One of the largest conservation-related private land acquistions in Canadian history was publicly announced on Dec. 16 in Vancouver.
The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) publicly announced the purchase of 45,000 hectares of land in the Elk Valley and surrounding area, at a press conference at Queen Elizabeth Park.
NCC purchased land in the Elk Valley in September from North American logging company Doman, in order to conserve an ecologically important wildlife corridor that connects the Rockies in Canada and the U.S.
Referred to as the Kootenay Forest Lands, the land contributes to a network of more than 7,000 sq km of protected area in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and Montana. It supports wildlife movement and the migration of wide-ranging carnivores like grizzly bears, wolverine and lynx. It has a network of 42 watersheds and 930km of streams, that fish like bull trout travel through on route to the U.S.
It also contains at-risk ecosystems like rare high-elevation grasslands, and old growth and mature forests.
“The scale alone is really significant. It’s not often we can secure 45,000 hectares of valley-bottom lands …We know with research led by people like Clayton Lamb on the grizzly bears, it really is an important connective corridor,” said NCC BC regional vice president Nancy Newhouse, in an interview with The Free Press.
Newhouse spoke on behalf of NCC at the press conference, alongside Ktunaxa Nation Council chair Kathryn Teneese; Minister of Environment, Climate Change and Nature Julie Dabrusin; Secretary of State for the Government of Canada Nathalie Provost; BC Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship Randene Neill; and NCC president and CEO Catherine Grenier.
Ktuanxa First Nation, Elk Valley Resources, and the provincial and federal governments publicly declared financial support for the project. The Government of Canada and Elk Valley Resources have both committed around $20 million to the project, and the provincial government $7 million.
“British Columbia has the greatest diversity of species, ecosystems and habitats of any of Canada’s provinces and territories,” stated Randene Neill. “Our government celebrates the securement of the Kootenay Forest Lands, which is the result of years of dedication and rewarding partnerships.”
“We will continue to work with First Nations, communites, land trusts and conservancies, and other interested parties throughout BC to preserve areas of natural beauty and ecological importance,” she added.
The NCC plans to work with recreational groups to maintain recreational access on Elk Valley lands, initiated by program director Richard Klafki who has ties to the community. Stewardship decisions will be shaped with input from local Indigenous Nations.
NCC’s effort to conserve land in the Elk Valley area is a project two decades in the making, built out of partnerships with governments and communities. Newhouse said the tipping point happened when Doman agreed to sell NCC the land.
“The landowner believed we have the capacity to work at that scale and was willing to enter into an agreement with us,” Newhouse said.
Considerable donations from the federal and provincial governments and Elk Valley Resources helped push the project forward.
Newhouse said NCC is interested in expanding its horizons and purchasing land in other areas of Canada. The organization owns land scattered across BC’s interior and the coast, although its largest tracts of land are located in the Kootenay region.
“This is just a great example of what we can do across Canada and how important these large-scale conservation projects are,” said Newhouse.