Canada lynx has been seen on Isthmus of Chignecto

Nature Conservancy working to provide homes for large cats

AMHERST – In advance of Canada’s general election, the Nature Conservancy of Canada is hoping people get to practice voting by helping raise money for Maritime habitat of bobcat and provincially-endangered Canada lynx.

© Mike Dembeck photo

The Nature Conservancy of Canada has entered the Aviva Community Fund to conserve habitat and provide homes for large cats like the Canada lynx that is endangered in both New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Mike Dembeck – For the Citizen-Record

Published on October 12, 2015

NCC is taking part in the Aviva Community Fund contest. It will invest a total of $1 million in community initiatives across Canada. Fifteen “ideas” that receive the most votes in each funding category (five from each category) will become finalists.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada is running in the Community Resilience category which covers the environment, climate, disaster relief and prevention. To vote, people can visit https://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf32832 and register. They may vote daily until Oct. 23 and are encouraged to share with their friends.

In order to quality, the Nature Conservancy of Canada must receive enough votes to advance to the finals, where a judging panel with select grand prize winners to share $1 million in funding.

Should the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s idea be accepted by judges, funding will go towards its habitat conservation that help provide homes for large cats. “Big, beautiful cats like the bobcat and Canada Lynx have had their lands affected by fragmentation as a result of development, road-building and logging,” said Craig Smith, Nature Conservancy of Canada Program Director in Nova Scotia. “By focusing on habitat conservation we stand a chance of stemming the rapid decline of the big cat population and positively affecting the health of the entire ecosystem they inhabit.”

Canada lynx are endangered in both New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and have been recorded roaming through the Chignecto Isthmus which connects the two provinces.

The current breeding population of lynx is considered to be highland areas such as northern New Brunswick and Cape Breton.

Historically, they used high elevation places such as the Pictou Uplands, Cobequid Mountains and Musquodoboit Hills as well as Cape Breton and extended into the North and South mountains of the Annapolis Valley.

NCC is protecting large forested areas that provide habitat for bobcat in places like the Musquash Estuary, west of Saint John, along with the Miramichi watershed. Bobcat use forests across Nova Scotia except the highland plateau in northern Cape Breton where there is thought to be no permanent population.

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