A mosaic of habitat protected across Miscou Island
Miscou Island, located on the northeastern tip of New Brunswick, is known for its beautiful sandy beaches, saltwater lagoons and massive peat bogs that turn a spectacular crimson red each fall.
In November 2014 we celebrated the conservation of an additional 450 acres (182 hectares) of ecologically significant lands on the island – a multi-part land assembly involving 18 separate properties and many local families.
NCC’s conservation efforts aim to protect the special natural features of Miscou Island. With more than 700 acres (280 hectares) now protected by NCC, these nature reserves protect forest, peat bog, coastal salt marshes and lagoons critical to thousands of waterfowl and migratory shorebirds. These sites also include sandy beaches used by nesting piping plovers, a nationally endangered shorebird, as well as threatened species such as Gulf of St. Lawrence aster, red knot sandpiper and Canada warbler.
These properties were protected in part thanks to generous land donations by the families that had cared for them over many decades, including the Windsor-Harper family of Miscou Harbour.
“By donating this family legacy to the care of the Nature Conservancy of Canada, these lands have been returned to the wind, the sun and the sea,” said Gwen McConkey on behalf of the Windsor-Harper family.
“The natural bounty, which yielded to the determination and hard work of several generations of farmers, fishermen and entrepreneurs that called these rough shores of Chaleur Bay and the Gulf of St. Lawrence home, will once again thrive for future generations to appreciate and experience.”