The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) has given local wildlife an early holiday gift by acquiring a former Christmas tree farm for conservation.
NCC officials say the Geddes Creek Conservation Area encompasses 193 hectares of Douglas fir and montane spruce forest, open grassy habitat and a seasonal creek north of Radium Hot Springs on the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
“It has rolling hillsides, rocky bluffs, a seasonal creek with mature timber stands along it,” said Richard Klafki, Canadian Rockies regional program director for the NCC.
“The property had some fire mitigation work so it has some deciduous and aspen patches that elk enjoy. It sits above the Columbia River Wetlands Wildlife Management Area.”
The new conservation area is adjacent to Kootenay National Park, making it part of the Radium wildlife corridor, which the Kootenay Connect Initiative identified as a critical area for at-risk species and wildlife movement.
“A lot of national parks were put in mountainous regions with high elevations, and people like to live in the valley bottoms,” said Klafki.
“Sometimes we really need to look at conserving land between protected areas. This fits nicely as it sits between Kootenay National Park and the wetland conservation area. It allows wide-ranging carnivores grizzly bears and the endangered American badger to move around the valley bottoms instead of going through towns.”
The NCC says the property is also a winter foraging habitat for large mammals such as elk, bighorn sheep, mule deer and white-tailed deer.
The land was formerly a Christmas tree farm, which has resulted in more forest density than would be found naturally.
“It’s been growing in over the last several decades because that Christmas tree farm has not been in operation,” said Klafki.
“We’ll probably work with Parks Canada to open up those rocky slopes and help bighorn sheep stay out of the valley bottom and keep them in the mountains on their historic range.”
The NCC is working on a conservation plan to manage the property.
“We’ll be conducting a baseline inventory over the next year, working with the former land owner. We’re going to look at access points to potentially build a small parking area for the public to get into the property for walking and hiking,” said Klafki.
The NCC says the purchase was possible through funding partnerships with Parks Canada, the Fish & Wildlife Compensation Program and the Regional District of East Kootenay’s Columbia Valley Local Conservation Fund.
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