A year in photos

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2021 has been a remarkable year so far.

It is our 10th anniversary in which we have celebrated with the community, announced land acquisitions and officially opened Ethan’s Beach and where we launched our first Farm Leadership Awards.
As they say a picture is worth 1000 words … so here are thousands!

Trustee and volunteer Normand Brière and President Margot Heyerhoff represent the Massawippi Foundation and the Massawippi Conservation Trust. They walk the popular Massawippi Trail. (Photo: Le Reflet du Lac – Dany Jacques)

Press Conference: Announcement of the acquisition of property #9

 

PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release

MASSAWIPPI CONSERVATION TRUST ADDS 154 HECTARES (390 ACRES)
TO PROTECT THE MASSAWIPPI VALLEY

Canton de Hatley, June 9, 2021– Massawippi Conservation Trust (MCT) is pleased to announce the purchase of a new property to be protected in perpetuity in the Massawippi Valley. The project is the fruit of a three-year collaboration with three siblings, who fulfilled their parents’ conservation dream by selling their forested and ecologically rich 154 hectares (390 acres) to the MCT in August of 2019.
The Massawippi Foundation and the Massawippi Conservation Trust are two charitable organizations that are respectively responsible for the funding and management of large protected areas in the watershed of the Massawippi valley.
“After several years of negotiations with the Eberts family, the Trust was able to purchase the second largest parcel of land under our stewardship,” explains Margot Heyerhoff, President of the Fondation Massawippi Foundation (FMF). “The addition of this property will enable us to preserve these pristine forests and ecologically important marshlands. The Foundation (FMF) and Trust (MCT) will also be building a new trail network on the sector which will be appreciated by the users of our trail system. We thank the family for their visionary collaboration,” she adds.

Community Event Scowen Park
CELEBRATE THE TRAILS

 

The Official Opening of Ethan’s Beach on August 21st at Quebec Lodge in Hatley.  People were offered free pontoon rides from the Lodge beach on the Eastern side of the lake to Ethan’s Beach on the Western side of the lake.

23 August 2021
Massawippi Foundation inaugurates new public beach  sherbrookerecord.com
By Gordon Lambie
Over the weekend, the Massawippi Foundation held a ceremony to officially inaugurate Ethan’s Beach, a secluded waterfront space linked to the Massawippi Trail on the western shore of Lake Massawippi. Due to the fact that the land access to the beach involves a three kilometre hike down a mountain and then back up again, the ceremony was hosted at the Quebec Lodge outdoor centre on the other side of the lake, with interested parties being ferried across to see the beach by pontoon boat.

“Ethan’s beach is part of a property that was acquired back in 2014,” said Hélène Hamel, the foundation’s Community Engagement Manager, sharing that the space has been named for the grandchild of one of the foundation’s board members. Hamel said that work on the trails that cross the 1,200 acre land conservation then began in 2017 and have been a gradual labour of love since that time. Access to the beach by land was, in fact, ready last summer, but a formal opening was not possible because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We offered two prizes to farmers who were leaders in the field!
“ The vision of the Massawippi Foundation and the Massawippi Conservation Trust of a green and prosperous valley has been developed over the past 10 years around the conservation of our rich forests and their biodiversity, but we know that other ecologically vital lands must be included to achieve balance, and mainly the lands that produce our food. Our health depends on the health of the ecosystem in which we live, and when we use its natural resources in a sustainable way, we will have a resilient ecosystem over the very long term.
By awarding two prizes to a conventional farm and an organic farm, the Foundation wants to recognize the leadership of producers who have been investing in their land management practices for years and who are greatly influencing their fellow farmers to innovate and adopt best agri-environmental practices in the management of fertilizers and residues, to maintain biodiversity on their land, and to improve the health and conservation of their soil. ”
Dr. Eric van Bochove, member of the Board of Directors of the Massawippi Foundation and chair of the Farm Award Committee.

The two winners were the Ferme Vimo (2010) Inc, a conventional farm owned by Gilles Viens, Marguerite Morin and their three children Marilyn, Pascal and Christian Viens and Fellgarth Farm SENC, a certified organic farm owned by Alexander Brand and Lindsay-Jane Gowman. Each of the two farms received a $10,000 prize!

Behind the scenes…

There were video and photo sessions.

The sign committee met to discuss new signage for the new trails.

We toured property #9 and photographed it from the air and land. Do you see the Turtle Head Rock?

We recognised the donors who helped us to plant trees at Scowen Park.

 

Mahicans Diamond opens the Sentier Pic de Wippi, July 2021 and the new updated Trail Map v. 2021

We completed the Sentier Pic de Wippi in the Wardman sector of the Massawippi Trail. Seen here Board Member Jane Meaghar and her husband, Jean Vanaise.

Our trails are hand made by a group of professional trail builders who also work and train students who help them in the summertime.
Photo on right…if you remember our Dec. 2020 newsletter we named the tool Mahicans is using here…The McLeod.