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Wolfville Watershed Nature Preserve (Easement)

Wolfville Watershed Nature Preserve. 605 acres in Wolfville, Kings Co.
Donated by Town of Wolfville

Significance

Old-growth hemlock forests, several orchids, including the rare southern twayblade.

Details

This property represents the first time in Canada that a Municipality has partnered with a land trust to protect municipally-owned land through a conservation easement. The arrangement allows the Town of Wolfville to protect its watershed (and back-up water supply), maintaining the watershed's ecological services, biodiversity, and recreational values. The Nature Trust will be there to actively steward the land in perpetuity.

The site is of importance on a landscape scale, since it is one of the very last intact forests of its size in the Annapolis Valley. During the spring, the Wolfville Watershed Nature Preserve is a great place to catch a glimpse of some rare and beautiful orchids, including southern twayblade, purple-fringed orchid, pink lady’s slipper, and spotted coral-root.