Invasive Plant Management on NCC’s South Okanagan Conservation Areas

The Nature Conservancy of Canada

NCC is Canada’s leading land conservation organization, working to protect Canada’s most important natural areas and the species they sustain. Since 1962, NCC and its partners have helped to protect 2.8 million acres, coast to coast with 1 million acres conserved in British Columbia since 1974. NCC has been active in the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen since 2002. Since that time, NCC has secured 4350 acres of high priority habitat by working with private landowners and has provided funding to other land trusts and the province to enable them to secure 6800 acres of high priority ecosystems.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) will be conducting invasive plant management on two of NCC’s flagship conservation areas within the RDOS: the Sage and Sparrow Conservation Area and the Osoyoos Oxbows Conservation Area.

Invasive species present a global threat to biodiversity by changing plant community composition, displacing native plant species, altering hydrological regimes and degrading ecosystems which in turn negatively impact wildlife species that rely upon them. This project will have a direct and effective impact on reducing the threat of invasive plants on the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s Sage and Sparrow and Osoyoos Oxbows Conservation Areas in the South Okanagan.

Protecting landscapes from development or other human intrusions is not enough to safeguard nature for now and for future generations so they can inherit a biologically rich world. Conservation must go further by stewarding the land to enhance biodiversity, and one aspect of this is through invasive plant management. NCC’s conservation areas are contiguous with other protected or conserved lands in the South Okanagan. This project will prevent encroachment onto these regionally, nationally and internationally important areas in the South Okanagan.

This third and final year of the project was approved by the Regional District Okanagan Similkameen Board and $ 25,856 was allocated from the South Okanagan Conservation Fund in 2021. The South Okanagan Conservation Fund dollars are matching confirmed funding from other sources. The project is expected to complete by January 31, 2022.

South Okanagan Bat Habitat Conservation Project

Bat Education and Ecological Protection Society (BEEPS)

BEEPS promotes the protection and preservation of bat species and provides education to the public in partnership with the BC Community Bat Program. The “Got Bats?” initiative promotes conservation of bats on private land, provides a resource to landowners dealing with bat issues, and engages citizen scientists to collect data on bat populations.

Half of the 16 species of bats in BC are of conservation concern, and many of them occur here in the Okanagan Valley. The Okanagan has more species of bats living here than anywhere else in Canada, and is home to many unique bats that are at risk due to loss of habitat and lack of suitable spots for winter hibernation and summer maternal colonies.

There are many threats facing bats including habitat loss and the potential arrival of White-nose Syndrome. White-nose Syndrome is a devastating fungus that has nearly wiped out several formerly common bat species in eastern North America in just a few years. Although WNS has not yet reached BC, it is predicted to arrive within the next ten years.

This project will mitigate threats to bats by protecting and enhancing bat habitat in the region through education and stewardship on private land. The project will increase residents’ knowledge, understanding, and stewardship of bats and their habitats, and reduce the effects of residential, commercial, and agricultural development. The project also focuses on developing educational materials and partnerships through the South Okanagan Community Bat Program, who provides outreach and education, identification and stewardship of maternity roosts, and promotion of Bat-friendly Communities.

The third and final year of this project was approved by the Regional District Okanagan Similkameen Board and $ 9593 was allocated from the South Okanagan Conservation Fund in 2020. The project is expected to complete by January 31, 2022.

Love Your Lakes: Personalized Shoreline Assessments and Restoration Demonstration Sites

Southern Interior Land Trust in Partnership with Watersheds Canada & Canadian Wildlife Federation

The Southern Interior Land Trust (SILT) has, for over 30 years, worked to secure those gems and jewels of fish and wildlife habitat that act as “stepping-stones” for animal movement between larger conservation areas. SILT owns four conservation properties and has contributed to the purchase of many more. Natural shorelines, with their ribbon of native trees, shrubs, grasses and herbs benefit wildlife; protect properties from flood and erosion; and support ecological processes essential to clean, drinkable, swimmable, fishable water. With the current extent of lakeshore modification and development in the South Okanagan, the ecological function of our shorelines is clearly threatened.

This project continues in year 3, with the Love Your Lake Program, delivered for the first time in British Columbia. This year on Tuc-el-nuit Lake in Oliver, lakeshore landowners will be provided with a free, personalized and private evaluation of their shoreline, with specific actions for how to voluntarily protect and re-naturalize the shoreline and still maintain their waterfront view.

The goal is to maintain ecological functions provided by shorelines by increasing landowner understanding of how they influence water quality and wildlife; by identifying and prescribing opportunities for protecting and enhancing shoreline habitats and; by inspiring and achieving landowner action to restore and protect their shoreline while maintaining, and perhaps enhancing, their property values and views. Many shoreline landowners have an interest in protecting water quality and wildlife yet may not know that their shoreline actions are negatively affecting these values.

This project was approved for a third and final year by the Regional District Okanagan Similkameen Board and $ 30,487 was allocated from the South Okanagan Conservation Fund in 2021. The project is expected to complete by January 31, 2022.

Vaseux Lake Siltation Issue

Vaseux Lake Stewardship Association

The Vaseux Lake Stewardship Association started in 2016 as a homeowners’ association. The association now has a mission to improve, preserve and protect Vaseux Lake.

The channelization and creation of dams on the Okanagan River took place in the 1950’s from Okanagan Lake to Osoyoos Lake. The river has been significantly modified through irrigation and flood control dams, channelization, river flow containment dykes, riparian habitat loss, water extraction and urban development.

Vaseux Lake was also altered as a result of the channelization. The purpose of this project is to assess the effect of channelization and damming on the accumulation of sedimentation at the north end of Vaseux Lake and to determine what remedial steps can be taken to alleviate this. A water management expert will explore various mitigation strategies to reduce sedimentation of Vaseux and whether the ecosystem can be brought into a more natural state.

This project is a one-year request. Approved by Regional District Okanagan Similkameen Board and $30,500 was allocated from the South Okanagan Conservation Fund in 2021. The project is expected to complete by January 31, 2022.

Road Mortality of a Threatened Snake Population in the South Okanagan

Thompson Rivers University (TRU) in partnership with the Province of BC

TRU is a comprehensive, learner-centred, sustainable university that serves its regional, national, and international learners and their communities through high quality and flexible education, training, research and scholarship. The principal investigator on this project will be Karl Larsen, who is professor in wildlife ecology and management in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences at Thompson Rivers University. Larsen has been conducting ecological and conservation work on small, terrestrial vertebrates for over 30 years, he has had six MSc students conduct thesis work on conservation threats facing rattlesnakes in the Okanagan, including two focusing on the White Lake situation.

Snakes and other reptiles are susceptible to being killed on roads. In fact, road mortality is one of the most significant threats facing many species at risk in the South Okanagan. Under-road tunnels (‘ecopassages’) are seen as an important solution, yet these structures are expensive and their effectiveness for many species is unknown. This is a particularly critical issue in the South Okanagan where road expansion and traffic volumes will continue as the region attracts more residents and visitors. This project will assess the response of rattlesnakes (a species at risk) 4 other at-risk reptile and amphibian species to underpassages that are currently deployed in the White Lake Basin. The project will provide recommendations for improvements for underpasses to increase their effectiveness for reducing roadkill for species that are at risk and susceptible.

This project builds on previous years of research in the White Lake Basin. This year 1 of 3 request was approved by Regional District Okanagan Similkameen Board and $29,600 was allocated from the South Okanagan Conservation Fund in 2021. The South Okanagan Conservation Fund dollars are matching significant confirmed funding from other sources. The project is expected to complete by January 31, 2022.

Restoration of diverse habitat features in the Okanagan River, Okanagan Falls

Okanagan Nation Alliance in partnership with the Province of BC

Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA) formed in 1981 as the inaugural First Nations government in the Okanagan and among other functions, works to provide technical fisheries assistance for the Nation and its eight member communities, including acting as a liaison between federal and provincial fisheries agencies and other non-government organizations. ONA is actively involved in the conservation, protection, restoration, and enhancement of fish stocks, in particular for Okanagan River sockeye salmon, only one of two populations of sockeye salmon left in the international Columbia River Basin.

Major flood control works in the 1950’s channelized the majority of q̓awsitkʷ (Okanagan River) severely impacting its health, biodiversity, fish bearing capacity, and linked natural vegetation and wildlife. In the Okanagan Falls reach, four Vertical Drop Structures were added during channelization to stabilize the river bed under the increased slope of channel straightening, resulting in a drastic loss of in-stream and riparian habitats diversity and quality.

The Okanagan River Restoration Initiative (ORRI), is an ecosystem based collaborative approach, assembling Okanagan First Nation, governments and local stakeholders. The partners will replace, or backwater, one of the drop structures with diverse, complex, and functional river features, including pools, riffles, sheltered boulders areas, mixed cobbles/sand areas, and planting adjacent riparian vegetation.

The overall objectives are to restore natural river features to improve fish migration, enhance the quantity and quality of spawning and rearing habitat for Sockeye, Chinook, Steelhead/Rainbow Trout, and other native resident fish species, create essential habitat for the endangered Rocky Mountain Ridged Mussel, and restore riparian plant communities for native wildlife species, stabilize stream banks, improve water quality, and increase ecosystem resilience.

This project is a one-year request. Approved by Regional District Okanagan Similkameen Board and $46,200 was allocated from the South Okanagan Conservation Fund in 2021. The South Okanagan Conservation Fund dollars are matching significant confirmed funding from other sources. The project is expected to complete by January 31, 2022.

k’əmcənitkw Floodplain Re-engagement – Reconnecting the Okanagan River

(k’əmcənitkw pronounced kem-cheh-neet-kwah, and meaning “Alongside the
Water”)

En’owkin Centre in partnership with the Penticton Indian Band

The En’owkin Centre is recognized internationally as a leader in the field of education, promoting an increased understanding of cultural traditions and ecological literacy among both aboriginal and non-aboriginal communities through hands-on, experienced based education and conservation through the ECOmmunity Place Locatee Lands project.

SnPink’tn (The Penticton Indian Band) represents one of the communities of the Okanagan Nation. SnPink’tn (The Penticton Indian Band) is located on beautiful bench land comprised of three reserves. “We are Syilx who receive our strength from timixw and encompass what is good for our livelihood. We are committed to our language and the teachings of our captiklxw and respect that everyone has value and purpose to come together as one.” (taken from the PIB website).

In addition to the loss of instream habitat, the channelization of the Okanagan River in the 1950’s also contributed to the loss and disconnection of the river to the rich riparian, wetland and floodplain habitats. ONA and En’owkin Centre have re-engaged 12 hectares of the historic floodplain on the ECOmmunity Place Locatee Lands, reconnecting the river to the last remaining contiguous piece of floodplain wetland in the Penticton area for the first time since the 1950s.

The ECOmmunity Place Locatee Lands are home to many species at risk and establishing the floodplain connection will help to re-establish habitat for wildlife including birds, amphibians, reptiles, and culturally significant species like ntytyix, Chinook Salmon Food Chief. Benefits to the South Okanagan region include natural flood protection, salmon spawning viewing, and restoration of fish and wildlife habitat, improved water quality and more.

The k’əmcənitkw Floodplain Re-engagement has created an off-channel rearing backwater area for native fish, particularly Chinook, and Rainbow Trout/Steelhead to offer refuge in high water and food sources during spring, summer, and fall, as well as a wetland for amphibians and waterfowl. In 2021, this project will engage local schools, volunteers and community members to help with Indigenous plant propagation at the En’owkin Centre’s educational greenhouse and nursery facility, and also assist with the habitat restoration of the k’əmcnitkw project site.

The project will complete pre-planting site preparation activities, plant over 50,000 Indigenous trees, shrubs and flowering plants over ~1.4 hectares with project partner staff, K-12 and post-secondary students, community members and volunteers.

This project is continuing and builds on two previous phases in 2018 and 2020. This year 3 was approved by the Regional District Okanagan Similkameen Board and $25,000 was allocated from the South Okanagan Conservation Fund in 2021. The South Okanagan Conservation Fund dollars are matching significant confirmed funding from other sources. The project is expected to complete by January 31, 2022.

Antelope-brush Ecosystem Conservation and Restoration

Osoyoos Desert Society

The Osoyoos Desert Society is a nonprofit charitable organization founded in 1991 to conserve the rich, biologically diverse habitats of British Columbia’s southern interior.  Through its conservation, restoration and education efforts, the Osoyoos Desert Centre strives to generate public knowledge, respect and active concern for these fragile and endangered ecosystems.

Antelope-brush ecosystems support habitat for over 42 species that are listed at risk nationally, and these ecosystems themselves are globally imperiled and at risk. In Canada, almost all of Antelope-brush plant communities occur in the Regional District Okanagan Similkameen. Over 68% of antelope-brush habitat has been destroyed by urban and agricultural development and only 13% of what remains has been formally protected.

This project will develop a conservation and restoration action plan and establish a coordinated action team for implementation. This project is the first of a 3-year request. Approved by Regional District Okanagan Similkameen Board and $18,532 was allocated from the South Okanagan Conservation Fund in 2021. The project is expected to complete by January 31, 2022.