Ranch in foothills near Calgary protected from development

About 800 hectares of the White Moose Ranch in the foothills of southern Alberta have been protected from development.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada has signed a conservation agreement with the landowners to restrict development rights on the property, just west of the town of Turner Valley.

The conservancy says the land, a 35-minute drive southwest of Calgary, is facing pressure from urban developers.

Officials say protecting the area is a priority because it’s one of the last pieces of relatively intact fescue grassland in Alberta.

They estimate that less than five per cent of native fescue grasslands remain in Canada, making the area one of the most threatened.

White Moose Ranch is also near the headwaters region of the Sheep River, which provides drinking water to almost half of all Albertans.

It was protected by landowners Stan Carscallen, a lawyer in Calgary, and Eva Friesen, president and chief executive of the Calgary Foundation, and their sons.

“From the day our White Moose Ranch first acquired this breathtaking property in 1992, I knew that we needed to find a way to preserve it in its natural state,” Carscallen said in a news release.

The land borders OH Ranch, a ranch founded in 1883 and bought in 1987 by Doc Seaman, an oilman and one of the original co-owners of the Calgary Flames.

Carscallen said that before Seaman died in 2009, they frequently spoke about protecting the land between the Highwood River and the Sheep River.