Ecological Gifts: Donor Profile
Brian Buckles
Fostering conservation easements
 "Community
effort can help make this area even more special by protecting,
enhancing, and extending it for future generations."
Brian Buckles |
If a stranger were to ask a landowner for a donation of ecologically sensitive land, he would be unlikely to get in the front door. If it's a neighbour asking then chances are he will at least get invited in for a cup of coffee. If it's Brian Buckles sitting at your kitchen table, you may end up seriously considering donating a conservation easement on your land.
 Brian
is one of several landowners in the Glen Majors area of the Oak
Ridges Moraine northeast of Toronto who go door to door, talking
to neighbours about the local countryside and how they can protect
their part of it. A new option that Brian has been promoting is
conservation easements - legal agreements permanently registered
on the title of land with covenants that dictate allowed land-uses
and activities. The easement holder, in most cases a conservation
organization, has a right and obligation to inspect the property
and enforce the covenants. The owner retains title and continues
to live on the land.
Conservation easements are particularly effective in protecting working landscapes that are threatened by urbanization. The Oak Ridges Moraine, with its diminishing mosaic of pasture, woods, wetlands and small settlements, is largely privately owned. Resident landowners are uniquely positioned to protect what remains of the natural landscape. These agreements suit Brian and his neighbours' philosophy that the Moraine is not an area solely intended as a park. Indeed, Brian and his wife Jane recently donated a conservation easement on their 40 hectare property to the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority.
 |
Community advocates are crucial to opening landowners' eyes to donation options and opportunities and then introducing them to willing donation recipients. The majority of ecological gifts on the Oak Ridges Moraine are in the Glen Majors area, a testament to the importance of community-based advocates partnering with land recipient organizations. |
To find out more about making an ecological gift or about conservation easements, contact:
Ecological Gifts Program,
Ontario Region
Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada
4905 Dufferin Street
Downsview, ON M3H 5T4
Tel: (416) 739-4286
E-mail: ecogifts.ontario@ec.gc.ca
Website: www.on.ec.gc.ca/ecogifts
This publication is
available in PDF.
|
