Two properties on Michipicoten Island will make up a new nature reserve.
A release from the Thunder Bay Field Naturalists Club says the group has acquired two parcels of land totalling 538 acres - or 217 hectares - which they plan to permanently protect under the club's "Nature Reserve" system.
The group notes Michipicoten Island is the second largest island on the Canadian side of Lake Superior, highlighting its "rugged forested hills, cobble beaches, and rocky shoreline where unusual arctic plants grow by the cold waters of the lake", and it says rare species have been found on the island such as preregrine falcons and woodland caribou, which it hopes may return to Michipicoten Island "once predators are no longer a threat".
Thunder Bay Field Naturalists also say they have "the experienced help of members of the Michipicoten First Nation in monitoring wildlife and caring for the land at the new reserve properties", with plans to work together to document existing plants and wildlife this summer, and hopefully record the return of a healthy caribou population to the island "one day".