East Meadows Ranch

To appreciate the size and geographical diversity of Manitoba’s East Meadows Ranch (EMR), those who have enjoyed this land might say you need to see it for yourself. Fortunately, aerial and drone video provide a second-best window onto this vast 8,167-acre (3,108 hectares) parcel of land. Soaring over sunlit marshes and hundreds of basins, you can watch the land move from grassland to coastal marsh.

For Kitson Vincent, the story of this land located at Marshy Point stretches back to childhood. That’s when he recalls learning that past generations had used this peninsula on the southern shore of Lake Manitoba for subsistence before the region developed around the city of Winnipeg, an hour’s drive northwest. That’s where he too spent his early years.

Vincent is the most recent steward of the land that began as a muskrat ranch and was purchased in 1944 by Winnipeg businessman William A. Murphy (who built the original lodge, still intact), then passed to Murphy’s son-in-law Peter Curry. Kitson Vincent is Curry’s nephew, and he has spent his life championing the property. Now he has ensured that East Meadows Ranch will remain whole by making a once-in-a-generation land transfer to Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC). At 8,167 acres (3,108-hectare), it’s the largest conservation land purchase in Manitoba’s history.

For DUC, the purchase extends a relationship that began in 1983, with the Marshy Point wetland project. Earlier still, the land was the site of a re-introduction of Giant Canada Geese (then perceived in decline) in the 1950s. EMR has furthermore been a research site for many graduate students studying waterfowl and wetlands, and also the focus of partnerships with wetlands organizations Delta Waterfowl and the Wetland Research Station. Small wonder that this area is of interest to conservation scientists, since the property includes 6,509 acres of wetlands, and is home not only to ducks but birds from Western Grebes to Great Blue Herons to White Pelicans, American Bitterns and Meadowlarks.

Over the years, many have cared directly for the large property and others have recognized its unique value. The most longstanding formal caretaker to manage the property was Lawrence King, who began at EMR at age 19 and retired at age 81. Other friends and professionals have played a major role more recently in helping to organize the connection to DUC. Dr. Michael Anderson, Emeritus Scientist at DUC’s Institute for Wetland and Waterfowl Research, has one of the longest relationships with both the Vincent family and the property, recalling first visiting EMR in the summer of 1972. He says the land is impressive not only for its acreage but also Its diversity. “A lot of different ecosystems are in close proximity to one another: the natural marsh, the native grassland, and some beautiful oak groves and aspen parkland on the higher elevation part of the ranch away from the lake,” he says, adding that the geography also indicates that remnants of a glacier formed the land contours.

Mark Francis, Ducks Unlimited Canada’s Regional Manager of Conservation – Restoration (Prairie Region), adds that the habitat variety also makes EMR special. “It’s unique as it has several specific habitat zones across the property. The overall biodiversity of the EMR project is great for waterfowl, but it’s going to benefit all kinds of other wildlife as well, all kinds of other water birds, grassland birds, species in the oak savannah as well. And lets not forget the flora of the property. The intact grasslands that have remained under the steward of this family for over 85 years, surrounding and boarding the wetlands in one contiguous tract is extremely rare to find at this scale.”

Tom Swann is another EMR champion who was uniquely positioned by his dual roles as a cousin to the Vincent family and a retired conservation professional who spent 20 years as Director of Land Securement and Senior Director of Special Initiatives for the British Columbia region of the Nature Conservancy of Canada. He helped walk Kitson and the Vincent family through various options for the land transfer, visiting the property in 2016, and eventually touring the property with Anderson and Francis. Working closely with DUC, Swann assisted in all aspects of the transaction, from advising on the appraisal of the land to working on behalf of the owners to help ensure a successful process and ultimate approval of the transfer plan by the Manitoba farm and Agricultural Board.

Swann cites another unique aspect of the EMR project, the fact that the family kept the property intact for so long.

“I’ve done a huge number of ranch projects and large landscape conservation projects. And one thing that needs to be understood is that it takes years and years and generations of likeminded people to assemble that much land and hold it in a natural state,” says Swann. “There’s always this threat of doing something else with it, and even generational threats when the next generation of a rancher or family farmer’s family doesn’t want to continue with the family farm.”

Swann affirms that the biggest winner is the wildlife who will remain free in their natural habitat. “There’s a huge area to roam freely without interruption, without interference from any residential encroachment. I mean, you can stand at the lodge, and there’s a tower that you can climb up, and you can do a full 360-degree circle at night, and you will not see a single light of another house. That’s amazing. It makes it so special. You can see so far out over towards Lake Manitoba that you can see the curve of the Earth. Once these things get broken up, you’ll never, ever get a chance to put them back together again.”

With the land transfer complete, Ducks Unlimited Canada now begins the process of assessing and planning future stewardship. “What I would like to do is a full biological inventory of property to see what we’re working with,” says Francis. “That will help set our goals for the property and then we’ll work with our restoration team and habitat asset management teams who look at immediate restoration opportunities and the ongoing management of the property.” He’s already reaching out to partners to let them know about the new ownership.

Indeed, future management is always factored in when DUC acquires a property. “We map that out to 50 years,” says Francis. “To bring it in as a project, we have to put the management dollars away up front, so it’s not just the purchase price of the property that’s a cost, we also put the management dollars aside.”

Paul Thoroughgood, Chief Conservation Officer for Ducks Unlimited Canada, says that this commitment is part of the reason the organization takes such care in the assessment and planning of its projects, especially one of this size. “Our practice on all the land we own, is we set aside money to make sure that it can be properly managed forever because that’s how long we intend to own it,” he says. He notes that by the time a project like EMR reaches the finish line, many have been involved.

“This kind of project takes like a small city or at least a busload of people by the time everybody gets involved. We announced this at our board meeting in Manitoba in September, and when we put together a slide with all the people that we could think of who had touched it, we were down to such small font that you actually couldn’t read the names. I think it is really exciting to see the scale of this opportunity and be an organization that’s able to do it,” he says.

He’s also excited about a plan to make some of the land publicly accessible after so many years as a private property. “We’re really hopeful that more folks take the opportunity to experience nature, whether they go birding or take the family out there on a weekend,” he says, emphasizing the positive mental health benefits now associated with spending time in nature.

For Kitson Vincent, contemplating EMR makes him reflect on the growing awareness over the decades of the importance of preserving such areas. “People started to realize the abundant harvest wouldn’t last forever, and that It’s important to keep wetlands protected. In the 1930s, no one ever gave it a thought. But the environmental movement of the 1950s and 60s changed that. We realized that the land is not just a commodity to be harvested but a resource to be protected.”