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Donate to rare

   

Make a real impact on the health and well-being of Waterloo Region and Wellington County by making a one-time or monthly donation to rare. Your support helps to protect over 1,200 acres of environmentally sensitive lands now and forever, as well as rare’s conservation, research, and education programs. To make your gift, please fill out the form below.

To add a tree to the Forest of Memories, a minimum donation of $150 is required then select the “Forest of Memories” option in the Fund Selection.

If you wish to make a donation of stocks or appreciated securities, please click here to complete a form to provide to your broker and share a copy with Christine Thompson.

If you experience problems completing this form you can click here to make a donation.

Full name of organization: rare Charitable Research Reserve
Address: 1679 Blair Rd, Cambridge, ON N3H 4R8
Charitable Registration #8776 15914 RR0001

With 24 different habitats and more than 5,000 species identified across rare’s 1,200+ acres, the goal of rare is to preserve its sites and their ecosystems, for the community to enjoy in their natural states now and for the future.

The benefits of intact habitats are enormous and go beyond aesthetic beauty, or the benefits to human health, or the health of flora and fauna — rare’s original property alone provides an annual benefit of more than $10,000 per acre in ecological services, including groundwater storage, flood mitigation, nutrient and waste management, and carbon sequestration.

Through sustainable management, sensitive lands and research sites are protected while the public can enjoy over 14 km of trails, extensive community gardens and regular interpretive events.

The emphasis on community education and engagement, based on living together in reciprocity, comes from our belief that sustainability is an attainable goal that can be reached if we recognize people as part of the environment and work together towards responsible stewardship.

The lands are also promoted as a living laboratory for research — including in-house monitoring programs and partnerships with other institutions, citizen scientists, artists and Indigenous Peoples. Research then informs restoration practices and education programs through a Chain of Learning that reaches even the youngest learners in a program called Every Child Outdoors (ECO), a model of active, hands-on, problem-based environmental learning, driven by inquiry in the out-of-doors.

YOU make this possible. Thank you!