Thanks to the generosity of Rouse and major contributors who acquired other parcels in the Reserve, and the efforts of volunteers from both MWLT and American Friends, Old Man’s Creek and the lands that surround it will remain undeveloped and as beautiful as Graham remembers them.

American Friends of Canadian Conservation has operated since 2007 with the goal of protecting Canada’s natural heritage by helping American owners of Canadian lands navigate their way through the complicated legal and tax requirements that come with being cross-border landowners. “They often don’t know that they’re Canadian taxpayers and they can’t just give the land to their kids,” Sandra Tassel, American Friends program coordinator, told Sault This Week. “We’ve had people come, ready to donate their property, and find out they have a whopping tax bill because they didn’t know they had to pay capital gains in Canada when they got it from their parents.”

St. John Point, a 64-acre waterfront property on Mayne Island, is going to be a new regional park in the Southern Gulf Islands of British Columbia, thanks to a unique collaboration. At the southwest tip of Mayne Island, St. John Point features 1.3 miles of pristine shoreline complete with beaches, a series of dramatic coastal bluffs connected by meandering trails through mature Douglas Fir forest, a prime remnant of a rare Salish Sea ecological zone, and extensive eelgrass beds. Located near the international border, Mayne Island is served by the BC Ferries system, making it accessible for low-impact, oceanfront recreation.