Gift protects ‘priceless’ MacEwan land
Donation will preserve pristine site near Calgary
PRIDDIS — It wasn’t a case of love at first sight.
“My father’s political career meant he had to be in either Calgary or Edmonton,” says Heather Mac Ewan Foran. “So I didn’t get to actually see it until I was 12 years old.”
Still, the only child of Phyllis and Grant MacEwan — the legendary Albertan who served as lieutenantgovernor, authored numerous books and was a leading Canadian conservationist — knew long before that day that her family’s land south of Calgary was the place of her dreams.
“I was certain I wanted to live here,” she says from the dining room table of her house that sits in an idyllic natural setting of 130 hectares. “Just something about this land called me.”
More than six decades later, it’s a love affair that has stood the test of time. MacEwan Foran, who 40 years ago moved on to the land with her husband Max Foran and their two young daughters, continues to revel in a natural oasis where deer, cougars, lynx, bobcats and the odd grizzly share daily life; a place where she can look out the window from the family museum room and drink in a scene right out of a Group of Seven landscape.
MacEwan Foran is well aware that from the end of her driveway, the nearby city is encroaching on her idyll. Over the years, says husband Max, “developers have been knocking on our door. Heather tells them she’s not the owner, she’s just the caretaker.”
Her answer is at once mischievous and genuine. In keeping with her parents’ philosophy, MacEwan Foran has long abided by the principle that “I can’t sell what I don’t own.” Recently, she made her assertion official, with the donation of a conservation easement on the land filled with spruce forest, aspen woodland and native grassland meadow.
In plain terms, it means that the non-profit Southern Alberta Land Trust Society (www.salts-landtrust.org) will protect it, in perpetuity, as a conservation wild land reserve. Successive generations of MacEwan Foran’s descendants will have the right to occupy it and even sell it, but the land will remain as pristine and natural as the day in 1940 when her father bought it two hours after first laying his own eyes on the property.
While MacEwan Foran long ago decided she would find a way to ensure her beloved wilderness would stay that way, in the past year her desire took on a note of urgency.
“I was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer last June,” says the 74-year-old matter-offactly, adding that she has never smoked. “I wanted to be here to see this become a reality.”
MacEwan Foran is emphatic that the agreement has given her a peace of mind that has made the past few months of chemotherapy and other treatment more tolerable. “I have been watching Calgary creep out for years,” she says. “I’m so thrilled that I could also be here to see this agreement done.”
It’s the least she could do for this little corner of nature that she says has provided her with a lifetime of joy and happy memories. As a youngster, MacEwan Foran enjoyed many a “magical, mystical” summer weekend here with her parents. met Max.
“I brought him home as a souvenir,” she says with a hearty laugh of her husband of 50 years, a noted historian, author and educator.
After a few years living in the city, in 1974 the couple and their two young daughters, Fiona and Lynwyn, built a new home not far from the log cabin she stayed in with her parents.
Over the decades, MacEwan
“Something this close to Calgary, left untouched, is rare.” ALAN GARDNER , EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR , SOUTHERN ALBERTA LAND TRUST SOCIETY
“I’d go off by myself, riding my horse bareback,” she says with a wistful smile. “My dad always had some project going, whether it was fixing the cabin or mending fences.”
Some of her favourite times were spent at Christmas, when “my dad would stoke the stove in the morning,” she says, “while my mother and I refused to get out of bed until we were warmed up.”
On a trip to Australia, she Foran forged a happy existence, raising her family and communing with nature.
She had names for all 32 of her herd of mule deer; she spent more than $200 a month on sunflower seeds for the many bird feeders dotting the property; and she immortalized the animals and birds she encountered using her talented woodworking skills, her home today filled with an assortment of accomplished pieces.
She succeeded in infusing her own children with wonder and awe over their magnificent surroundings.
“As a kid you just take it for granted,” says daughter Fiona. “We would have defended it with our lives,” she adds of her mother’s wish to keep the land in its natural state.
In 2011, friend Charlie Russell, the Canadian naturalist famed for his insights into grizzly bears, told the family about the Southern Alberta Land Trust Society. It was a perfect fit, says MacEwan Foran.
The easement donation doesn’t mean the family can never sell the land; it does, however, ensure any potential owner must leave it as the rich, diverse natural place it is today.
“It is a phenomenal piece of property,” says Alan Gardner, executive director of the society, who notes the donation will complement the Cross Conservation Area nearby. The CCA was created by Ann and Sandy Cross, relatives of John Cross, the current president of the Southern Alberta Land Trust Society.
“Something this close to Calgary, left untouched, is rare,” says Gardner. “They’ve given up significant financial gain in order to protect it.”
Dollar figures, though, are merely hypothetical to MacEwan Foran. “I could never put a price on it,” she says. “It is priceless.”
Always a conscientious planner when it comes to her beloved family and home, MacEwan Foran says that when she dies, her name will be inscribed on a tombstone where her parents rest in Calgary’s Union Cemetery. Her ashes, though, will be scattered on the land she fell in love with as a five-year-old dreamer, even before she set her eyes on it.
“I know my mother and father would be thrilled about this,” says the grandmother of four about her legacy, which will ensure deer, coyote, red-tailed hawks and chickadees continue to inhabit the landscape.
“I’m just so happy knowing that it will be here for future generations of people and animals.”