March 30, 2022
History:
- 52.53 acre conservation agreement (CA)
- Located in the Township of Chatsworth, County of Grey
- The land belongs to Terri and Robert Hope, and was made a CA in December 2021.
Significant Features:
Hope falls within the Mount Forest Eco-district (6E-5) and is characterized by a gently rolling landscape. Approximately three-quarters of the ecodistrict has been converted to cropland and pasture making the forested area on Hope a conservation priority. This area is associated with the Eastern Temperate Deciduous Forest Vegetation Zone dominated by sugar maple, American beech, oak and ash species. The nature reserve gently slopes from the Niagara Escarpment down to the west.
Hope is made up of 42.55 acres of forested area, 7.88 acres of open grassland, and 2.1 acres of unevaluated forested wetland.
Within 20 km from Hope are 9 Fee simple EBC nature reserves and 13 CA nature reserves totaling 1,502.88 acres of EBC protected land in the surrounding area. The Nature reserve also has Provincially Significant Areas within close proximity. There are also 3 Provincial Life Science ANSIs located west of the property: Harrison Lake and Fen, Kinghurst Forest, and Kinghurst West.
Species at risk present (reported in the 1km grids in which the nature preserve occurs): Snapping turtle