Record-breaking partnership creates Canada’s largest protected tract of native grassland
Help protect and steward McIntyre Ranch in perpetuity
Standing amidst the sweeping grasslands on the 22,215-hectare McIntyre Ranch in southern Alberta, Leta Pezderic points to the place where she says, “everything changes.”
At the spot where the ranch meets the surrounding crop lands, “you can see and feel the land- use pressure,” explains Leta, NCC’s grassland stewardship manager. “You know the minute you cross the line onto McIntyre Ranch. You see the ground squirrels and eagles and endangered prairie grasses. The land is wild again, alive and functioning as it should be.”
And now, thanks to a record-breaking partnership with NCC, Ducks Unlimited Canada and the Thrall family, owners of the McIntyre Ranch for 75 years, the land will be protected in perpetuity. A conservation agreement makes this the largest privately protected tract of native prairie grassland in all of Canada and the Thrall family one of the country’s largest donors through the federal government’s Ecological Gifts Program.
Ambassadors’ Circle members are among the first to hear this news, which won’t be public until later this spring.
“Canadians need to understand how rare and special this gift is,” Leta says. “It’s really hard to sustain a ranching operation without succumbing to the pressures of land development. The Thrall family sacrificed over and over and now they’re doing this. It’s truly honourable.”
The McIntyre Ranch is a working cattle ranch known for its sustainable range management. Only 25 per cent of the range is actively used at any one time, and the Thralls are one of the only Alberta ranchers to winter graze their cattle, a practice made possible by the fescue grassland – one of the largest undisturbed tracts of the nutritionally-rich species in all of North America.
“Continuing to protect the grasslands, water bodies and riparian areas from cultivation, urbanization and industry activity is our shared goal,” explains Leta.
Only about 24 per cent of Canada’s native prairie grasslands remain, much of it in small, disconnected parcels. The conservation agreement will protect the entire ranch land in perpetuity, including more than 150 wildlife and 350 plant species, many of them at risk, while allowing the Thralls to continue to operate their ranching business.
“It’s vital that we protect what little prairie habitat we have left, which is why we’re grateful to be partnering with NCC and Ducks Unlimited Canada,” says Ralph Thrall III, president and CEO of McIntyre Ranching Co. Ltd.
While the fundraising campaign has been very successful so far, more funds remain to be raised to protect and steward the land in perpetuity. Donations will help NCC and the Thrall family complete an ecological inventory and develop and implement a long-term stewardship management plan for the property.
“I’m so proud of what we’ve accomplished and the goals we’ll continue to achieve by working together,” Leta says. “We’ve really changed the course of history.”
