Abel Creek Culvert Rehabilitation Project

Awarded initially to the District of Invermere to protect and restore Abel Creek as a healthy riparian stream ecosystem through restoration and stewardship activities; then to the Lake Windermere District Rod and Gun Club to explore options to allow fish to navigate beyond a man-made obstruction that is blocking passage to high quality fish habitat; then to construct a weir in a culvert area of Abel Creek above Westside Road that will raise water levels, making it passable for kokanee and rainbow trout so they can utilize spawning habitat above the culvert.

Boulder Creek Diversion Project

Awarded to the Toby Benches Society and Lake Windermere Rod and Gun Club towards improving water quality in two lakes and three streams and increase water quality for several wetlands by constructing a small dam and installing 3.5 km of irrigation pipe.

Climate and Water Conservation Action Initiatives

Awarded to the Groundswell Network Society to provide measurable, achievable, actions addressing water conservation and climate change impacts.

Columbia Lake Ecosystem Monitoring and Education

Awarded to the Columbia Lake Stewardship Society to improve knowledge of water resources and steps that can be taken to protect them, and to ongoing monitoring of the lake to examine the implications of water trends on the preservation of the riparian and wetland areas at both ends and evaluate means to sustain lake water health.

Columbia Valley Farmland Advantage Stewardship Project

Awarded to the Windermere District Farmers Institute to reward contracted farmers to take extraordinary stewardship action to conserve and enhance important riparian areas on their farms, 11 of which have been targeted and ranked by their potential to produce clean water and healthy wildlife populations, including species at risk. Much of the Columbia Valley’s critical habitat is owned by farmers who have limited capacity for stewardship.

Columbia Valley Invasive Plants Neighbourhood Program

Awarded to the Windermere and District Farmers Institute and East Kootenay Invasive Plant Council to inventory and map invasive weeds, help educate landowners and provide financial assistance to help them remove weeds and reduce the threat to biodiversity.

Columbia Valley Swallow Project

Awarded to Wildsight Golden to build increased awareness for swallow species and their conservation status, coordinate volunteers to inventory/monitor swallow nests and erect artificial nesting structures for swallows to increase habitat availability.

Columbia Wetlands Waterbird Survey

Awarded to Wildsight (Golden Chapter) to collect baseline inventory bird data utilizing citizen‐scientists to use for application of an Important Bird Area (IBA) status for the Columbia Wetlands that would provide the wetlands with a higher conservation status; and to continue coordinating large-scale bird counts with numerous citizen-scientist opportunities, as well as community education, outreach and collaboration.

Columbia Wetlands Waterbird Survey

Lot 48 Columbia Lake Purchase

Awarded to the Nature Conservancy of Canada towards the purchase of 127ha of high value land for conservation located south of Fairmont Hot Springs on the eastern shore of Columbia Lake.

Lot 48 Ecosystem Restoration Project

Awarded to the Nature Conservancy of Canada to create resilient ecosystems through the restoration of open forest and grassland communities in areas where forest ingrowth and encroachment are occurring.

Restoration of Fairmont Reach - Columbia River

Awarded to the Columbia Wetlands Stewardship Partners to restore riparian habitat that is critical for spawning Kokanee and the rare Lewis’s woodpecker, as well as other aquatic and riparian dependant species.

Conservation of Biodiversity in the Columbia Wetlands

Awarded to the Columbia Wetlands Stewardship Partners to determine the locations and develop maps of biodiversity hotspots in the Columbia Wetlands and Columbia Valley, which will be used to prioritize and enhance the conservation of species at risk and important focal species.

Dutch Creek Restoration to Pre-1975 Channel

Awarded to the Columbia Wetlands Stewardship Partners to determine the potential benefits to fish and wildlife, and the feasibility of returning Dutch Creek to its original channel.

Dutch Findlay Ecosystem Restoration

Awarded to the Nature Conservancy of Canada to help create resilient ecosystems through the restoration of open forest structure in closed coniferous stands which will resist climate change, safeguard communities from catastrophic forest fire and create habitat for threatened species.

Hoodoo Conservation Property Management Project

Awarded to the Nature Trust of BC towards protecting and maintaining the ecological integrity of the Hoodoo conservation property through access control measures such as selectively installing fencing, gates and signage, restricting motor vehicles in sensitive ecosystems and helping the public appreciate the biodiversity of the Hoodoo property.

Kootenay Community Bat Project

Awarded to the Rocky Mountain Trench Natural Resources  Society to promote and conserve the variety of bat species and their associated habitats that exist in the Upper Columbia Valley.

Lake Enid Restoration and Conservation Project

Awarded to Wildsight to restore the damaged riparian and grassland ecosystems on the northeast side of Lake Enid and conserve them by protecting them from future damage.

Lake Windermere Community‐Based Water Monitoring Project

Awarded to the Lake Windermere Ambassadors Society to empower and educate citizens and decision-makers with reliable data on the lake’s water quality and ecological health; and strengthen community water stewardship through ongoing water quality monitoring, support for science-based management and outreach.

Lake Windermere Project

Awarded to Wildsight to protect and enhance the water quality of Lake Windermere by means of interagency cooperation, scientific water quality monitoring, public engagement, and on-going citizen based monitoring.

Limber Pine Restoration Project

Awarded to the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation to enhance recruitment, seed collection, seedling propagation, and seed and seedling planting primarily on private land of this blue listed species of conservation concern.

Luxor Linkage Resiliency and Forest Restoration Project

Awarded to the Nature Conservancy of Canada to restore 20-30  hectares of Rocky Mountain Douglas‐fir forest to dry open forest structure in this Conservation Area that provides important habitat for wildlife and serves as a linkage corridor used by species migrating between the Purcells and Kootenay National Park.

Marion Creek Benchlands Purchase

Awarded to the Nature Conservancy of Canada towards the purchase of 205ha of high value land for conservation located southwest of Fairmont Hot Springs

Marion Creek Benchlands Forest Restoration Project

Awarded to the Nature Conservancy of Canada to restore at least 16 hectares of Rocky Mountain Douglas‐fir forest to dry open  forest structure.

Neighbourhood Invasive Plant Program

Awarded to the East Kootenay Invasive Plant Council (now known as the East Kootenay Invasive Species Council) to prevent the establishment of new invasive plant species, control existing noxious and priority species and, where possible, eradicate noxious and priority invasive plants on private lands in the Columbia Valley using an integrated approach. Includes increasing awareness by landowners of invasive plants and supporting these landowners to address invasive plants through resources, equipment and financial support.

Reintroducing Northern Leopard Frogs to the Columbia Marshes

Awarded previously to the Columbia Wetlands Stewardship Partners and more recently to the Calgary Zoo (2019, 2020)  to re-establish self-sustaining populations of endangered northern leopard frogs in the Columbia marshes through the continuing release and monitoring of large numbers over several years, which is vital for reintroduction to succeed.

Sinclair Creek Native Plant Restoration

Awarded to Wildsight to remove invasive weeds, replace them with native plants, and educate the public on the impact of native weeds on local landscapes in conjunction with Radium Hot Springs.

Strategic Invasive Plant Control of Leafy Spurge (SIPCOLS)

Awarded to the East Kootenay Invasive Plant Council to decrease the infestation levels of Leafy Spurge — identified as one of the ‘100 Worst Invasive Alien Species’ globally by the Invasive Species Specialist Group — in the Upper Columbia Valley, which is considered to have one of the highest concentrations of leafy spurge in the province. Project objectives include infestation control, producing an inventory and mapping all known sites, and determining which herbicide formula is most effective.

Thunder Hill Ranch Ecosystem Restoration

Awarded to the Nature Conservancy of Canada to continue grassland ecosystem restoration on 48 ha of NCC’s Thunder Hill Ranch located on the west side of Columbia Lake.

Kinsmen Beach Shoreline Restoration Project

Awarded to the Lake Windermere Ambassadors Society towards collecting current data on the water quality and ecological health of Lake Windermere while upgrading a portion of the shoreline at Kinsmen Beach to provide high quality fish and wildlife habitat as per local shoreline management guidelines.

Upper Columbia Watershed Community-Based Groundwater Monitoring Project

Awarded to Wildsight to develop an understanding of the connection between groundwater, the local water table, precipitation, and water withdrawals in the Lake Windermere watershed.