Dear Friends,

It is hard to believe that our busy 2025 field season is swiftly coming to a close. As northern winds blow and snow dusts the mountains, TLC staff perform the annual “changing of the guard” – swapping hiking boots, rain gear, and clipboards for warm office attire and keyboards. Not only does the quieter winter season give time to process covenant data, develop new education programming, and plan 2026 strategic goals, but it also provides an opportunity to reflect on this year’s highlights and the critical role our supporters continue to play in achieving them.

Our recent Fall LANDmark newsletter heralded the registration of our newest conservation covenant on Cortes Island. Centred within the Discovery Islands, Cortes Island connects the mainland coast to Campbell River on Vancouver Island. The 10-hectare (26-acre) Harrison covenant protects mature Coastal Western Hemlock forests and connects a larger 193-ha (477-acre) wildlife corridor on the island. A wide range of at-risk and elusive fauna – such as blue-listed Northern pygmy-owls (Glaucidium gnoma), red-legged frogs (Rana aurora), and little brown myotis bats (Myotis lucifugus) – are cradled under the boughs of the covenant’s towering Sitka spruce, Douglas-fir, and Western red cedar. Finding evidence of these rare species is always a special treat when registering a covenant, but nothing could have prepared us for the surprise that showed up on the wildlife cameras one day. Backed by local ecological knowledge and with traces of hair and scat, we strongly suspected the presence of Cortes Island’s famous wild canines within the Harrison covenant. Collecting the cameras after a heavy snow, biologist and Cortes resident, Sabina Leader-Mense, shared a photo of a Coastal wolf (Canis lupus nubilus) pausing to observe the white-blanketed canopy.

Wildlife camera captures a Coastal wolf (Canis lupus nubilus) at the new Harrison covenant  on Cortes Island.

In a bioregion whose ecosystems are becoming increasingly splintered by development and resource extraction, the registration of the Harrison covenant is particularly timely. Like their grey wolf cousins, Coastal wolves are nomadic and occupy large territories. Habitat fragmentation not only makes it more difficult to find food and shelter, but it also increases the risk of negative human-wildlife encounters. All too often, displaced wolves who find themselves on the fringes of human society are terminated for natural predatory behaviours that play an important role in greater ecosystem population dynamics. The Harrison covenant protects the Cortes “sea” wolf population by enabling the safe passage of pack members from the forests of Whaletown Commons to their intertidal foraging grounds on the shores of the Channel Rock Nature Preserve, a peninsula just south of the island’s ferry terminal. Once a missing piece to Cortes Island’s wildlife corridor puzzle, the Harrison covenant is a shining example of how individuals can contribute to regional conservation goals. Your contribution will ensure that the Harrison covenant continues to safeguard some of B.C.’s most iconic and rare species.

Fire scarring on trees after 2024 wildfire in TLC’s Sooke Hills covenant.

Covenants team records species of new growth in post-fire monitoring plot.

Scoulers’ harebell (Campanula scouleri) wildflowers return to the Sooke Hills.

This June marked the beginning of TLC’s post-fire monitoring protocol at the Sooke Hills conservation covenant. The protocol, which will monitor the recovery of the forest over several years, involves measuring the number of standing trees, stems, and species of new growth. Already, we are seeing the vigorous return of native salal (Gaultheria shalon) shrubs, several moss and grass species, and wildflowers like fawn lilies (Erythronium revolutum), Scouler’s harebell (Campanula scouleri) and small-flowered trefoil (Lotus micrannthus). This is wonderful news, given approximately 10% of the 2,310.8-hectare (5,708.1-acre) covenant burned during the out-of-control “Old Man Lake” wildfire that lasted 102 days in 2024. As climate change increases the risk of wildfires, this supplementary monitoring effort will ultimately benefit other covenants in TLC’s care by enhancing understanding of region-specific fire ecology.

Monitoring vast areas, like the Sooke Hills, is not possible to achieve on foot alone. For these instances, TLC relies on aerial and satellite monitoring technologies. Since 2023, TLC has used Upstream Tech Inc.’s “LENS” remote monitoring software to assess the conditions of our, now, 252 conservation covenants and 10 properties. Thanks to previous donor assistance, TLC added its latest and greatest tech device, a remote-control-operated drone, to the monitoring toolkit this fall. Before sending the new drone skyward, TLC adopted a Drone Operation Policy, and staff underwent extensive flight training to fulfill Canadian aviation law requirements and ensure the safety and respect of wildlife and people alike.

Drone imagery gives insight into wetland health at TLC’s Wildwood Marsh covenant near Comox on Vancouver Island.

It’s true what they say, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. In September, the drone produced new imagery of TLC’s Vancouver Island-based properties and covenants that could not be captured from the ground or by satellite. This footage provided vital information on wetland water levels, invasive plant distribution, well-travelled wildlife pathways, and more. Aerial monitoring technologies modernize TLC’s approach to covenant management with powerful, data-driven features that allow staff to analyze biological patterns, identify priority protection areas, and make proactive land management decisions in the face of climate change. These tools have also contributed to TLC’s organizational capacity, allowing for a 100% monitoring rate in 2024; a goal we are well on track to achieve again in 2025 with your continued support.

While technology has provided novel ways to observe our environment, it is our supporters’ lived experiences on the land that provide the clearest picture of habitat health. Throughout the 2025 monitoring season, TLC staff had the privilege to meet with titleholders across the province who shared stories of the places they called home. Regardless of the time they’ve been responsible for stewarding covenanted lands, the experiences of titleholders are equally inspiring as they are valuable. New landowners bring curiosity and a fresh set of eyes to a place. While in Okanagan Falls, we were grateful to the McClean Creek covenant’s latest homesteaders, who brought news of recent bear activity to our attention and invited an excitable dialogue about covenant care. Long-tenure titleholders are expert pattern decipherers, recounting chronicles of the land that could only be told if one had a lifetime. TLC recently reconnected in person with titleholders in the Eastern Kootenays, who described how wetlands and forests on the property have contributed to the healing of hundreds of visitors through therapeutic nature practices. Furthermore, in Oliver, the owners of a covenanted organic orchard have contributed to TLC’s knowledge of drought trends, beaver family legacies, and annual bird migration in the area for nearly a quarter of a century!

Beyond the relationships we hold with covenanted titleholders, TLC is truly grateful to our partners, local community members, and supporters like you who help us carry out our mission to protect and restore the biological diversity of B.C. In Lumby, Windfalls’ covenant co-holders, the Nature Conservancy of the North Okanagan Society (NCNO), have been diligently recording nine photo stops throughout the hilly covenant on behalf of TLC year after year. NCNO’s high-quality monitoring reports have contributed to TLC’s understanding of the changing Interior Douglas-fir ecosystems of the region. The week before Halloween, eager young minds, strong muscles, and the power of togetherness gave rise to the removal of invasive Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense) and the planting of 130 native shrubs and trees at TLC’s Max Lake covenant in Penticton. The restoration work accomplished by TLC partners, the Okanagan and Similkameen Invasive Species Society (OASISS), and students at Holy Cross School have not only contributed to the biodiversity of one of the region’s important wetlands and bird sanctuaries but have also made the trail more accessible for visitors with thistle removal.

Will you join us in protecting B.C.’s biodiversity in perpetuity?

Sincerely,

Dianna Stenberg (she/her)
Executive Director
The Land Conservancy of B.C.
250-479-8053 (toll-free: 1-877-485-2422)
dstenberg@conservancy.bc.ca