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.