{"id":32761,"date":"2023-03-16T14:39:17","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T18:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=32761"},"modified":"2023-03-23T19:01:13","modified_gmt":"2023-03-23T23:01:13","slug":"aurora-couple-honoured-for-stewardship-of-canadas-forests-and-green-spaces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aurora-couple-honoured-for-stewardship-of-canadas-forests-and-green-spaces\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora couple honoured for stewardship of Canada\u2019s forests and green spaces"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Isobel Ralston and Jan Oudenes have always found solace in our natural world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019ve slept under the stars amid some of the country\u2019s most beautiful vistas, conquered fast-moving rivers, and left boot prints in some of our most lush forests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe wanted to have Canada as our backyard,\u201d says Dr. Oudenes \u2013 and, over the years, they\u2019ve truly made that goal into a reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following their retirement from their careers in the sciences and industry, Dr. Oudenes and Dr. Ralston established the MapleCross Fund, an organization that invests in ecologically-sensitive land with the goal of preserving and protecting them for future generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since its inception in 2017, the MapleCross Fund has helped secure land in all ten Canadian provinces, and last month landed the Aurora couple Forests Ontario\u2019s 2023 Forest Stewardship Award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo get recognition from such a dedicated and innovative group as Forests Ontario, it\u2019s peer recognition and that\u2019s the best recognition you can get,\u201d says Ralston. \u201cIt\u2019s from people we know in the field, know what\u2019s going on, and for them to give us the recognition was a real honour.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The complexity of Forests Ontario\u2019s work, adds Oudenes, is complex and wide-reaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are science-driven, which appeals to Oudenes, who was a leader in the pharmaceutical industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon their retirement, they set out to initially give back to the community they call home, including organizations like the Aurora Cultural Centre, but becoming involved with the Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust spurred them to expand their reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know anything about land trusts,\u201d says Ralston about this first encounter. \u201cNature has always been important to Jan and I and when we sold the company we decided the environment was an area we wanted to invest in most because we realized a lot of charitable funds go towards hospital, healthcare and education, but the environment is really low on this \u2013 so, how could we make a difference?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After MapleCross made its first land \u201cinvestment\u201d in King Township, they decided to pursue that dream of the Canadian backyard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of people are willing to protect that little piece of land next to their property, but I think we saw Canada as where we wanted to be,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since they became active, they have seen an uptick in the activities of land trusts across the country. While trees are obviously important to ecology, there is also an emphasis on grasslands, which Oudenes says is actually a bigger source of carbon sequestration than trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe look at the management of the land trusts [we might invest with], how strong they are, the biologists\u2026we rely on the management of an individual land conservancy for choosing particular properties. We call it an investment and we follow our investments. We don\u2019t expect a monetary dividend, but we nevertheless expect a positive outcome. From a business perspective, we carefully follow every year of our investment to see how they\u2019re doing and we learn from that for the purchase of a future property.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ralston adds that they will sometimes invest in a property that\u2019s \u201cstruggling and deserves to be protected.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlthough we like to know about the management team and how strong they are, sometimes they need to go out on a limb and say, \u2018Let\u2019s give you guys some money for this property and that will help boost you to the next level you need to go in order to take your land trust further,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cWe rely on their expertise. We\u2019re not ecologists, we\u2019re not biologists, but they explain what\u2019s important to them and we go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Oudenes, he calls it \u201cgenerational wealth transfer\u201d in using these funds to help secure biodiversity for generations to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, the couple, through MapleCross, has pursued 45 projects, accounting for almost 15,000 hectares of preserved land across the country \u2013 all from that first encounter with the Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, the project they\u2019re working on right now, one that is particularly close to their hearts, is another venture with the Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This initiative, which aims to rejuvenate rare and disappearing habitat for the threatened Kirtland\u2019s warbler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Kirdland\u2019s warbler was essentially non-existent in Canada; in the United States, it was also the same, but they were able to bring back the population to a level that took it off the endangered list in the U.S., but it is on the endangered list in Canada,\u201d Ralston explains. \u201cThere are groups in Canada that are very interested in bringing back the habitat, which has to be very specific. With this new property we\u2019re going to go towards restoring the land and hopefully the warbler will come back. We know it flies over the area, we know it looks for nesting areas and there has been a pilot project that worked very well and it looks like the bird is coming back. We\u2019re really hoping that together with the various people and various groups we will be able to buy up the land and help restore the land for this particular bird.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to get involved in similar initiatives. Dr. Ralston and Dr. Oudenes encourage people to volunteer their time with their local land trusts and conservancies as volunteers \u201care the real heroes of any of these endeavours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery single one of our projects has just been amazing and incredible,\u201d says Oudenes. \u201cWhen you work together with these very dedicated people, it is really overwhelming to see what people are doing and how hard they are working and how much it means to them and how much they recognize that it is a very difficult area to work in \u2013 especially with Greenbelt legislation being lifted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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