The new stewardship manager of the Long Point Basin Land Trust is focused on biodiversity conservation and habitat restoration within the organization’s 14 nature reserves.
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Ian Fife, who joined the Long Point Basin Land Trust in January, holds a master’s degree in avian ecology with a specialization in conservation biology from Trent University.
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While his primary focus has been on avian ecology, Fife has worked with various fish and small and large mammal species. His fieldwork has taken him across all Ontario forest types, as well as prairie, Arctic, Hudson Bay Lowland, and Carolinian ecosystems.
He is the former coordinator of the Ontario Forest Birds at Risk program with Birds Canada.
“My career has always been wildlife focused but we can’t expect bird or wildlife populations to rebound if there’s no habitat for them to return to,” Fife said of his new role. “This position provides me an opportunity to help rebuild that habitat.”
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As stewardship manager, Fife will be responsible for overseeing and implementing stewardship programs, monitoring wildlife populations, and spearheading habitat restoration projects with the land trust’s nature reserves.
Fife is a native of the Peterborough area who moved to Norfolk in 2018.
“It wasn’t until I was in my late 20s before I became immersed in nature and started to identify plants and insects. I became very keen on dragonflies and damselflies at that time and spent my summers catching and photographing them to identify them. I was self-taught until I started at Fleming College in 2006.”
While his work has taken him all over, Fife said one of the most unique experiences was the two months he spent in the Arctic in Barrow, Alaska and far northern Ontario. From March to April he counted migrating Eider ducks as they passed into the Beaufort Sea from their wintering grounds on the Sea of Okhotsk in Russia.
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“I never would have imagined how diverse wildlife is in the Arctic, but I got to watch Bowhead and Beluga whales and a variety of seals swim by every day. Polar bears were a regular sighting and the number of birds, other than Eider ducks, was incredible. I got to work with the local Inupiaq people and watch and take part in their traditional bowhead whale hunt.”
For the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, Fife was dropped off in extreme remote locations to collect data. He has also worked for Ducks Unlimited Canada in Saskatchewan searching for and monitoring ground-nesting waterfowl.
Fife said his primary responsibility with the Long Point Basin Land Trust will be to maintain properties that have been restored and to develop restoration and management plans for any new properties.
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“I will also identify rare and significant flora and fauna and work to ensure their security and protection. Mitigating and removing invasive species is another big part of my job. It’s an on-going battle with no end in sight.”
Fife said colleagues and landowners have “taught me so much about this amazing place that is Norfolk County.”
“Colleagues have been incredibly knowledgeable and the landowners I’ve met have been so passionate about their woodlots and properties. The Norfolk ecological community has an incredible drive to collaborate and reconnect the nature that has been lost for more than a century now. It gives me a sense of hope despite the grand picture of climate change.”
The Long Point Basin Land Trust is a charitable, non-governmental organization founded in 1996 with a mission to protect and restore functioning ecosystems in the central Carolinian Region through land ownership and management and nature stewardship.
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