A chance to make your support for the protection of KELÁ_EKE Kingfisher Forest go further

Together with the Pender Islands Conservancy, Raincoast is raising $2.18 million to purchase a 45 acre coastal property on S,DÁYES (Pender Island).

It has been just over a year since Raincoast Conservation Foundation and the Pender Islands Conservancy announced our intention to jointly purchase and protect a 13-acre property on North Pender Island. Due to overwhelming community support, we reached our fundraising goal to purchase S,DÁYES Flycatcher Forest within three months. Now, our two organizations are collaborating on a new project: the purchase and protection of 45 acres of oceanfront property near KELÁ_EKE (Razor Point).

KELÁ_EKE Kingfisher Forest on S,DÁYES (Pender Island) links wetland headwaters to the sea across 45 acres of Coastal Douglas- fir forests and its associated habitats, including unspoiled intertidal foreshore overlooking the critical habitat of Southern Resident killer whales.

The forest is located on the Traditional Territory of the W̱SÁNEĆ people, who know their relatives, the Pender Islands, as S,DÁYES. It is home to rare and threatened ecosystems characteristic to the Coastal Douglas-fir biogeoclimatic zone, including the red-listed Douglas-fir/dull Oregon grape ecological community; numerous wildlife trees, including a protected eagle nesting tree; and a riparian zone leading to a protected cattail marsh: Gardom Pond. Over 100 bird species have been detected here, including at least three owl species, flycatchers, nuthatches, blackbirds, and of course, crowns of belted kingfishers (T̸ETĆELE).

Your donation will be doubled

Mere days into our 18-month fundraising campaign, a $75,000 matching gift has been pledged. This means that your donation to this campaign between now and the end of year will be doubled! If we are able to match the pledge donation between now and New Years Eve we will have a total of $150,000 toward our final goal within the first month of our campaign. We hope to tap into the holiday spirit at the end of year giving and give you the opportunity to have your donation doubled

Help us protect this vital stretch of forest

You can help

Raincoast’s in-house scientists, collaborating graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and professors make us unique among conservation groups. We work with First Nations, academic institutions, government, and other NGOs to build support and inform decisions that protect aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and the wildlife that depend on them. We conduct ethically applied, process-oriented, and hypothesis-driven research that has immediate and relevant utility for conservation deliberations and the collective body of scientific knowledge.

We investigate to understand coastal species and processes. We inform by bringing science to decision-makers and communities. We inspire action to protect wildlife and wildlife habitats.

Coastal wolf with a salmon in its month.
Photo by Dene Rossouw.