A newly protected property in Annapolis County secures a critical inholding in the McGill Lake Wilderness Area, filling a significant gap in the regional network of protected areas and enhancing the protection of a large freshwater system.

Big Molly Upsim is a 68 acre (27.5 hectare) property, made of several irregularly-shaped peninsulas of riparian forest surrounding Big Molly Upsim Lake. The property is a part of a broader matrix of conservation lands in the area, including Cloud Lake Wilderness Area and Medway Lakes Wilderness Area. Linking together a network of smaller parcels or protected areas reduces habitat fragmentation, supports the movement of wide-ranging species, and improves ecological resilience to climate change and development pressures.

The property also includes 2.3 kilometers of shoreline on Big Molly Upsim Lake itself, making its protection important to the health of the freshwater system of the area. The primarily forested property also boasts a mapped stand of potential old-growth forest, further supporting its conservation value.

The property lies within designated Core Habitat for Mainland Moose, a species listed as Endangered in Nova Scotia. Other species of conservation concern documented in the surrounding landscape include Eastern White Cedar, Bay-breasted Warbler, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Canada Warbler, Wilson’s Warbler, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Eastern Painted Turtle, Snapping Turtle, Black-foam Lichen, Common Nighthawk, and two uncommon dragonflies, the Harlequin Darner and the Elfin Skimmer. While the property itself has not yet been comprehensively surveyed, its intact condition, remote location, and proximity to documented occurrences suggest it may provide habitat for several of these species.

This property was donated to the Nature Trust through the Ecological Gifts program, which offers significant tax incentives for gifts of ecologically important land. The land had belonged to Laird Fairn; in 1978 he passed it to the next generation of his extended family circle, a group comprised of Christopher Crace, John Crace, Benjamin Fairn, Jurgen Hoffmann, the late Michael Hastey, and Thomas Purves, a close family friend.

Although the land is difficult to access, the family made several memorable trips there together early on; these visits resonated deeply as special voyages that had been made together. As time went by, however, the visits dwindled. John shared that he and Tom (Purves) had joked for many years about making another trip; “’maybe this is the year,’ we would say, but the time would approach and we wouldn’t go. It became a recurring joke that we didn’t do it.” After several decades, they finally followed through and made the journey in April 2024, as the process to donate the land was beginning to take shape.

“All of us have children,” John explained, “and all of us assumed that as we went to the next station, so to speak, our portion of the land would go to our descendants.” But with so many co-owners, “it would have involved a lot of lawyers and time.” Jurgen, who lives in Germany, suggested to the group: “It’s too complicated to try to organize how to pass this down. Why don’t we just give it away”? Everyone in the group agreed.

Tom Purves was one of the original members of the Nature Trust’s Board of Directors, serving from 1994 until 2010, while John and Christopher Crace were already committed Nature Trust supporters; their late mother, Nancy Norwood, was also a strong supporter and dedicated volunteer. “Everyone was already very much aware of the work of the Nature Trust,” John said, “and it seemed a natural go-to.”

With so many co-owners all spread over the globe, the donation process itself was fairly complex, but thankfully “we were all committed to getting it done,” John adds, “to give the land away and make it for the public good.”

On behalf of the habitats now connected and wildlife protected on this special piece of land, we are grateful to this steadfast group of donors for their generosity.

We are also grateful for the generous support of the Nova Scotia Crown Share Land Legacy Trust, a critical source of land securement funding for Nova Scotia’s land trusts.