Milestones

I’ve been thinking about milestones of late. They’re important because they mark progress toward a goal…a physical trail, a work plan or a life journey. I’ve been marking several on the environmental front, but missing just as many on my creative work.

The past seventeen months have been a period of hitting milestones on an environmental preservation project. It has been an intense period with a slow ramp-up that started in 2021 when a few of us figuratively joined hands and created the not-for-profit Greenough and North Bruce Wilderness Alliance. We aspired to become a land trust with the goal of conserving and restoring the natural wild environment of lands along the western shore of the Northern Bruce Peninsula for everyone and forever. This shore is not as well known as the eastern or the Georgian Bay side where hiking trails run from shoreline to cliffs, aqua-coloured water pools at the base of those cliffs, and flowerpot rock formations stand proud at the top of the peninsula.

I’ve loved the Saugeen-Bruce since I was a child. My mother’s family came from a farm near Teeswater, and I have memories of touching the poppies that grew in my grandmother’s garden marvelling at their fragile petals and hairy stems, trekking through the fields to my cousins’ farm, and spending several snowy Christmases at my aunt’s farm. But I hadn’t appreciated that there was a Great Lake nearby until we purchased waterfront land in 2006. The feeling I get when we arrive and step out of the car is that I’m home. There’s birdsong, the cool scent of cedar, and the sound of the waves. It’s as close to heaven as one can get. And that’s why I signed on to the dream of a land trust.

The project to create the trust began with a series of conversations among friends. Making it real has taken hard work and creativity. I’ve stuck with it because my fellow board members are committed and generous with those essential ingredients time and talent. And this project has taken scads of both. The paperwork to achieve such a dream is formidable.

In retrospect, achieving the early credentialing milestones of becoming a not-for-profit and then a registered charity through the Canada Revenue Agency was relatively easy. However, at the time, as we created bylaws for the land trust, none of us would have said so. The work that followed, developing relationships with the vendors, foundations, conservancies, and donors and writing grant applications, was formidable. It became the equivalent of 1.5 jobs, unpaid, but with the profound satisfaction of hitting milestones.

We’re a team of Type A individuals, so we approach any stage with a mix of caution, courage and discipline.  A property that we believed was worthy of protection was nearby. It was 20 acres with 1122 feet of shoreline that hosted three Alvars, a wetland with rushes (aka Fen), and a Forest with old growth cedar trees. The property had recently come off the market and was lying dormant. Our worst fear was that a someone would purchase it, put in docks, run jet boats through the Fen, chop down the cedars and trample globally rare plants. We arranged for a certified appraisal and approached the vendors with a price we could afford…if we could raise the funds. The vendors believed in our conservation mission, and we signed an Agreement for Purchase and Sale. That milestone was when I started to hyperventilate. How on earth would we raise the funds? Although we had a generous pledge in place, raising the balance would require considerable effort and goodwill.

Fundraising began in earnest. As the writer in the group, I learned how to write grant applications, with the nerve-wracking expectation that each one would be reviewed by individuals who knew environmental science better than I did. I also learned that grants from trusts like ours are not submitted by novices; they are written by staff members with serious street credibility as ecologists and biologists. We submitted four and were successful on two. Each submission was another milestone. Each acceptance fueled us. Each rejection gave us pause. There was still an enormous gap between the purchase price and the funds we had raised.

We reviewed websites for foundations and trusts committed to conservation and found that we had either missed deadlines or they had focused their funds on environmental processes like remediation rather than acquisitions. Who could argue with the latter? Every bit of effort to protect the climate counts. While they couldn’t help this time, we would be ready to ask for the next acquisition.

To say we were elated when one trust agreed to meet with us is an understatement. We prepared notes and a PowerPoint presentation. The principals were kind and asked superb questions, but they had reservations. The Wilderness Alliance had no track record. However, they were willing to meet with us again once we heard back from the granting organizations.

We also approached conservancies that were protecting land on the Saugeen-Bruce. Our acquisition was too small, the timing was off, or the capacity was not present. We understood, and furthermore, we still didn’t have that important ingredient, street credibility. We were still an emerging land trust. However, one conservancy expressed an interest, visited the site with a fellow director, expressed enthusiasm and signed on. Once again, we were elated.

Despite our novice status, we have been successful. We have secured the property which sits within a Provincially Designated Area of Natural Scientific Interest. Furthermore, we’ve protected it from development. The result of this effort is that we have met extraordinary individuals who believed in our efforts and were prepared to support our dream by way of advice, funds or both. It’s a team milestone we’ll celebrate with members and donors at the end of May.

Our work has just begun. Our goal is to conserve and restore the natural wild environment of lands along the western shore of the Northern Bruce Peninsula for everyone and forever. We call it a Pathway to Preservation. We know now that the work is intense and that obstacles will be thrust in our path. Our hope is that we will encounter other like-minded individuals who will join us in our mission. Please consider joining us at Greenough and North Bruce Wilderness Alliance.

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