Family fulfills late chief's lifelong dream for massive plot of land: 'For generations to come'

The late Chief Jack Sark of the Lennox Island First Nation had a profound passion for the environment and its protection, which led to one wish: to have his land donated for conservation, his family said.

According to CBC, the chief, who died in 2017 at the age of 83, had owned a 333-acre plot of land near Lennox Island in Canada. In 2025, his family fulfilled his dream by donating the land to the Island Nature Trust, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving nature.

The now-dubbed Chief Jack Sark Memorial Natural Area features a forested coastline, rocky beaches, glacial rocks, and a diverse and rare range of trees. White ash, white spruce, and jack pine grow there, CBC reported.

White ash, according to the IUCN Red List, is a critically endangered species of tree. The Emerald Ash Borer, an invasive beetle, has more recently posed a threat to the tree, eating its bark and inevitably killing it within two to five years.

Under the protection of the Island Nature Trust, white ash trees on the property stand a chance, as do the at-risk Canada warbler and Eastern wood-pewee, both bird species. With this, the Chief Jack Sark Memorial Natural Area may serve as a haven of biodiversity.

Biodiversity is the combination of all life on Earth, from microbes to humans, in a balanced web that sustains each part of the overall system. Habitats of rich variety support the basic needs of all life forms, providing food, fuel, shelter, and even medicine. And so as harmonious ecosystems are essential to the survival of our planet and its inhabitants, so too is the protection of those habitats.

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"We are proud to be donating this property in Jack's memory," Sark's family said in a news release, per CBC.

The Island Nature Trust hopes to honor the land in the chief's name and sees great potential for the future of the property.

"The size and ecological significance of this land, including its rare coastal white ash forest, will continue to support biodiversity and conservation for generations to come," Melissa Cameron, executive director of the trust, said.

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