A popular conservation area and resting spot for migrating birds has nearly doubled in size following a move by the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

Michael Burak is the NCC program director for southwest Saskatchewan.

“We have added an additional 640 hectares of land to an existing conservation area just on the eastern shoreline of Chaplin Lake, so just southeast of the village of Chaplin. We’re going from an original 646 hectares of protected area over there to a total of about 1286 now,” Burak explains.

“Chaplin Lake, together with both Reid Lake and Old Wives Lake…the three if those lakes together have been designated as a Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network Site.”

He says shorebirds like that location due to its high salt content, making it a prime spot for the birds to fill up on brine shrimp.

“They see huge levels of these brine shrimp, which are an easy, nice meal for shorebirds. They can come to the lakes, rest along the shoreline, and then there’s a huge abundance of food between the three lakes to help then replenish whatever fat reserves they’ve lost.”

He says shorebird numbers have been falling in recent years, with certain species seeing as much as a 70 per cent population decline. He attributes this to a loss of habitat along their migration corridors, leaving them without a place to stop and refuel.