Conservation group protects more habitat for shorebirds and wildlife near Chaplin
The expansion of a conservation project along the eastern shoreline of Chaplin Lake will help to protect important habitat for shorebirds as well as native grasslands.
The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) has announced the addition of 640 hectares of grasslands to the Mackie Ranch conservation project, which brings the total area under protection to 1,286 hectares.
NCC Saskatchewan Director of Conservation Eric Cleland said the doubling of this conservation area is important for several reasons.
“It symbolizes what NCC is trying to do under our Prairie Grasslands Action Plan, which is a strategy where we’re trying to conserve 500,000 hectares of grassland habitats by 2030,” he said. “So it’s quite a substantial accomplishment and the location where Mackie Ranch is situated is really important as well on the shore of Chaplin Lake, which is internationally recognized as a migratory stopover location for birds. It’s really a rare and very unique opportunity for the Nature Conservancy to actually conserve the land.”
Chaplin Lake is the second largest saline lake in Canada and one of only three in the country designated to be of hemispheric
importance to shorebirds. The other two are on the east and west coast, which means Chaplin Lake is the only one located inland. Shorebirds such as sanderling, semipalmated sandpiper, Baird’s sandpiper, red knot and piping plover will therefore benefit.
“The neat thing about that particular Chaplin Lake area is it’s great for a whole bunch of shorebirds, but also for waterfowl, both ones that are residents and breed locally in the summer, but also those that are stopping over to their breeding grounds in the north and doing the same on their way to their wintering grounds in the fall each year,” he said. “So we’ve got benefits to shorebirds and waterfowl, but there’s a number of significant species in the area that are going to benefit as well.”
The expanded Mackie Ranch conservation property, which is located a few kilometres from the Trans-canada Highway between Swift Current and Moose Jaw, will support species such as the sharp-tailed grouse and it provides habitat for wildlife listed under the federal Species at Risk Act, including chestnut-collared
longspur, ferruginous hawk and long-billed curlew.
“Species like the pronghorn antelope and the burrowing owl that’s further south are recognized to be in the area from time to time,” he said. “We have mule deer and white-tailed deer that pass through the area that will benefit from it. There’s lots of unique other bird species that we see at the Mackie Ranch quite regularly. There’s just a real neat mix of species that use this area that are going to benefit from permanent protection.”
The NCC acquired the initial 646 hectares for the Mackie Ranch conservation project in 2021. The name of the project gives recognition to generations of stewardship by the Mackie family. Cattle grazing will still take place in the protected area to help keep the grasslands healthy and support the local economy.
“The Mackies are a traditional ranching family and they had livestock on there,” Cleland said. “It’s really important to note what actually keeps the grasslands healthy is having regular, well managed grazing conditions and NCC will be looking to work with ranchers going forward to continue to use the lands in the same manner so that they stay healthy and productive for wildlife.”
He noted that NCC will follow this approach on a lot of properties across the province, because the health of the grasslands benefits from appropriately managed and sustainable grazing.
“This partnership that naturally occurs between NCC and ranchers is one of the best untold stories of the prairies,” he said. “We’ve been working with ranchers for some time now to share the land and contribute to Canada’s economy, but also contributing to conserving biodiversity and none of these prairie grasslands would be the way they were if we didn’t have ranchers undertaking sustainable management for generations across the province.”
The expansion of the Mackie Ranch conservation project provides more habitat that serves as a refuge for wildlife.
“There are a lot of species that really require large contiguous tracks of native habitat,” he noted. “NCC now has almost 50 per cent of that ranch under permanent protection, but in addition to that there are a couple of community pastures in the area that are all together totalling up nearly 20,000 hectares. When you think about the good stewardship of the ranching community on those community pastures and the good stewardship of the grasslands by the Mackie family, we’re now looking at a really large complex of native grasslands that’s functioning at a landscape scale to benefit wildlife.”
The purchase of additional land by NCC for the Mackie Ranch conservation project was done with support of donors and partners. The federal government was a major contributor through its Natural Heritage Conservation Program.