Awarded to the Columbia Wetlands Stewardship Partners to prioritize and enhance the conservation of Species at Risk and important focal species, their habitats and connectivity areas in the upper Columbia Valley.
PROPONENT: Columbia Wetlands Stewardship Partners (CWSP)
DESCRIPTION: While approximately 60% of the Columbia Wetlands are protected from direct human disturbance, about 40% are not protected. In 2020, the Columbia Wetlands Stewardship Partners (CWSP) completed a Literature Review of Species at Risk in Columbia Valley, identifying 65 species at risk in the valley – far more than previously realized. CWSP found that 35 bird species, 2 amphibians, 2 reptiles, 9 mammals, 7 vascular plants and 21 ecological communities are at risk in the Columbia Valley. This project (done in collaboration with Kootenay Connect and other funders) has provided maps of the wetland ecosystems and habitats, identified locations and habitats of species at risk (SAR) and concern, provincially important wildlife habitats and corridors, and biodiversity hotspots in upland and riparian areas. Through this project, CWSP is working on a local, regional, and landscape scale to enhance habitat for species at risk and important focal species, by acting before species and ecosystems are at risk or lost, by acting smarter using science-based priority setting, and working together with Shuswap Band, Farmland Advantage, Lake Windermere District Rod & Gun Club and the RDEK, to more wisely to align conservation priorities, and actions with collaborative efforts by multiple partners and stakeholders.
OBJECTIVE: The project has three main objectives: 1) Prioritize, develop and initiate conservation actions in important biodiversity hotspots in riparian and upland habitats of Columbia Valley; 2) Identify hydrologically vulnerable wetlands in Columbia Wetlands and Columbia Valley and build artificial beaver dams (or restore degraded beaver dams) to mitigate the loss of open water habitat in Columbia Wetlands and bench land wetlands in the Columbia Valley; and 3) Improve Western painted turtle habitat and identify American badger burrows for government protection.
PHOTO: Larry Halverson
