A legacy that lasts forever?

Birding is the art of observance and if you pay close enough attention, you’ll learn that our feathered friends have much to teach us about the nature that surrounds us all and how we can do our part to protect it.

“You quickly learn the importance of preserving healthy habitats and providing resilient landscapes for wildlife and species to thrive,” says Margaret Kelch, a birder-turned-philanthropist and long-term supporter of Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), Canada’s largest environmental charity.

NCC has been working with partners, Indigenous Nations and communities, as well as governments, to protect Canada’s precious landscapes since 1962. Kelch first learned about the organization in 2005 while volunteering to watch and count the fall hawk migration in Toronto’s High Park. Since then, she has dedicated 10 years of service on NCC’s Ontario and national boards. But Kelch’s proudest accomplishment has been leaving her legacy by including a bequest in her Will to support NCC’s conservation efforts in Ontario.

Contributions like Kelch’s are a way of expressing what matters to you most while protecting vulnerable wildlife, fighting the effects of climate change and addressing biodiversity loss.

“One does not need to be wealthy,” says Kelch. “We just need a belief that we can all make a valuable contribution.”