Members of the Nature Conservancy of Canada are celebrating after securing over 2,500 acres of grasslands near Regina and in the southwestern corner of the province as protected, conservation areas.

Three property owners, who all wish to retain anonymity, have agreed to ensure their properties will not be developed, subdivided, drained or harvested. More than 20 species known to live in the areas are currently designated as at-risk species and include the burrowing owl, loggerhead shrike, and leopard frog. The areas will continue to be used as cattle grazing pastures.

Michael Burrack, Program Director for the South Saskatchewan Nature Conservancy of Canada, spoke on how the conservation actually functions.

"First and foremost, we have certain priority areas within the province where we target a lot of our work, so we like to make sure that a project we're going to take on is located generally within those areas, and from there we look at specifically what the land looks like, is it still in native cover, what kind of species at risk do we have in the area, to make sure that it fits with what priorities are for that given area."

Burrack explained that the Conservancy will tailor the regulations exactly to fit the land and its many types of occupants.

"Different species need different things, so there's not one kind of gold standard that we're always kind of looking for, it all depends on where specifically in the province it is, and what species are already using that, and what we can kind of see happening with it in the future."

As land all across Saskatchewan can house at-risk species, Burrack spoke about how any property owners interested can contact the Conservancy, and how exactly the process functions.

"From there we would work together with the family or the individual landowner to put together a list of restrictions, for specifically what types of developments or activities we'd like to limit or restrict altogether on the land, so more often than not that includes things like the destruction of native prairie, any breaking or clearing trees, things like that, as well as draining wetlands, dumping garbage, building new roads, things like that is kind of what gets included,"

For more information, or to find out if your land can become a protected area, you can visit the Nature Conservancy of Canada's website.