Stewardship Support Project
Many landholders contacted by the Cowichan Land Trust through previous stewardship related projects have…
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Landmark Report urges BC to conserve at least 50% of its land base as part of expanded climate change strategy
Landmark Report urges BC to conserve at least 50% of its land base as part of expanded climate change strategy Top international scientist and environmental thinkers are urging the provincial government to consider nature conservation into the provincial climate action strategy. From the article: Senior ecologist Dr. Jim Pojar said, “A minimum conservation target of 50% is what’s necessary to give our plants and animals a fighting chance to adapt, while also keeping and drawing more carbon out of the atmosphere so that over time we can slow and reduce climate change.” Read the whole article here
Cowichan Valley Flooding has Man-Made Roots, Writes Land Trust Member in the Times-Colonist
Cowichan Valley Flooding has Man-Made Roots, Writes Land Trust Member in the Times-Colonist Cowichan Land Trust member and volunteer David Polster wrote an opinon column for the Times-Colonist questioning the root causes behind the Valley’s recent flooding. From the article: “It is useful to keep in mind that when we play with nature, nature always has the last move. Our failure to respect the natural processes and to think we could develop on floodplains with impunity are what really caused the flooding — not the heavy rains and high tides”
Sansum Point Saved for Future Generations!!
Sansum Point Saved for Future Generations!! DUNCAN, B.C. – The acquisition for Sansum Point closed today and the 128-acre property will now become parkland for current and future generations. As of early September, the property will be owned by the Cowichan Valley Regional District and be turned into parkland for all to enjoy. In the meantime, TLC and the Cowichan Land Trust will carry on with fundraising to fulfill their financial contribution of $495,000. This three-way partnership is an important step for building future parkland acquisitions in the Valley. “The CVRD is exceptionally pleased to have developed a working partnership with TLC and the Cowichan Land Trust to acquire Samsun Point. We look forward to continuing to work with these groups and with others to ensure that parkland and open spaces are available in the Valley. When residents in the CVRD voted to implement the Regional Parkland Acquisition Fund during the last election, they said parkland was an important priority. Sansum Point is a wonderful community asset and over time will become even more of a treasure,” says Gerry Giles, CVRD Chair. Over the past five months, the two land trusts along with the Cowichan Valley community have done an amazing job of fundraising to protect the coastal bluff and vulnerable Coastal Douglas fir ecosystem located on the Stoney Hill Peninsula, valued at nearly $2 million. “Support to date has been overwhelming and we are extremely grateful for each gift. With a little more time, I’m confident we will reach our goal. There are still lots of stones to turn over when it comes to fundraising for Sansum and we are committed to seeing it through,” says Bill Turner, TLC’s Executive Director. Recent fundraisers by Wilderness Kayaking and Godfrey-Brownell Vineyards brought in another $5,000 for the campaign and, with the support of the Duncan-Cowichan Chamber of Commerce, businesses like Godfrey-Brownell have agreed to take Sansum Point under its wing for the next year by hosting various fundraising events to keep the cause top of mind in the community. “We have created an action-oriented partnership that will ensure the protection of important areas for our grandchildren to enjoy,” says Roger Hart of the Cowichan Land Trust. “This is a gift from our generation to the next, just as we are able to enjoy unique places like Stanley Park, which could otherwise have become prime real estate.” For individuals wishing to donate to Sansum Point, please call 1-877-485-2422 or visit conservancy.bc.ca Businesses interested in hosting fundraisers for Sansum, please email: membership@conservancy.bc.ca. TLC and the Cowichan Land Trust still need to fulfill their agreement to raise $495,000 toward the Sansum acquistion. We need your help! There are a number of ways to donate: 1) Click the link to the Canada Helps website. Here, you can select the fund/designation “Sansum Point Land Acquisition” and pay using a credit card or PayPal. You will instantly be issued a tax-receipt for your donation. 2) Stop by our office at #6-55 Station Street in downtown Duncan with cash or cheque and we will gladly write you a tax-receipt. *Please note we cannot process credit cards. 3) Send a cheque by mail to: Cowichan Land Trust, #6-55 Station Street, Duncan BC V9L 1M2. Be sure to indicate the donation is for “Sansum Point”. We will then send you a tax-receipt in the mail for your donation. By donating through the Cowichan Land Trust, your donation will be held in a separate account for this acquisition. If the Sansum acquisition does not go through, your donation will remain “in-trust” for future land acquisitions with the Land Trust. Click here to look at some of the other Sansum Point promotional materials including brochures, maps, videos and the Sue Coleman print.
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WiTS Project
What’s WiTS? The Cowichan Community Land Trust is involved in conserving and monitoring trees for wildlife through the Wildlife Tree Stewards program. WiTS is a stewardship initiative of the Vancouver Island Region of the Federation of BC Naturalists (FBCN). The goal is to conserve dwindling coastal wildlife tree habitats through volunteer monitoring, landowner agreements, and community education along the Strait of Georgia on Vancouver Island. Volunteer wildlife tree stewards and cooperative landowners are crucial to this initiative. Volunteers document and monitor wildlife tree as well as provide invaluable local knowledge. Landowners provide access to, and information regarding their trees. While monitoring trees, observers have reported owl nests, Peregrine Falcons, Golden Eagles, Marbled Murrelet activity, hawk nests, a diverse array or passerine activity (warblers, vireos and flycatchers), and even a honey bee colony! Wildlife trees are defined as any standing dead or live tree with special characteristics that provide valuable habitat for the conservation or enhancement or wildlife. Buffer trees in heron colonies, especially in mixed deciduous stands, provide important migratory bird feeding and nesting habitats. A vegetated buffer can also lead to shifting the emphasis from protecting the single tree to maintaining a broader viable habitat and greater biological diversity. The Importance of the WiTS Initiative The southeast coast of Vancouver Island and associated islands contain some of the most altered ecosystems in British Columbia. Within these ecosystems, agriculture, forestry and urbanization are placing many wildlife species at risk. Yet, the ability to see wildlife is one of the great reasons we choose to spend time on Vancouver Island. The WiTS initiative is built on the results of a decade of fieldwork conducted on Great Blue Herons (a threatened species in BC) and on Bald Eagles by Vancouver Island naturalists and biologists. This new initiative is expanding to include trees and habitat important to wildlife species. Veteran trees in BC, as they deteriorate, can support up to 80 wildlife species from Pileated Woodpeckers (pictured here) to salamanders. Natural treed areas provide people with an opportunity to access nature. These are places to observe and learn about the natural environment as well as view a diverse array of wildlife species and other living organisms. Natural treed areas provide desirable microclimates and require less landscaping and chemicals than in area or exotic trees and plants. Read more at the Wildlife Tree Stewardship website.
South Cowichan Stewardship Project
South Cowichan Stewardship Project The South Cowichan Stewardship Project is a two-year environmental program designed to conserve and protect ecologically sensitive areas along critical streams and rivers in the south Cowichan Valley. Privately owned lands bordering these streams will be the primary focus of the project. The aim of the project is to assist individual landowners in identifying critical habitat along streams and rivers within their properties and increase their appreciation of the need for environmental protection and conservation. As responsibility for protecting critical habitat falls largely to the landowner, site specific management plans will be developed for interested landholders, providing advice and recommendations as to how to maximise their protection efforts. The landholders and other members of the public will be encouraged to form community groups and participate in workshops focussing on stream stewardship. These larger community activities will be used to plan and organise environmental protection activities that are beyond the ability of the individual landowners. Where possible, Stewardship Agreements and Conservation Covenants will be entered into with individual landholders to recognise and facilitate their long-term commitment to environmental protection and conservation.
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Land Acquisition Project – Friends of Holland Creek
Land Acquisition Project – Friends of Holland Creek Fund-raising drive saves trail from developer by LEXI BAINAS – The Cowichan Valley Citizen Newspaper After months of frantic fund-raising, the Friends of Holland Creek Trail happily announced this week that they have gathered the $130,000 needed to protect the “deep woods” quality of their beloved trail. The money will purchase 2.88 acres that fronts a proposed development to provide a buffer for the trail area within the Ladysmith town boundaries. Spokesperson Gail Wiseman Reed said the fundraising “was like climbing Mount Everest. We’ve got a wonderful clip of some extreme kayakers going over (a waterfall). That’s exactly what it felt like for us. The town of Ladysmith contributed $43,000 to bring the effort close to its goal and last week the Morningstar Corporation of Red Deer, Alberta, brought the fund-raising to a conclusion when it announced it is giving $17,000. The park is in a beautiful valley with trails already in place. They’re often used by teachers from area schools and this helped gain the interest of the Alberta group. “Their foundation is interested in the education of children,” said Wiseman Reed, a former teacher. “They were interested that the (urban) naturalist programs were there. Last year school groups went out on the trail. That’s ongoing. When the weather settles, the teachers will be raring to go. “Visitors say, ‘you don’t know what you have here’.” Wiseman Reed said she hopes the campaign’s success, due in part to help from the Cowichan Community Land Trust and The Land Conservancy of B.C., will encourage other communities to do the same. “We want to celebrate that those trees will remain dancing in the wind with their river… and to thank and celebrate every one of our donors from the smallest school child to the B.C. Hydros, credit unions and TD Banks of this world for their validation of the beauty of nature and the trail,” she said. “We sort of always knew we could do it, but the rational voice inside would say: how are you going to do it.” All negotiations have taken place between the Town and the still-unnamed developer. The Friends of Holland Creek were only involved with raising money to buy the land. The group approached hundreds of prospective donors, she said, but discovered many are prohibited from contributing to land acquisitions within municipal boundaries. Many others felt the Town should pick up the tab. As a result, donors were found far and wide. Besides the Alberta corporation, they include California residents, famous artists and musicians, participants in the Great Lake Walk and a host of Cowichan-area individuals and businesses who stepped up to the plate. The Ladysmith Credit Union voted to contribute $15,000 towards the project. “I think the most important thing was making all the people aware of the beauty of that trail, and the importance of maintaining nature right now on Vancouver Island,” Wiseman Reed said. “We never wanted to go head to head. We all wanted to do this thing peaceably. People spoke up with their contributions. I think everybody won.” Now the money must be gathered and forwarded to the Town. You can read more about the Friends of Holland Creek in these documents: See page 10 and page 6
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Tzouhalem Protection Project
Tzouhalem Protection Project The Tzouhalem Protection Project is mobilizing the residents of the Cowichan Valley Regional District to actively participate in a permanent protection strategy for an ecologically significant area which is threatened by the pressures of urban growth and development. Estuarine mud flats, mountains, ridges, shoreline, wetlands, creeks, old growth fir, and Garry Oak meadows are all found in the project site. The study area is home to a range of rare, vulnerable and endangered species of fish, birds, plants and mammals. The area is considered important nesting and feeding habitat for eagles and other raptors such as peregrine falcon and screech owls. Mammals such as deer, raccoon, cougar and elk have also been seen. Native cactus and the only stands of old growth Douglas Fir remaining in the eastern CVRD are located at Stoney Hill. The site also accommodates nesting turkey vultures and the only known nesting rock wrens on Vancouver Island. Mt. Tzouhalem retains one of the last Garry Oak meadows, the Tzouhalem Ecological Reserve, in the CVRD where a diversity of rare wildflowers, grasses, reptiles, insects, birds and small mammals can be found. The shores of the area, Sansum Narrows, are also noted for outstanding ecological significance and are home to major salmon stocks and many rare waterbird and waterfowl species. As yet, no form of permanent protection has been created for these lands. The Tzouhalem Protection Project is responding to the need for a protected greenway in a unique area of the Valley which is threatened by encroaching development. Protection of these lands provides a valuable link to neighbouring conservation strategies, thus helping to create a greenway that extends beyond the project boundaries. Specifically, our project will help create an extensive greenway by providing a link to three neighbouring conservation initiatives: 1) the Hwi’ lusmut tu Tumuhu Khowutzun (A Natural Resource Inventory of Cowichan Tribes) which will provide baseline studies to help guide future conservation and land management in reserve lands in Mt. Tzouhalem and extending west; 2) protection and stewardship of lands on the east side of Sansum Narrows by the Salt Spring Island Conservation Partnership; 3) the Sea to Sea Green Belt of the Capital Regional District’s Blue/Green Spaces Strategy which is developing a greenway along the southern tip of the island that extends towards the Tzouhalem area. By creating a more continuous area of protection, the Tzouhalem Protection Project will assist long term and effective habitat conservation on southern Vancouver Island. A specialized and intensive landholder contact program will be conducted in the peninsula bordering Sansum Narrows between Maple Bay and Cowichan Bay. This, combined with a community education and marketing program will yield voluntary stewardship agreements, legally binding conservation covenants, and the acquisition of lands to be placed in conservation holdings in perpetuity. Interested individuals and conservation groups will be encouraged to participate in all aspects of the project. Partnerships will be fostered through presentations at local meetings, and liaisons with relevant community, business and government agencies.
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Cowichan Freshwater Stewardship Project
Cowichan Freshwater Stewardship Project In 1997-98 the Cowichan Freshwater Stewardship Project provided stewardship assistance to landowners with riparian lands, with special emphasis on those lands near 12 fish-bearing streams in the district. A total of 81 landowners, including 10 corporate owners, agreed to a voluntary stewardship pledge. Historical and ecological stream information has been collected from government databases and long time residents. This information was used to develop stream specific information pamphlets. At the request of landowners and other community members, community education events have included a set of 3 native plant workshops and an introductory workshop on bioregional mapping techniques (e.g. how to map your backyard habitats and wildlife).
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