Highlights from Year 1 (2019-20) to Year 5 (2023-24) are listed below.
Year 5 Highlights (2023-24)
In the fifth year (2023-24) of working on the Kootenay Connect initiative, the Columbia Wetlands Stewardship Partners (CWSP) was contracted to operate the continuation of Years 1-4 (2020-23) of species at risk conservation and inventory work in the Columbia Wetlands. This project was comprised of three main components designed by Goldeneye Ecological Services to: 1) improve Western Painted Turtle (WPT) habitat based on Years 2 and 3 inventories and Year 4 enhancements; 2) continue Years 2-4 monitoring effort for Osprey; and 3) expand Year 4’s inventory of American Badger burrows and habitat to inform applications for Badger Wildlife Habitat Features (WHFs) and Wildlife Habitat Areas (WHAs) in regions identified as federally designated critical habitat. Wildlife Habitat Feature and/or WHA submissions were made for American Badger, Mountain Goat mineral licks, and follow-up was done for alkali-saltgrass ecological community WHAs made previously.
This map provides an overview of applications for Wildlife Habitat Areas (WHA) and Wildlife Habitat Features (WHF) in the Columbia Valley, from 2021 to 2024.
Year 4 Highlights (2022-23)
This video summarizes the Year 4 (2022-2023) activities of the KC-CWSP initiative focused on conservation actions regarding the following: Lewis’s woodpecker, American badger, Osprey, and the Western painted turtle.
In year four (2022-2023) of the Kootenay Connect project the Columbia Wetlands Stewardship Partners (CWSP) continued work on Species at Risk in the Columbia Valley, from Canal Flats north to Golden. We built upon knowledge gained in previous years and developed conservation actions benefiting four at-risk species: Western painted turtle – intermountain – Rocky Mountain population (Chrysemys picta pop. 2), American badger (Taxidea taxus jeffersonii, eastern population), Lewis’s woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis), and osprey (Pandion haliaetus).
Year 3 Highlights (2021-22)
Year 3 (2021-2022) of the KC-CWSP initiative focused on conservation actions regarding the following: Lewis’s woodpecker, WPT, alkali saltgrass-foxtail barley ecological community (EC), osprey, and American badger. Outcomes regarding actions focused on these four species (and one EC) are outlined in this final report.
Year 2 Highlights (2020-21)
Following the completion of a first-time literature review of species at risk in the Columbia Valley for Year 1 of the Kootenay Connect project, the Columbia Wetlands Stewardship Partners narrowed its scope for Year 2 focusing on 4 species in 2020, and 1 at-risk ecological community.
In the first year of Kootenay Connect (2019-2020) the Columbia Wetlands Stewardship Partners (CWSP) completed the first literature review of species at risk produced for the Columbia Valley. Following up in Year 2 (2020-2021), the CWSP narrowed its scope focusing on four at-risk species : western painted turtle, Lewis’s woodpecker, osprey, and mountain goat; and one at-risk ecological community: alkali saltgrass-foxtail barley. These five components comprise CWSP’s Year 2 project and results and recommendations for each sub-project are provided in this report.
Year 1 Highlights (2019-20)
An overview of the Literature Review of SAR report.
This map provides an overview of data that are available to identify important areas for species at risk as well as potential wildlife movement corridors in the Columbia Wetlands.
This map provides an overview of data available for the Columbia Wetlands that includes wildlife habitat features, wildlife habitat areas, and critical habitat for species at risk to inform protection and management of wildlife movement corridors and habitat connectivity.
