Conservancy receives land donation

By Lethbridge Herald on October 25, 2025.

Nathan Reiter
Lethbridge Herald
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) has received a major land donation along the Oldman River. 

Diane Glover has donated 1,253 acres of property to the NCC with the intention of the land being conserved for years to come. In a press release from the NCC to the Herald, Glover says the land being conserved has been talked about in her family for years. 

“These unique lands existed long before we did, and we were taught that our ownership of it is an honour and is temporary. We consider ourselves caretakers of the property during our time here. Everybody who has become familiar with the property looks at it the same way we do: it’s special, unique and worth preserving, which is why I chose to entrust it with the NCC.” 

The project was supported by the Government of Canada’s Ecological Gifts program, which provides tax benefits for individuals or corporations who donate ecologically sensitive land. 

The land donation also contributes to the NCC’s Prairie Grasslands Action Plan, a $500-million initiative to conserve 500,00 hectares of Prairie grasslands by 2030. According to the NCC, nearly 60,000 hectares of grasslands are disappearing each year. 

Sean Feagan, the media and communications co-ordinator for NCC, says donations the size of Glover’s don’t come along often for the organization.

“I’m always amazed by people who donate land to us and entrust it with us. I think that’s a remarkable demonstration of their faith in us as an organization to take care of this land in perpetuity. It’s immensely important to her and it’s something that her family talked about for many years, just wanting to see this place stay the way it is.

“As far as NCC projects go, that’s relatively large. I think that’s just significant, just in area perspective. It’s a relatively large chunk of habitat. I think its significance is also a product of their surrounding landscape context. Just looking at Lethbridge County, according to the Prairie Conservation Forum, there’s about 15% native grasslands left within the county. It is an area that there has been a lot of conversion and the benefit of that has been economic development and agricultural production, food security, and valuable exports. The kind of trade off there is that there’s been a reduction in the amount of habitat available.”

Part of the property is situated along the Oldman River with riverfront habitats, also known as riparian areas. According to the Miistakis Institute, 60 percent of riparian areas are privately owned, yet less than eight percent has been properly conserved.

Feagan says the riparian areas are especially important to conserve because of the amount of biological activity that takes place in the area.

“They’re biological hotspots,” says Feagan. “They support a large number of plant and animal species and again, they’re important for water quality. There’s been previous surveys in the area that have documented at-risk species or species of management concern. We have a species at-risk program here in Alberta with NCC and they’ve started to document species there. We did a survey for Northern Leopard Frog this summer and found hundreds of individuals. That’s an at-risk species and it’s a great sign that we can conserve their habitats, apparent breeding habitat for them.”