mostly native grassland but also has irrigation ditches, irrigated fields, several high voltage transmission lines and 134 active oil and gas well leases, compressor stations and pipelines.
It is also home to more than 30 wildlife species deemed to be endangered, threatened or of special concern.
