Dear Friends of Conservation,
As nature lovers like you, TLC Members donors have helped to protect more than 200 acres within the Coastal Western Hemlock zone in the Lower Mainland, 2,000 acres along the Columbia River in Trail, and 5,000 acres of greenbelt in the Sooke Hills. These are just a few examples of the many important habitats that our donors have helped secure throughout the province.
Over the last year TLC Members and donors have supported the creation of a new conservation covenant protecting Coastal Douglas-fir in Central Saanich, helped connect British Columbians to the outdoors with the Passport to Nature Program, encouraged educational programming through TLC’s Deertrails Naturalist Program and continued to protect more than 15,000 acres of land throughout B.C., including 46 hectares in the Clearwater River Valley.
Your generosity will allow us to protect special places like the Clearwater Ancient Swamp and Wildlife Corridor, a parcel of land contiguous to TLC’s wetlands in the Clearwater River Valley and currently at risk of development on the open market.
The Clearwater Ancient Swamp and Wildlife Corridor property is 28 acres of locally-rare, conifer-dominated wetlands and a large patch of old swamp forest. According to naturalist and lichenologist Trevor Goward, this large patch of old swamp forest is the likely the “most ancient low-elevation forested ecosystem in southern Wells Gray Park and its vicinity.”
The parcel is within the Interior Cedar-Hemlock, Thompson Moist Warm variant (ICHmw3) biogeoclimatic zone, which contains the most productive forests in B.C.’s Interior and more tree species than any other ecological zone in the province. This parcel also provides connectivity for a key wildlife migratory route used by many large mammals, including wolf, cougar, grizzly and black bear, deer, moose and other ungulates, which travel east and west between their winter and summer ranges in Wells Gray Provincial Park.
Karen Iwachow, TLC’s Environmental Technician, recently shared a memo with staff regarding swamps and their importance in our battle against climate change. I encourage you to read her memo as I feel this research is very timely: Canada has issued a biodiversity goal to protect at least 17% of terrestrial and inland water through networks of protected areas by 2020.
As a charitable land trust with a mission is to protect and restore the biological diversity of B.C., TLC is on the frontline of efforts to accomplish this goal. With your help, we can reach our goal of raising $99,000 this year to secure the pristine wetland habitat in Clearwater.
Protecting parcels like the ancient swamp is the perfect example of the work TLC Members and donors make possible with their support each year.
TLC Members and donors protect biodiversity by protecting vital habitat for species
at risk, strengthening our resilience to the effects of climate change.
Climate change is not only harming our planet’s wildlife; humans’ survival is inextricably linked to our warming planet. It is estimated that because of climate change global temperatures will rise between 2.5 and 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century, sea level will rise 1 to 4 feet, and approximately 250 million people will become climate refugees by 2050.
Dunya Maumoon, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Maldives, spoke about climate change in her September 2015 address to the United Nations: “for us in the Maldives, it is a security threat, it damages our economy, deprives us of our rights, of our land, and of our way of life. It is a threat to the very existence of our nation.” She asked the assembly, “if we, the smallest, can act, why can’t the biggest?”
To address this crisis, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 13 focuses on taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts including strengthening resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and meaningful mitigation actions. Goal 15 is to protect and promote terrestrial ecosystems, forests, land, and biodiversity. Your local efforts in the Clearwater River Valley can make an impact towards meeting these goals.
TLC Members and donors already know that we need to work together to make an impact on climate change and increasing habitat fragmentation. Together we have seen how small contributions multiplied by thousands of TLC Members and donors can make a difference. Please take a moment to join them by making your gift to help us fight against climate change today.
Please consider giving online at www.conservancy.bc.ca, by calling 1-877-485-2422 or by mailing your gift to our address below today in support of the Clearwater Ancient Swamp and Wildlife Corridor acquisition. Both donations and membership contributions are eligible for 2019 tax receipts. Should you have any questions please give us a call or email us at membership@conservancy.bc.ca.
Thank you for making a difference. In the face of climate change, your support is as important as ever. Your investment in protecting ecosystems like the ancient swamp in Clearwater can have an impact on the health and wellbeing of wildlife and humankind around the globe.
With gratitude,
Cathy Armstrong
Executive Director
P.S. Should the Clearwater Ancient Swamp and Wildlife Corridor Campaign not raise the funds necessary to complete the purchase, gifts made to the Acquisition Fund will be held until the successful completion of a future acquisition.
