Our Protected Natural Areas
A shared vision for the protection of a natural corridor along the Niagara Escarpment.
The Bruce Trail Conservancy’s protected natural areas preserve the Escarpment’s unique biodiversity and provide nature-based solutions to addressing climate change. In our communities, these protected areas provide valuable ecosystem services, including mitigating flooding, storing carbon, filtering water, and supporting our physical and mental health.
As one of Ontario’s largest and most active land trusts, we’re responsible for the preservation of land. We add new protected natural areas to the Bruce Trail’s conservation corridor each year, and care for these special places through our land stewardship program. These natural areas protect a diverse array of habitats including wetlands, karst topography, open meadows, caves, towering scarp edges and lush forests – all within the Niagara Escarpment UNESCO World Biosphere.
Thank you to everyone who has donated so generously to help preserve these irreplaceable treasures, forever.
Why It Matters
Protected natural areas provide safe havens for wildlife, increase our resilience to climate change, provide clean air, water and healthy soils, improve our overall health and well-being through contact with nature, provide volunteer opportunities through our land stewardship program, celebrate, sustain and strengthen Indigenous knowledge, serve as environmental benchmarks for monitoring the health of natural systems, and provide opportunities for outdoor recreation.
What the Bruce Trail Conservancy is Doing
Many people don’t realize that the Bruce Trail is not permanently secure because roughly one-third of the Bruce Trail conservation corridor is still vulnerable to development. The BTC is working to fill in the gaps, to secure a home for the Bruce Trail and preserve a ribbon of wilderness along the Niagara Escarpment through the creation of protected natural areas.
What You Can Do:
A shared vision for the protection of a natural corridor along the Niagara Escarpment.
The Bruce Trail Conservancy’s protected natural areas preserve the Escarpment’s unique biodiversity and provide nature-based solutions to addressing climate change. In our communities, these protected areas provide valuable ecosystem services, including mitigating flooding, storing carbon, filtering water, and supporting our physical and mental health.
As one of Ontario’s largest and most active land trusts, we’re responsible for the preservation of land. We add new protected natural areas to the Bruce Trail’s conservation corridor each year, and care for these special places through our land stewardship program. These natural areas protect a diverse array of habitats including wetlands, karst topography, open meadows, caves, towering scarp edges and lush forests – all within the Niagara Escarpment UNESCO World Biosphere.
Thank you to everyone who has donated so generously to help preserve these irreplaceable treasures, forever.
Why It Matters
Protected natural areas provide safe havens for wildlife, increase our resilience to climate change, provide clean air, water and healthy soils, improve our overall health and well-being through contact with nature, provide volunteer opportunities through our land stewardship program, celebrate, sustain and strengthen Indigenous knowledge, serve as environmental benchmarks for monitoring the health of natural systems, and provide opportunities for outdoor recreation.
What the Bruce Trail Conservancy is Doing
Many people don’t realize that the Bruce Trail is not permanently secure because roughly one-third of the Bruce Trail conservation corridor is still vulnerable to development. The BTC is working to fill in the gaps, to secure a home for the Bruce Trail and preserve a ribbon of wilderness along the Niagara Escarpment through the creation of protected natural areas.
What You Can Do:
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Our Newly Protected Natural Areas
2023-2025

Coldwater Ravine Nature Reserve
25 acres | 196 m of trail
Why this place is important:
This new nature reserve is tucked between two parts of the Hockley Valley Provincial Nature Reserve near the BTC’s MapleCross Nature Reserve at Canning’s Falls in Mono. This property features a wooded ravine that is bisected by a tributary of the Nottawasaga River. This coldwater stream is an important habitat for species who are restricted to these conditions such as the Brooke Trout.
Currently, there is no Trail on the property but the hope is that securing this land will bring the BTC one step closer to creating a connected corridor including Canning’s Falls.
Features:
- Coldwater stream
- Beautiful mixed forest
- Creates connections with BTC properties and provincial nature reserves



0.2 acres | 33 m of Trail
Why this place is important:
Located in the Blue Mountains section, this easement donated by the Osler Bluff Ski Club is a crucial link between the BTC’s Fern Crevice Nature Reserve and the Petun Conservation Area. This small but critical easement helps to avoid conflicts between the Trail and the Ski Club’s facilities, and will allow everyone to enjoy the area safely.
Features:
- Permanently protects the Trail through this area


The Bill and Cecilie Moses Family Property
35 acres | 945 m of Trail
Why this place is important:
Thanks to the generosity of donors Bill and Cecilie Moses
Features:
- Lush bushland
- Heathy Sumac population
- Create a safer hiking experience


1.4 acres | 78 m of Trail
Why this place is important:
Located in the Iroquoia section along the escarpment ridge in Grimsby, this is the first of many pieces needed to secure the Bruce Trail in this area. Featuring beautiful rocky cliffs and dense deciduous forest, this newly protected natural area will be home to 78 m of scenic Bruce Trail once access is secured and the Bruce Trail is taken off of nearby roads.
Features:
- Healthy deciduous forest with elderberry featured in the understory.
- First step in taking the Bruce Trail off of nearby roads.


2.3 acres | 832 m of Trail
Why this place is important:
Located in the Iroquoia section along the Dundas Valley Golf and Curling Club, this narrow strip of land is an important piece that has ensured the future of the Bruce Trail through this area for generations to come. Though narrow, this wooded strip is home to many bird species including Red-tailed Hawks, Dark-eyed Juncos and many more.
Features:
- 832 m of Bruce Trail route secured forever.
- Wooded area refuge for many local species.


Sunrise Shores Nature Reserve
64 acres | 630 m of trail
Why this place is important:
Thanks to the support of over 870 donors, Sunrise Shores Nature Reserve, located in the Peninsula section, is now protected. This property included the longest remaining section of shoreline Bruce Trail that needed to be secured. Now, not only is the Trail secured through the area, allowing hikers for generations come to explore its beauty, but a variety of habitats will also be able to flourish. This nature reserve is home to a mature Sugar Maple forest, talus and cliff edges, as well as transitional habitat along the shore. These habitats are critical for species at risk including the Eastern Wood Pewee and the Wood Thrush as well as other birds, bats, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals including the Black Bear.
Features:
- Over 600 m of Georgian Bay shoreline
- Mature Sugar Maple forest
- 100 metre Escarpment cliffs



Croaks Hollow
44 acres | 600 m of Trail
Why this place is important:
Sitting north of the BTC’s Swiss Meadows property and adjacent to Craigleith Ski Club and Blue Mountain Resort, this property secures 600 metres of Optimum Route and offers a serene hiking alternative away from the bustling ski lifts. Croaks Hollow gets its evocative name from the frogs and toads, including the Western Chorus Frog, that find refuge in the small but productive wetlands and wooded areas of the property. In the springtime, these amphibians can be heard welcoming the warmer weather with a loud chorus. These wetland habitats are natural sanctuaries not only for amphibians, but for a host of bird and mammal species.
Features:
- Over 600 m of Trail
- Wetland habitat for amphibians, including the Western Chorus Frog which is listed as Threatened under the federal Species at Risk Act


Fieldview Connection
78 acres | 336 m of trail
Why this place is important:
Located in the Municipality of Meaford west of Bayview Escarpment Provincial Nature Reserve, Fieldview Connection features deciduous forest, Escarpment outcrops, and a small area of agricultural land. From its forested heights, Bruce Trail hikers will be able to look northwest from the Escarpment ridge over the fields east of Owen Sound. Fieldview Connection plays a critical role in removing the Bruce Trail from roads. No trail is currently on the property but Fieldview Connection secures 336 metres of Bruce Trail Optimum Route. Together with handshake agreements with four generous neighbouring landowners, this newly protected area unlocks a reroute that will remove 2.5 km of Main Trail from Concession Road 2N and Sideroad 24.
Features:
- Deciduous forest with Escarpment outcrops
- Removing 2.5 km of Trail off nearby roads


Shagbark Haven
15 acres | 470 m of trail
Why this place is important:
In the rapidly growing Burlington/Hamilton area, this property protects 14.6 acres within the Sassafras-Waterdown Woods Provincially Significant Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI) (Life Science). Named for the numerous Shagbark Hickories that grace its verdant woods, this area represents an important link connecting and protecting Escarpment forest habitats. Sitting between Kerncliff Park in Burlington and Conservation Halton’s Waterdown Woods in Hamilton, this property brings the Bruce Trail Conservancy closer to completing a continuous 10-kilometre long conservation corridor in the area.
Features:
- Important link in near-urban area
- Deciduous forest including Shagbark Hickories
- Views of Hamilton and Burlington


Webster
3.2 acres | 0 m of trail
Why this place is important:
Adjacent to Shagbark Haven sits the Webster property. This lovely, forested land was generously donated to the Bruce Trail Conservancy by Robert G. Webster and the Estate of John R. Webster. The Webster family stewarded the property for a generation while enjoying the nearby Bruce Trail and all it has to offer. This newly protected area extends Shagbark Haven by 3.2 acres and provides an alternative route option for the Trail. It features dense hardwood forest as well as existing trails created by the Webster family which may offer new side trails to explore in the coming years.
Features:
- Deciduous forest
- Options for Side Trail


Hollow Oak Nature Reserve
18 acres | 475 m of trail
Why this place is important:
For years Bruce Trail hikers have explored this property and been pleasantly surprised by a charismatic, trailside Red Oak its aging hollow trunk and Bruce Trail blaze forming the perfect ‘frame’ for memorable photos. Now this oak and its forest and meadow neighbors are forever protected within the new Hollow Oak Nature Reserve. The tree itself may not stand in perpetuity, but the habitats of which it is part will be protected and stewarded to ensure their ecological health into the future. Hollow Oak Nature Reserve sits north of the BTC’s Fisher’s Pond property and preserves 18 acres of Niagara Escarpment land near the growing city of Burlington. The Bruce Trail has been hosted on this property with a handshake agreement for many years. Securing Hollow Oak Nature Reserve is a win for Trail continuity as over 3.5 km of reroutes onto busy roads in the Guelph Line area would have been necessary without it.
Features:
- Deciduous forest and meadow habitat
- Protects 3.5 km of Trail


Meltwater Moraine
137 acres | 640 m of trail
Why this place is important:
North of the community of Caledon East where the Paris Moraine meets the Niagara Escarpment, lies the Bruce Trail Conservancy’s newest protected natural area, Meltwater Moraine. This protected area sits within the provincially significant Mono Mills-Caledon Meltwater Channels Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI). It contains the eastern edge of the Paris Moraine, a rolling line of hills created at the leading edge of glacial ice as it pushed northwest out of the Lake Ontario Basin roughly 12,000 years ago. In addition to this special formation, Meltwater Moraine boasts 4 acres of forested land, three ponds, a small creek, and farmland which has been part of the community’s agricultural heritage for over two centuries. The securement of this 145-acre property will remove 3.1 km of Bruce Trail from the high-traffic areas of Airport Road and Escarpment Side Road, making it a significant win for Trail continuity and improving the Bruce Trail experience in the rapidly growing Caledon region.
Features:
- Forested land and three ponds
- Removes 3.1 km of Trail off of Airport Rd.


Eagle’s Summit Nature Reserve
123 acres | 733 m of trail
Why this place is important:
With the generous support of hundreds of donors, the Bruce Trail Conservancy recently secured 123 acres of Niagara Escarpment land with the creation of Eagle’s Summit Nature Reserve. Located south of Kimberley adjacent to the BTC’s East Mountain property and near Old Baldy Conservation Area, this newly protected area features lush interior forest, seasonal watercourses and magnificent views overlooking the Beaver Valley. This stunning addition to our conservation corridor is rich is biodiversity, with habitats ranging from grassy wildflower meadows, groves of Apple and Hawthorn trees, and iconic karst features. Eagle’s Summit is home to Ovenbirds, American Redstarts, Black and White Warblers, and Bald Eagles, who have been seen soaring overhead.
Features:
- Stunning views of the Beaver Valley
- Forest and meadow habitat


Greenrise Run
76 acres | 310 m of trail
Why this place is important:
Located just north of Devil’s Glen Provincial Park, Greenrise Run lies between two previously protected BTC properties: Avalon Meadow (secured in 2022) and Duntroon Crevice Heights (secured in 2014). The property’s namesake ‘greenrise’ is a small woodlot that runs at the Escarpment edge, threading between cultivated fields. This natural corridor serves as the route for 310 m of Bruce Trail and is home to a variety of native forest species, including a recently-spotted porcupine. In addition to its forested ridge, Greenrise Run includes 62 acres of cultivated fields, which the BTC will lease to farmers to maintain their agricultural value for the community. The Bruce Trail has traversed Greenrise Run for over 20 years thanks to a handshake agreement with the previous landowners. In purchasing this property, the Bruce Trail Conservancy is not only protecting 76 acres of Niagara Escarpment habitat, it is also ensuring the Bruce Trail remains safely off-road, avoiding being routed onto Highway 124 and Concession 10 – both busy routes that can be particularly hazardous in winter.
Features:
- Forested land threading between agricultural fields
- Habitat for escarpment species including porcupine
- Ensures Trail is off the road

Our Protected Natural Areas
Land Acknowledgement
The Bruce Trail Conservancy wishes to acknowledge and honour the lands of the Niagara Escarpment as the traditional territory of Indigenous peoples. In both spirit and partnership, we recognize and thank the Anishinaabek, Huron-Wendat, Tionontati, Neutral Nation, Haudenosaunee, Métis, and all who provided stewardship of these lands over millennia.
Recognition of the contributions of Indigenous peoples is consistent with our commitment to making the promise of Truth and Reconciliation real in our communities. We are grateful for the opportunity to live, work, and play here and thank all those who have served and continue to serve as caretakers of this special place.
We are also mindful of broken covenants and the need to reconcile with all our allies and relations. Together, may we care for this land and each other, drawing upon the strength of our mutual history through peace and friendship, to create a lasting legacy of conservation for generations to come.