Mac Johnson Wildlife Area, a 532-hectare protected landscape north of Brockville, Ontario, preserves wetlands, fields, forest, and a reservoir within the Buells Creek watershed. Known locally as the Back Pond, the area was first settled when Buells Creek powered mills, then later drained for peat moss harvesting and unsuccessfully for farming because the unstable land could not support machinery or cattle. Its present form emerged in the late 1960s with construction of the Broome-Runciman Dam and land purchases by the Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority. Renamed in 1987 for conservationist Mac Johnson, it protects wildlife habitat while preserving a landscape that resisted industrial and agricultural transformation.