Elected officials — including Trail city councillors Thea Hanson and Doug Wilson — went early to the recent Association of Kootenay Boundary Local Government convention to learn more about the Columbia Valley Local Conservation Fund (Fund).
Hanson and Wilson joined municipal councillors from Cranbrook, Greenwood, Nakusp, Nelson, and regional district directors from the East and Central Kootenay, in visiting three unique locations in the Columbia Valley.
This special tour highlighted projects that are covered through the Fund, a local government service which creates a dedicated fund for local stewardship and land acquisition projects and was first piloted in the Columbia Valley in 2008.
Finding out the numerous ways the local conservation fund helps out local environmentalists and local farmers was eye-opening, Coun. Doug Wilson told the Times.
“We hope to see the Fund find ways to support our area.”
The tour visited a restoration project at Luxor Linkage Conservation Area, a property owned by the Nature Conservancy of Canada, who completed forest thinning and other habitat enhancement activities to reduce fire risk and increase forest health.
“By thinning trees where forest in-growth and encroachment have occurred, we have improved biodiversity at Luxor Linkage and helped to build resilience in a regionally important ecosystem that is susceptible to the impacts of climate change” explains Richard Klafki, Nature Conservancy of Canada ‘s program director for the Canadian Rocky Mountains region.
Next, the tour visited a local farm to learn about an innovative project that reduces risk of disease transmission from domestic sheep to wild sheep by conducting regular sheep testing.
A collaboration between The Wild Sheep Society of BC and Riverside Farm, this project has built relationships between Columbia Valley farmers and wild sheep conservationists, and the approach has been so successful that it is now expanding to other parts of the province.
Finally, the tour ended in the beautiful Columbia Wetlands to scope some of the waterbirds and swallows that have been part of a Wildsight Golden project which involves citizen scientists, builds and enhances habitat for swallows, and increases awareness about these important birds.
“The Columbia Valley Tour was very interesting, to learn how they have used the funds in the region to protect wildlife and assist with wildfire mitigation, support local business, and showcase the beauty of the region,” Coun. Thea Hanson told the Times.
Every year, non-profit organizations and First Nations can apply for project funding through the Fund.
In 2024, a total of $137,000 was awarded to nine projects in the Columbia Valley, including conservation work on American badgers and bighorn sheep, water monitoring on Columbia Lake, installation of wildlife-friendly fencing to safeguard habitat for wildlife, bat habitat enhancement and monitoring, conservation of biodiversity in the Columbia Wetlands, working with farmers to support wild sheep conservation, and invasive plant control.
“This tour was a great way to get our elected officials out on the landscape to see some of the incredible work accomplished through the Local Conservation Fund,” says Kendal Benesh, Fund manager, Kootenay Conservation Program. “The service really does make a huge impact in the Columbia Valley, as well as in the Regional District of Central Kootenay, and we are hopeful that other areas in the Kootenay Boundary look into adopting the service.”
To date, the fund has provided over $2.8 million to local projects and leveraged an additional nine times that ($24.5 million) in matching funding and in-kind support.
For more information on the Fund, visit: kootenayconservation.ca.