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The first aerial mission for the Nature
Conservancy of Canada (NCC) was flown by Oshawa COPA member Doug Raine on Oct
19, 2003. COPA and the NCC completed an agreement to work together earlier in
2003. The program connects volunteer COPA members with local NCC
representatives.
COPA members volunteer their time and aircraft to help NCC preserve the
environment by flying over selected NCC lands to assist NCC to gather
information about the property. When requested, photographs are taken at NCC
expense.
NCC volunteers do not fly with the COPA member, but they do provide information
about the property, including maps and GPS coordinates, so that COPA members can
find the property.
In most cases COPA members can carry out the surveillance while they are doing
other flights in the area. There is no expectation that COPA members will do
“dedicated” flights for NCC.
COPA member Doug Raine describes his first two flights for NCC: “October 19th,
the Oshawa COPA Flight 70 flew out to Elmhirst Resort on Rice Lake for Sunday
Brunch. Ten landplanes and five floatplanes attended, for a total of 30 people.
Elmhirst Resort Sunday Brunch is the favourite of the ladies, as it is truly a
first class restaurant.
“Before returning to Oshawa, my wife Dorothy and I took a detour to over fly the
properties that the NCC had asked me to look at. We had a printout from an
e-mail version of a topo map, to navigate by, and found the general area, but
identifying the specific area of bush within the bush was not as easy. We
elected to return at a later date for pictures.
“NCC land steward, Todd, sent me some GPS waypoints which I used on a return
visit a couple of weeks later with Keith McCoy in his Cherokee. We easily found
the area, and circling it, took some photo’s out the little vent window of the
Cherokee.”
NCC is a conservation organization with a totally different philosophy to most
other environmental organizations. Many environmental groups spend their
energies lobbying governments for action; NCC was formed with a completely
different approach to environmental preservation in mind.
NCC identifies lands that are significant and important to preserve and then
works with willing landowners to achieve the best possible protection for the
land through donations, conservation agreements or purchases. NCC then manages
the properties to keep them preserved permanently. They are currently protecting
over 1,000 project areas and 1.8 million acres.
COPA needs more pilots like Doug to assist NCC on a volunteer basis. For more
information on the Nature Conservancy of Canada visit their Web site at
www.natureconservancy.ca. To
participate in the COPA/NCC program as a volunteer pilot contact Adam Hunt at
COPA, ahunt@copanational.org.