Archive for month: May, 2022

Margot and her family moved to the Massawippi Valley permanently in 2002 however she had already established a love for the area long before when attending university and working in the area in the 1970s.

Unassuming and passionate, she is one of the founders of the Massawippi Foundation. Even before its legal inception, Margot played a key role in its establishment which now boasts approximately 1200 acres under its protection via the Massawippi Conservation Trust. The land, which is protected in perpetuity, has a current evaluation of over 4.3 million dollars and the Foundation has raised over 5 million dollars. For much of the last decade, Margot served as Chair and volunteer acting Executive Director at the same time – a term referred to as a “servant leader”. Today, Margot is President of the Foundation and a Trustee of the Trust. The conserved area we are talking about is the watershed of Lake Massawippi, in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. It contains pristine forests which have been identified as being of top ecological quality. Margot was among a small group of people who met over Thanksgiving weekend, 2010 to discuss the imminent threat of development on the magnificent forested ridge on the west side of the lake. One guest, David Rittenhouse took up the call and began to research how to create a conservation trust and a community foundation. By happenstance, Margot was drawn into the action after a chance meeting with David in the local depanneur. During the summer of 2011, they went door to door, spreading the word among friends to support the foundation during its infancy by providing seed money in order to purchase land and to explain the goals of the sister organizations. David made these visits while fighting advanced cancer and died in August that year but not before Margot visited him the evening before to promise him that the other founders would continue the work that he had begun as the Foundation’s first Executive Director.
Since then Margot has identified properties, helped negotiate land donations or sales and ushered the Trustees and owners to the table to sign transfers of land, a task that Margot compares to herding cats. She has also helped raise funds towards property acquisition and trail building and is a lead donor herself. She is a spokesperson and educator. She has given lectures, personally written hundreds of thank you notes, hosted fundraising events, even loaned her home in exchange for donations instead of rent.  Margot is a local, well respected authority on conservation in the region. She is called upon regularly by people wanting her guidance on how to establish a land trust.
Margot, along with the Board, believes in the importance of giving everyone access to nature. It was important to allow people to walk and benefit directly from the forest therefore it wasn’t long before two properties had trail networks. In the words of Margot Graham Heyerhoff, “The goal was not just to see this amazingly beautiful green mountain from afar while driving on Route 143  but for people to experience conservation from being ‘inside’ these protected forests”. Nothing has proven truer than in the last 2 years with the pandemic raging around us, people have benefitted from the trails, improving their physical and mental health.

The Massawippi Trust is under the conservation umbrella group of Appalachian Corridor. The biologists and specialists from the organisation have identified the top priority properties linking wildlife corridors which range from the United States through Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. Margot is keenly aware of the positive impact on the wildlife regarding the connection between the properties and has worked nonstop to link contingent parcels together.
Aside from her various roles with the Foundation, including Chair, Acting Executive Director, and President, she also sits on the grants committee, fundraising committee, and now two new committees: Education and Farming.
As she says: “To support our vision for a green and prosperous Massawippi Valley, we are looking to expand our conservation efforts from only focusing on our rich forests to including various other types of ecologically vital lands.  The Massawippi Foundation and Massawippi Conservation Trust are joining the worldwide movement toward enhancing the agroecosystem resilience for sustainable agricultural production.  We feel that conservation also includes how we use our land – we will advocate for agro-environmental farming practices to keep our soil healthy, ways to preserve the biodiversity of insects, birds and plants, and ways we can all protect streams in order to improve the health of our lake, the health of our farms and their produce and ultimately the quality of life for all who live here.”
Today, as the Massawippi Foundation enters a new decade, it is expanding its mandate to develop educational programs for local school children, families and adults. It is also joining the regenerative agriculture movement. It will sponsor a research grant to identify the hot spots on the territory where farms are contributing to pollution. It will work with local organisations to promote new (old) farming techniques which are less invasive and can in fact help restore the quality of the soil, the crops grown, the farmers’ income and the environment.
Margot, originally a city person, has become totally invested in the local environment since her move to the Eastern Townships which she has expressed through her work with the Massawippi Foundation and the Massawippi Conservation Trust. She has learned about the environment and conservation through her passion for this corner of the world.  Margot has a creative edge about her (as a designer and an artist) and an active imagination for all kinds of projects and possibilities – many of which have already become realities.