The Peak's recent story about BC Parks Foundation crowdfunding efforts caught the attention of the chief executive officer of the Nature Trust of BC, Dr. Jasper Lament.
It was reported that 142 hectares of land on Savary Island was purchased and protected in partnership with the nature trust and Savary Island Land Trust.
"Up the coast from qathet we have a crowdfunding project underway on Cortes Island," said Lament in an email to the Peak. "As of now, we have received 80 donations to the project."
The area, called Manson Bay Forest, located close to Mansons Landing Provincial Park, contains mature Douglas-fir, western hemlock and western red cedar forest with scattered veteran trees that are at least 200 years old, added Lament.
The nature trust has already raised about half of the necessary funding and has until December 31 to raise the remaining $408,000 to purchase and protect 14.4 hectares of sensitive forested wildlife habitat on Cortes.
“We must safeguard Manson Bay Forest and the species that live there like the threatened barn swallow,” stated Lament, in a recent media release. “This will protect the biodiversity and resiliency of our coast not just for today but for future generations.”
Cortes Island is located in the Discovery Islands archipelago, within the traditional territories of the We Wai Kai, Kwiakah, Homalco and Klahoose First Nations.
West coast conservation land manager for the Nature Trust of BC Tom Reid said, "Manson Bay Forest supports our overall goals of conserving habitat in the Discovery Islands, which is a transition zone from the Salish Sea to Johnstone Strait that is surrounded by a rich marine environment, providing deep waters and unique shallow marine habitats that support a diverse ecosystem of shellfish, crustaceans, fish, mammals, birds and marine plants."
According to the media release, BC is the most biodiverse province in Canada, yet approximately 28 per cent of its assessed species have low or decreasing populations.
"It's fun watching the campaign unfold," Lament told the Peak.
The online real-time donation tracker can be found at naturetrust.bc.ca/our-projects/cortes-island-manson-bay-forest.
"Incidentally, we [Nature Trust of BC ] are organizing a broom bash on Savary Island on December 3, from 12 to 3 pm," said Lament. "We would love to invite [Peak] readers to come out to help remove invasive Scotch broom as part of our ongoing habitat stewardship efforts."
Nature Trust of BC has a map showing where and what the group has conserved since its beginning in 1971:
tntbc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=2d0f0c100a0147c49872e2b0bdfe5c50.
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