South Okanagan Biodiversity Protected

A breathtaking natural landscape in the South Okanagan will now be protected from development forever, thanks to a $1.8-million land purchase by the Nature Trust of BC. The non-profit land conservation organization bought 151 acres (61 hectares) of ecologically important land, known as the Park Rill Floodplain, to expand the White Lake Basin Biodiversity Ranch conservation complex in the South Okanagan.

“It’s important to conserve and protect this land, especially in this area, because of pressures from development and climate change,” said Okanagan conservation land manager Nick Burdock. “We were actually approached by this landowner. The landowners are very much interested in the conservation of nature.”

The biodiversity hot spot is home to at least five federally listed at-risk species, including the western tiger salamander, Lewis’s woodpecker, Great Basin spadefoot toad, Great Basin gopher snake and western rattlesnake. Other animals in the protected landscape include peregrine falcons (special concern), Western Screech Owls (threatened), American Badgers (endangered), Nuttall’s Cottontail, black bears, and mule deer.

It is difficult to find low-land habitats unaffected by development, but three-quarters of the Park Rill Floodplain remains in a relatively natural state, allowing it to support six sensitive ecosystems: sagebrush steppe, open coniferous woodland, seasonally flooded fields, wet meadow, sparsely vegetated rocky outcrops and, importantly, grasslands.

The diversity of species and habitats protected by this project exemplifies the importance of the native grasslands within the South Okanagan. The Nature Trust of BC has a sterling track record for protecting, managing and restoring these and other critical habitat types in BC. For that reason, the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation is a proud funding partner of the Nature Trust and of our shared goals of conserving fish, wildlife and their habitats through the protection and conservation of BC’s natural landscapes.

- Dan Buffett, CEO of the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation

Conservationists plan to restore the natural floodplain and mitigate the risk of catastrophic wildfires through prescribed burns and the thinning of trees.

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