Another 15 acres of wetland has been protected along Prince Edward County’s South Shore.
The forest and wetland property has been cared for since 1993 by Mark Bass, a local teacher with an interest in conservation.
Central Ontario East Program Director Mark Stabb explained why this piece of land located at the western edge of the South Shore is so important.
Donors Jeremy Guth and Nina-Marie Lister helped ensure the property was sold to the Nature Conservancy of Canada.
Bass has spent countless hours on the property, restoring a pond and even bringing students there to plant trees and enjoy nature.
Bass said his heart is in this property and the land is sacred to him. He says he would only have sold it to the NCC who will continue his vision for the land.
The Mark Bass Nature Reserve contains a collection of marsh, swamp and coastal wetland, important for local flood mitigation, as well as upland forests and fields. The land is home to the Blanding’s turtle as well as waterfowl such as mallard and wood duck.
Stabb told Quinte News the land has some significance to him as well.
The Mark Bass Nature Reserve adds to a network of conservation lands in Prince Edward County, which includes:
- 1,400 acre Prince Edward Point National Wildlife Area
- 490 acre Miller Family Nature Reserve (owned and stewarded by Hastings-Prince Edward Land Trust)
- 234 Ducks Unlimited Canada property at Gravelly Point
- 212 NCC nature reserve at Ostrander Point
