Brier Island, c/o Nature Conservancy of Canada.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada now owns a third of Brier Island, Digby County.

They’ve purchased 11 hectares of land, increasing their nature reserve on the island to 406 hectares.

NCC Program Director in Nova Scotia Jaimee Morozoff discusses why they wanted to expand their reserve.

“This is going to be really valuable to help expand the existing protected area but also help to protect the globally rare eastern mountain avens which are pretty much only found on Brier Island.”

She says the only other places the plant grows is in some parts of Digby Neck and one spot in New Hampshire. It’s also listed under the federal Species at Risk Act.

The island is also important for animal life on land and in the sea.

The eastern mountain avens, c/o Nature Conservancy of Canada.

“It’s a key fly way for migratory birds, hundreds of thousands of birds are passing through that way,” says Morozoff. “Helping to protect the coastline and maintaining that is going to be really important to the sea creatures that live out there. I know one of the most popular things to do on Brier Island is watch the whales so helping to maintain the coastal health is also going to be a key part of keeping those species there as well.”

The NCC says more than half of the new land contains a large bog, a quarter contains White Spruce and Black Spruce, and alder make up the rest.

The purchase was funded by private donors and the Government of Canada’s Target 1 Challenge Fund.