$2.65-million bequest boosts Long Point Basin Land Trust’s conservation plans

Thanks to a $2.65-million bequest, the Long Point Basin Land Trust is launching a major conservation campaign to increase and enhance protected lands in its catchment area.

The seven-year effort is aligned with the Canadian government’s goal of conserving 30 per cent of Canada’s land and water by 2030 to reverse the decline of biodiversity and to adapt to climate change.

The bequest was made by the late Fred Jonckheere of Langton.

A local businessman and self-taught naturalist, Jonckheere was an editor of an illustrated tree identification book entitled Rare, Threatened, and Endangered Trees of Haldimand-Norfolk. It was published as a pocket field guide so that tree markers and loggers could identify those Carolinian tree species that should be unharmed because their rarity was of greater value living than in their board feet, said Peter Carson, president and founder of the Long Point Basin Land Trust.

Jonckheere worked tirelessly in other ways as a defender of trees and forests with colleagues in the Norfolk Field Naturalists, said Carson.

“We have added seven nature reserves over the past seven years and intend to match or exceed that achievement by 2030 to protect the rich biodiversity and habitats of the Long Point Basin area,” said Carson. “The Jonckheere family’s generosity has given us a solid financial basis for setting such an ambitious goal.”

The Jonckheere family’s legacy gift will be leveraged by the Long Point Basin Land Trust to secure more natural areas and better protect and steward existing reserves in perpetuity.

Funds from this bequest contributed toward the purchase of the Stackhouse Forest Sanctuary in 2022 and the land trust board has allocated $1.5 million from the bequest for future land acquisitions.

Additional funds are being held in reserve for operational financing and for special opportunities to address other priorities identified in the land trust’s 2021-25 strategic plan.

For more information about the land trust’s recent activities and finances, find the 2022 annual report at longpointlandtrust.ca/about-us/financial-statements/.

The Long Point Basin area is located in the Carolinian region, an area with some of the highest biodiversity in plants and animals in Canada. This is accomplished through land ownership, land management and nature stewardship on properties owned by the land trust, partner organizations and private land stewards.

They work together to restore functioning habitats and ecosystems with the reserves through ongoing stewardship programs and outreach and volunteer activities.