Barrie's Lake will now serve as a sanctuary for local monks after Waterloo Wellington Buddhist Monastery and Meditation Centre (WWBMMC) recently bought the property previously owned by the Beal family.
As Buddhists, said Horana Anuruddha Thero, reverend monk at the Cambridge monastery, "we always try to become more humanistic and be as close to nature. I come from Sri Lanka and in our country we have jungle monasteries with rock caves. Those places are very good for meditation because you don't get much disturbance from outside."
The monastery had been looking for a similar place in Canada keeping that in mind, he said.
"We wanted to synchronize with nature," said Anuruddha Thero, adding the current location on Royal Oak Road is close to an industrial/residential area and is busy with traffic coming down from the highway. "Buddhism is all about being in a natural place and synchronizing with the environment, getting closer to nature and also with your natural being as a human."
He said he came upon the Roseville Road property by accident. But one look at the house that stands by a serene lake, and Anuruddha Thero said he was sold.
"When we talked more to the real estate agent, we found more about the owner of the place, Bernice Beal," he said. "By her last will, she wanted to protect the land. And (her daughters) have an agreement with rare Charitable Research Reserve that nothing can be changed on the property.
"That is one of the main reasons we purchased that land, because our values and her legacy are same," said Anuruddha Thero.
Tom Woodcock, a planning ecologist with the non-profit rare, talked to CambridgeToday about the significance of the lake.
"Barrie's Lake is a pretty large wetland for the area," he said. "That lake is a typical glacial lake in the area, left over from the glacial period. It's a little less than 80 acres surface area, and that's counting the islands formed in the middle."
The area around the lake, said Woodcock, is now quite developed with residential, agricultural, and aggregate operations.
And in the middle of all that, he said, the lake stands as a remnant wild area.
"It was looked after the Beal family for a number of years," Woodock said. "They were the ones that originally purchased it and built the house out there."
The lake and surrounding area is considered a regionally significant area and is also designated as an environmentally sensitive policy area by the region, he said.
"It has quite a number of regionally significant plant and animal species that live there," said Woodcock. "It's an important area for migratory birds that pass over and stop there. It's also a significant breeding area for birds."
The Beal family, he said, is highly supportive of rare and its work.
"When they sold the property, they wanted to ensure it would be protected," said Woodcock. "(But) they also wanted to make it available for our research activities. Before the property was sold, they arranged to have a conservation easement put on the property."
Where the agreement makes the environmentally sensitive area available for rare research, he said, it forbids harmful activities, such as dredging the lake and cutting trees.
As an example, he said, just recently an ornithologist from the Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas reached out to rare requesting access to the woodland surrounding the lake to survey breeding birds in the area for an update to the atlas.
"We have hopes for many more projects to come," said Woodcock.
Moreover, he said, the lake is an important part of the local hydrologic system.
"It's an area where a lot of water can be stored," said Woodcock. "Stored water on the landscape is an important factor in the long-term conservation of groundwater, which is where we get our drinking water. It's also important in flood events. From a wildlife perspective, it's important to have places where wildlife can take refuge from all the impacted areas."
Anuruddha Thero said it's a perfect fit because of the Buddhist doctrine of love, compassionate, kindness, sympathetic tolerance, and equanimity.
"We are very excited about it because it's a very good place to do our practices," he said, adding five monks will occupy the house starting in November.
Anuruddha Thero said the monastery is excited about moving into the new space and working rare to protect and preserve the surrounding environment.