Planning an estate gift can be fraught with difficult questions. How do you know it will have an impact? How do you pick a cause that will improve the lives of generations to come? While nobody knows what the world will look like when your estate is settled, you can rest assured that a gift to the Hamilton Conservation Foundation will help shape the world for the better.

A gift in your will to the Land Securement Fund, for example, would help ensure that more of Hamilton’s beautiful and diverse natural lands are protected. Gifts to the Land Securement Fund support efforts such as the Saltfleet Conservation Area Wetland project.

The Saltfleet project is exactly the sort of transformative effort our donors dream of kick-starting. The project will create new engineered wetlands in the Upper Stoney and Battlefield Creek sub-watersheds. Not only will it protect natural areas along both creeks, it will expand them into nearby conservation lands and dramatically increase their resilience in the face of a rapidly changing climate. This will decrease the downstream flood risk, create habitat for a whole range of species and lead to a healthier and more resilient creek system. A gift to the project will have an impact all the way downstream to Lake Ontario and beyond.

A gift in your will, of any size, will help make efforts like the Saltfleet project a reality. It will help our growing communities protect the natural areas that make them special. Not only that, it will help to ensure that those natural areas remain vibrant for generations to come. In these times of upheaval and uncertainty, that’s a very powerful and comforting thought.