The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) has announced a deal that will see the Riverside Ranch in southern Alberta be preserved to help protect threatened species.
The ranch sits along the Castle River, between the towns of Lundbreck and Beaver Mines.
The agreement was reached with the family that has owned the ranch, and blocks recreational development on the land to make sure it is kept intact.
The 1,600-hectare ranch is home to all kinds of wildlife, including grizzly bears, who are under Canada’s Species at Risk Act.
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There are also two different species of trout who call the Castle River home and are considered to be a threatened species by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife.
Forests on the ranch also hold limber pine – an endangered species, according to that same committee.
Some of the pine trees on the ranch are more than 500 years old.
The Zoratti family has owned the ranch for more than a century and said they are glad they are able to keep this land in its current form.
“We recognize the tremendous value in land conservation for all future generations to come, not only for the sustainability of the ranch, but also so they (visitors) may get a chance to experience the ranch lands as they have always been,” Mark Zoratti said in a statement.
The NCC said this is vital for wetland preservation.
According to the Institute of Wetlands and Waterfowl Research, nearly two-thirds of Alberta’s slough and marsh wetlands have disappeared.
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