The Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority has been protecting areas of natural significance within its jurisdiction through direct ownership for many years. Today, the Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority owns over 1700 hectares of conservation land in an effort to protect significant wetlands, valleylands, forests, meadows, groundwater resources, aquatic environments, and other important wildlife habitats. Many of these lands have been acquired over the years through both purchase and donation.

The Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority has traditionally focused its land acquisition efforts in three primary areas – the Oak Ridges Moraine (important for its groundwater recharge and discharge functions and for its large unfragmented forested areas), the Iroquois Beach area (important for its groundwater recharge and discharge functions, significant cedar swamp wetlands and minimally disturbed valley lands), and along the Lake Ontario shoreline (important for its watershed outlet zones and significant coastal marshes).

The Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority uses a number of approaches to acquire lands that require protection in order to maintain natural biodiversity in the landscape:

• Purchase: Working with funding partners, such as the Oak Ridges Moraine Foundation, the Regional Municipality of Durham and the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Authority will secure key properties by purchasing them at fair market value from willing landowners.
  
  
• Conservation Easement: Easements are voluntary legal agreements between the property owner and the conservation organization that protect significant features of the property. The terms of the easement are registered on the title and apply to the donor and all future owners. Easements allow the conservation organization to protect significant features on a property without owning it. They also offer conservation-minded Ontarians an opportunity to permanently protect the significant features of the property they own.
  
  
• Donation: The Authority will accept donations of key properties from individuals or estates.
  
  
• Ecogift donation: The Authority is willing to accept land donations through the Ecogift program. This program, managed by Environment Canada, can generate tax receipts that offset the donor’s net income. For more information on this program please visit What is an Ecogift?.

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