The 2024/25 year was another outstanding year for Kootenay Conservation Program. Through strong partnerships, we created exciting opportunities for conservation and stewardship, as well as connection and collaboration, engaging more people than ever before. Our gatherings, workshops, field tours, and webinars helped foster meaningful conversations and shared knowledge across the region.

Highlights of 2024/25 include:

We are deeply grateful to all the individuals and organizations that make up the KCP partnership, and their invaluable contributions to collaborative conservation in the region. Their dedication, expertise, and shared commitment continue to drive meaningful progress in protecting and enhancing the natural landscapes we all cherish.

On behalf of the KCP Board and partnership, I extend our ongoing appreciation to the KCP team—Juliet Craig, Marcy Mahr, Kendal Benesh, and Megan Jamison—for their unwavering enthusiasm and professionalism. Their commitment to KCP’s mission and collective work is truly commendable.

As always, our vision would not be possible without the steadfast support of our funding partners, for whom we are extremely grateful. We also sincerely appreciate The Nature Trust of BC for their ongoing support as KCP’s fiscal sponsor—a vital contribution to the success of our partnership.

Derek Petersen

Chair, Kootenay Conservation Program

KCP respectfully acknowledges that our work and lives are situated in the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Ktunaxa, Secwépemc, Sinixt and Syilx Okanagan peoples who have stewarded this land, water and all living things since time immemorial, and whose values and cultures continue to inspire and guide stewardship of this region. We are committed to learning, sharing, and deepening relations with First Nations, and endeavor to support Indigenous-led conservation priorities and initiatives as we work collaboratively towards a shared future of stewardship and conservation.

The Kootenay Conservation Program (KCP) is a broad partnership of land and water conservation and stewardship groups, government agencies, agricultural producers and educational institutions working throughout the East and West Kootenays. The partnership seeks to cooperatively conserve the biological diversity and naturally functioning ecosystems of the region while providing mutual project support and leveraging technical and financial resources. The KCP vision is to have landscapes in the Kootenays that sustain naturally functioning ecosystems that can in turn support economic and social well-being. We envision vibrant communities that demonstrate the principles of environmental stewardship for future generations.

Human pressures and climate change continue to threaten wildlife habitat and rare ecosystems, impair wildlife movement corridors, and contribute to the loss of biodiversity. Important habitats exist throughout the Kootenays, and the valley bottoms have the richest diversity of habitats and biodiversity values. Many of these important habitats are located on private land. There remains a viable opportunity to conduct private land securement and stewardship activities in the Kootenays that conserves and enhances these lands and provides critical landscape linkages in the face of climate change.

The foundation of the KCP partnership is a common approach to land conservation, achieved through KCP’s strategic priorities. In 2024, KCP launched its new Strategic Priorities 2024-2029, which are situated within a ‘one river, one watershed’ approach. Using a whole landscape philosophy, KCP promotes conservation in the region through the following four goals:

KCP’s annual Fall Gathering and AGM serves as one of the primary opportunities to connect and re-connect KCP partners from across the region. In October 2024, over 60 individuals from 32 organizations attended the event in Rossland on the theme of “Stewarding for Biodiversity” where we highlighted the importance of stewarding for ‘all living things’ including plants, insects, and other biodiversity. The gathering included panel presentations on the themes of managing threats to biodiversity and protecting habitats, stewarding for biodiversity in the context of climate disruption, and new directions in provincial biodiversity and ecosystem health. The second day was a field tour to visit local wetlands in the Rossland area, and to explore the Brushland Grassland ecosystem of Beaver Creek Provincial Park and discuss native plants and pollinators.

KCP stays connected with partner organizations by maintaining a central hub of conservation news and resources through our website and monthly e-newsletter. Our e-News is distributed to over 1990 recipients across the region and continues to feature our monthly “Faces & Places” spotlight to showcase KCP partners and their current projects and innovations. The KCP Facebook page, which has grown to over 1,250 followers, is an effective channel for promoting KCP partner events and initiatives to a Kootenay-wide online audience. KCP also has an active YouTube channel and Instagram account, which continue to grow in subscribers and followers.

KCP’s website also received an update in 2024, improving its layout and function so that partner organizations and others can more easily find information on KCP’s many conservation initiatives in the region. The new website features KCP’s new Strategic Priorities, an up-to-date New! This Just In. section, and a new resources section for KCP publications, webinars, training videos, and more.

KCP was recognized nationally this year by an invitation to the 'Resilience Through Collaboration Workshop'. Hosted by the Centre for Land Conservation, this workshop followed up on recommendations from the 2023 report 'Building a landscape conservation approach: The potential for Regional Conservation and Climate Partnerships in Canada', in which KCP was included as one of four regional conservation partnerships showcased to illustrate the value of the regional partnership model. Juliet Craig, KCP Program Director, attended on behalf of KCP to participate in this discussion about fostering the establishment and development of regional conservation and climate partnerships in Canada.

KCP also promoted the KCP partnership locally and provincially through presentations at the Columbia Mountains Institute of Applied Ecology Researcher’s Forum and field tour in Creston, the BC Wildlife Federation’s Wetlands Institute in Creston, and at the Coastal Douglas-fir Conservation Partnership’s Financing our Future forum in Victoria.

Each year, KCP awards an annual Conservation Leadership Award to showcase some of the outstanding work being done in conservation in our region. In the East Kootenay, the 2024 honours go to Mark Thomas with Shuswap Band, and for the West Kootenay, the 2024 recipient is Evan McKenzie, nominated through his work with the West Kootenay EcoSociety (now Neighbours United).

Congratulations to Mark Thomas, recipient of the East Kootenay Conservation Leadership Award. As a Shuswap Band Councillor, Chair of the Columbia River Salmon Reintroduction Initiative (CRSRI) Executive Working Group, Shuswap Band Salmon Chief, and Technical Lead for the Secwépemc Nation in the ongoing Columbia River Treaty negotiations, Mark has spent the majority of his 30-year long fisheries career focused on salmon restoration. Mark has played a key role in negotiations during the Columbia River Treaty (CRT) process, made up of the Secwépemc, Ktunaxa and Syilx Okanagan Nations, and the Canadian and BC governments. He is determined to achieve the long-term goals of bringing salmon back home to the Upper Columbia watershed, as he sees this as an inherent responsibility. Mark is an exceptional leader who provides inspiration for Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth by demonstrating hard work and passion for his personal and professional roles as a steward of the lands and resources throughout the Kootenays.

Congratulations to Evan McKenzie, an ecologist nominated through his work with the West Kootenay EcoSociety (now Neighbours United), for receiving the West Kootenay Conservation Leadership Award. Evan has worked as a plant ecologist in the West Kootenay region for over 30 years, and his local expertise and extensive knowledge of the plants and ecosystems is truly one of a kind in the region. Evan has worked on numerous projects that document ecosystems and their conditions in areas such as the Fort Shepherd Conservancy, Darkwoods Conservation Area, Beaver Creek Provincial Park, and Syringa Creek Park. His work on brushlands and other dry ecosystems, that includes a field guide to best management practices, has helped raise awareness of these rare and important ecosystems and facilitate better management by numerous organizations. Evan is a contributor/co-author of three field guides to Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification in the West and East Kootenays where he provided his knowledge of all ecosystems as both a reviewer and author of numerous sections.

KCP facilitates the sharing of leading-edge knowledge, expertise and technical resources among partners and others so that land and water stewardship activities consider the best available information and practices. As well, KCP promotes the building of financial support for partners through facilitating the establishment of local conservation funds in the region.

KCP offers a webinar series each year to facilitate the sharing of technical resources among partners and others so that local conservation activities consider the best available information and practices. The webinar series in 2025 was co-hosted with the Columbia Mountains Institute of Applied Ecology’s CREDtalks with the theme of “Stewarding for Biodiversity”. This 4-part webinar series explored stewardship of biodiversity from multiple perspectives, emphasizing that conserving biological diversity and caring for all living things requires a variety of people, viewpoints, and practices. This series aimed to demonstrate how collaborative, multi-faceted approaches across various jurisdictions and scales can lead to more enduring biodiversity conservation.

The 2025 Winter Webinar Series had an average of 249 attendees and 616 registrants per webinar, which represents an increase of roughly 900% in attendance since 2017. The webinar recordings are available on the KCP website, and there are over 570 views of the recordings so far.

In 2008, KCP was instrumental in establishing the first Local Conservation Fund in Canadian history in the Regional District of East Kootenay’s upper Columbia Valley. The Columbia Valley Local Conservation Fund (CVLCF) has now invested nearly $3.1M across 129 securement and stewardship projects which address local priorities including ecosystem restoration, invasive species control and lake stewardship. This critical funding has helped to leverage an additional $27.3M in local conservation investments.

In 2024, the Columbia Valley Local Conservation Fund awarded funding to eight stewardship projects that together received $137,000: conservation of species at risk, their habitats, and connectivity areas in the upper Columbia Valley; bat roost habitat enhancement and population monitoring, working with farmers to reduce disease transmission between domestic and wild sheep; installation of wildlife-friendly fencing to protect conservation values at the Larsen Lake Conservation Area; bighorn sheep habitat enhancement and population monitoring; invasive plant management activities, and water monitoring on Columbia Lake. The fund also awarded $150,000 to the Nature Conservancy of Canada for the purchase of the Geddes Creek Conservation Area, an important piece of the Radium wildlife corridor, identified by the Kootenay Connect initiative as an area critical for at-risk species and wildlife movement.

The Regional District of Central Kootenay Local Conservation Fund (RDCK LCF) was established in 2014, and since then, has invested $740,000 in 58 local securement and stewardship projects and has leveraged over $20.9M which includes two conservation property acquisitions. In 2024, the RDCK LCF opened funding to RDCK Electoral Area H for the first time, following the successful expansion of the Local Conservation Fund service to the Slocan Valley in 2022. Funding was awarded to eight projects that together received over $130,000 including: wetland, riparian and floodplain restoration at Crooked Horn Farm in the Slocan Valley; establishment of a community-led invasive plant management program for Scotch broom; initiation of a pollinator highway project in the Slocan Valley; a cost-share project for grizzly bear conflict reduction; bat roost habitat enhancement and population monitoring; habitat enhancement and invasive plant management at Snk'mip Marsh Sanctuary; and bull trout conservation efforts in the North Slocan.

In April 2024, KCP was selected to host a field tour as part of the Association of Kootenay Boundary Local Government Convention in Radium. This 3-hour tour took place in the beautiful Columbia Valley, and featured three Columbia Valley Local Conservation Fund projects that showcased how a unique local government service has contributed to both environmental and community resilience through collaborative on-the-ground conservation projects. Participants learned about Local Conservation Funds, how local projects build environmental and community resiliency, and how unique approaches to conservation are essential for embracing change and looking forward.

Stewardship promotes responsible use and conservation of biodiversity, habitats and ecosystems through sustainable land and water practices. In the Kootenays, over 85 KCP partners are involved in stewardship focusing on local priorities such as grassland restoration, forest health, invasive species control, species at risk management, and wetland construction and restoration. KCP facilitates stewardship activities that protect biodiversity, ecosystem services, and ecological connectivity to promote healthy and vibrant landscapes and human communities that are connected to their natural surroundings.

In May 2024, KCP hosted hybrid-style East and West Spring Stewardship Committee meetings and field tours. The meeting objectives for both were to provide an opportunity for stewardship organizations and others to share updates on local stewardship activities of each organization and areas of potential collaboration, provide input on the direction of KCP’s stewardship initiative, and have a group discussion on trending stewardship topics that could benefit from collaboration and partnership.

In the East Kootenay, 17 partners gathered in Cranbrook or remotely, and the morning meeting was followed by an afternoon field tour of Spring Creek Ranch to discuss the stewardship work being done on the ranch, with a focus on riparian habitat protection and wildfire resiliency, and opportunities and challenges for agricultural stewardship. In the West Kootenay, 24 partners gathered in Salmo or remotely, followed by a local field tour of 6 constructed wetlands near the confluence of Hidden Creek and the Salmo River. KCP’s Stewardship Committee meetings increase collaboration and awareness around the many stewardship initiatives taking place within Kootenay Conservation Program’s service area.

In January 2025, KCP co-hosted a Conservation Action Forum “Check-in” meeting focused on the Golden area in partnership with Shuswap Band and Wildsight Golden. Over 40 representatives from various local stewardship organizations, First Nations, local, provincial and federal governments, industry, and other agencies came together in Golden to review the progress being made on the five priority actions identified during the 2020 Golden Conservation Action Forum. Forum participants provided updates on their conservation and stewardship projects occurring throughout the region. Details of the meeting are included in the summary report.

KCP continues to track the progress of actions identified during previous Forums and is pleased to report that of the 39 Priority Actions identified across seven KCP Conservation Action Forums, 38 actions are either completed or are actively being pursued as of March 31, 2025!

In 2024/25, KCP successfully administered Year 6 of Kootenay Connect Priority Places. The Canada Nature Fund grant continues to include work in four original focal areas (Bonanza Biodiversity Corridor, Creston Valley, Wycliffe Wildlife Corridor, and Columbia Valley Wetlands) and three additional areas added to the project in 2023 (Columbia Lake, Slocan Valley, and Duncan-Lardeau Valley) totaling an area of 1,660,000 hectares (20% of the Kootenay region). Over 35 KCP partners and specialists including stewardship groups, land trusts, science and technical consultants, and recovery teams are actively working together to enhance and restore habitat for species at risk in these seven biodiversity hotspots in the Kootenays. Restoration and enhancement efforts are improving and protecting a broad spectrum of habitat types such as native grasslands, diverse wetlands, cottonwood riparian areas, and mature cedar-hemlock forests that support 34 species at risk and over 40 culturally important species. The Kootenay Connect Priority Places project focuses on the important linkage between these habitats that is critical for maintaining healthy functioning ecosystems and biodiversity.

Over the past six years, projects have: inventoried species at risk; improved wetland, riparian, dry forest and grassland habitats; installed and constructed habitat features such as nesting beds for turtles, beaver dam analogues, and artificial roosting structures for bats; developed new GIS data layers that include species at risk in the Golden-Donald area; produced new maps of bank swallow habitat and American badger burrows throughout the Columbia Valley; applied for Wildlife Habitat Area and Wildlife Habitat Feature designations on public land; modeled wildlife corridors and wetland vulnerability to climate change; planted native vegetation and managed invasives species; and installed wildlife-friendly fencing. Details on the Kootenay Connect Priority Places project can be found on the KCP website, including a four-year summary report.

Some accomplishments of Kootenay Connect from Year 6 (2024-2025):

The KCP Stewardship Solutions Toolkit serves as a central hub for Kootenay-based resources that address stewardship issues on private land. This toolkit is organized by Conservation Neighbourhood and is designed as a one-stop shop for private landowners interested in stewardship options for their property and as a resource for stewardship practitioners, local government planners, and other service providers. The diversity of services includes information, tools, incentives, services, learning opportunities, and/or funding for stewardship activities focusing on such topics as wildlife, species at risk, invasive plants, water quantity and quality, forest and grassland ecology, fire interface management, and habitat restoration. In 2024/25, promotion efforts focused on ensuring contact information for service providers is up to date, promoting previous years’ Conservation Ambassador Training sessions, providing print materials to partner groups, and maintaining partner videos on the KCP YouTube channel.

KCP planned and delivered a Conservation Ambassador Training (CAT) Tune-up or “refresher” in June 2024 to continue to build and share knowledge of these ‘Stewardship Solutions’ in the Kootenays. Through this learning opportunity, KCP provided pre-recorded training modules that gave interested individuals or organizations the key information, messages, and source materials they need to effectively communicate with private landowners on how they can be better stewards for wildfire resilience, wildlife coexistence, and riparian and foreshore habitats. This three-part training series was attended by over 40 representatives from stewardship groups, First Nations, and provincial and local governments.

KCP recognizes that private lands in the Kootenays are located primarily in valley bottoms which is also where there is the highest density of wetlands, rare habitats, species at risk, and key wildlife corridors. From a large landscape perspective, valley bottoms in the Kootenays act as the connective tissue between adjacent mid and high-elevation habitats, enabling contiguous wildlife travel corridors to exist between different higher elevation habitats. It is imperative to protect habitat in these valley bottoms to maintain healthy functioning ecosystems, biodiversity and ecological connectivity, and securement is an important tool to enable protection.

KCP assists with identifying opportunities to secure high-priority conservation lands in a number of ways, including the coordination of a confidential Securement Committee comprised of The Nature Trust of BC, the Nature Conservancy of Canada, Shuswap Band, the BC Ministry of Forests, Ducks Unlimited Canada, the Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program, and Environment and Climate Change Canada. Priorities for land conservation are based on specially developed ranking criteria that integrate the latest science of climate change and landscape connectivity and assesses candidate properties within a larger ecological context. KCP’s candidate conservation property list includes 91 properties across the East and West Kootenay and is utilized by local land trusts and others working in land conservation to help evaluate potential acquisitions. KCP also continues to serve as a ‘one window approach’ for land conservation inquiries. This year, KCP tracked and responded to 11 land conservation inquiries from KCP partner organizations or directly from interested landowners and completed three property evaluations and four property appraisals.

Since 2002, KCP has worked with partners to conserve over 83,900 hectares of private land and acquire over 65 properties across the Kootenays. In 2024/25, KCP continued to coordinate communication between the land trusts in the region. Based on the dedication and hard work of local land trusts, four valuable conservation properties were acquired this year: Geddes Creek Conservation Area by the Nature Conservancy of Canada, Bummers Flats – MapleCross Benchlands by The Nature Trust of BC, Lower Wolf Creek by the Nature Trust of BC, and one more property that is currently confidential.

The Nature Trust of BC and Nature Conservancy of Canada acquired 565 ha of conservation land in 2024-25