CVLCF – Funded Projects 2017
Abel Creek Culvert Rehabilitation Project
$3,000 to the Lake Windermere District Rod and Gun Club 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.
Columbia Lake Ecosystem Monitoring and Education
$11,900 to the Columbia Lake Stewardship Society to continue monitoring the lake and to re-examine the implications of water trends on the preservation of the riparian and wetland areas at both ends of the lake, as well as on conservation programs, fisheries and wildlife management, water quality, recreation, agriculture, tourism and development and planning in general, and thus help evaluate means to sustain lake water health.
Columbia Valley Farmland Advantage Stewardship Project
$10,700 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 Wetlands Waterbird Survey
$6,500 to Wildsight (Golden Chapter) to continue collecting useful baseline data to be used 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.
Kootenay Community Bat Project: Bat Conservation in the Upper Columbia Valley
$10,000 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 through public and landowner education and outreach, and ongoing monitoring for the collection of baseline data.
Lake Windermere Community-Based Water Monitoring Project
$11,000 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.
Reintroducing Northern Leopard Frogs to the Columbia Marshes (Year 5)
$28,000 to the Columbia Wetlands Stewardship Partners 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.
Strategic Invasive Plant Control of Leafy Spurge (SIPCOLS)
$6,500 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.
