Just 10 minutes north of Minden off Plantation road, is an extraordinary place. With bald eagles flying overhead, the shrieking of Sandhill cranes in the nearby meadow and the sound of the wind rustling the leaves in the trees, it's a place that invites visitors to slow down, explore and appreciate nature.Formerly the Campbell property, now renamed the Beaver Creek Wildlands, it's a 200-acre paradise that features 15 distinct habitats, including meadows, swamps and forests. It's the seventh property to become a nature reserve through the joint efforts and funding of the Haliburton Highlands Land Trust and Parks Canada.CanoeFM had the opportunity to visit Bever Creek Wildlands recently which now boasts an impressive boardwalk path and a floating bridge over the water an army of volunteers helped construct. HHLT's new Executive Director Dave Newnham and Partners in Conservation Program lead Rick Whitteker were on site to talk about the new property and why protecting it is so vital. We carried out our discussion on the 350-meter floating bridge that's nearing completion.Trail work at Beaver Creek Wildlands will continue until the weather makes it impossible to continue, but both Newnham and Whittaker say the public will be invited to a grand opening sometime in the new year. Visitors will be able to walk the trails soon after.

Kaitlyn Wight's first daughter Arya was just four days old when the family moved to Minden. Alone in a new community, Wight struggled to find programs for her baby but eventually discovered the Early ON program at Archie Stouffer Public School and some others offered at the Haliburton County Public Library.Now Arya is 2 and a half and has a 10-month-old sister Amelia to keep her company. But for Wight, the lack of childcare here has caused her to choose to remain a stay-at-home parent until both her daughters are in school. She says it's just something the family has decided because waitlists for childcare in Haliburton County remain long with little hope for change anytime soon.This is Part Three of the multi-episode series on the voices of Haliburton County as we inch ever closer to the upcoming municipal election. The series, entitled,WHAT MATTERS HERE: Listening to the voices of Haliburton County,will cover the issues that matter to various demographic groups in our region.In this, Part Three, we'll hear from a number of young mothers to find out what they'd like their elected representatives to do to support young families here.

Seniors make up the majority of the population of Haliburton County. In fact, the median age is 60 years old and what's important to them may differ from other demographics. As the municipal election edges ever closer, CanoeFM reached out to a few seniors from across the county to find out what their needs are both in their communities and their representatives in municipal government.Here is Part 3 of our election series entitled What Matters Here — Listening to the voices of Haliburton County.