SUNDERLAND — If a barn owl flies into your old barn because a board is missing you might not get insurance to cover that barn. You certainly won’t have as many rights to your barn as the owl does.

That’s the assessment of Land Use Council chair and Sunderland crop farmer Bruce Pearse.

The barn owl is one of 187 "species at risk" according to the Ministry of Natural Resources. The list includes plants, birds, insects, and moss.

When a species shows up on the list, as well as settling on your property, the farmer is not allowed to "impede" on the habitat, Pearse said. Therefore, you cannot replace the barn board, he said. He said he knows of one insurance company who declined providing insurance to two barns because boards were not replaced.

The bigger question for Pearse is this: Can I get insurance to cover loss of income if government regulations, like the species at Risk Act (passed in 2007), curtail my farming practices? No. And there are no plans to create a new product for coverage, Pearse said.

Pearse leads a co-alition supported by six organizations, including three county federations of agriculture. He asked two insurance brokers about coverage.

Jim White, of HUB International, said that most policies rely on a physical accident trigger. "This could include fire, water damage, or pollution spill. Typically land itself is not insurable for much more than pollution remediation. Political risk insurance can compensate property owners for the loss of an investment, but the claim trigger is expropriation rather than enforcement of legislation protecting wildlife habitat."

Wrote vice-president of underwriting at Farmers’ Mutual Insurance, Patrick Ryan, at Lindsay: "Our loss of income coverage is triggered by a property or a casualty event which causes the premises to be unable to be utilized to generate income for the landowner. As the migration of an endangered plant, animal or bird onto an insured premises would not constitute such a property or casualty loss "event" our policies would not respond to cover any resultant loss of income."

This puts a heavy unfair burden on landowners for the benefit of all, says Pearse, noting a huge disconnect now between rural and urban folk. Farmers no longer want urbanites picnicking on rural lands and scouting for wildlife with binoculars. "We are no longer the hospitable friendly group we once were," Pearse said.