Conservation in the coast’s most at-risk forest type
What our Forest Conservation Program accomplished in 2023.
After two successful forest acquisition campaigns in two years, Raincoast became a land trust in 2023. We currently co-own and manage two conservation properties on S,DÁYES, Pender Island, in W̱SÁNEĆ Territory, in partnership with the Pender Islands Conservancy (the 13 acre S,DÁYES Flycatcher Forest and 45 acre KELÁ_EKE Kingfisher Forest).
Because land protection and ecological restoration are not static endeavors and require ongoing monitoring and adaptation, we are developing restoration and management plans for both forests. Our goal is to enhance ecological integrity, increase climate resilience, reduce wildfire risk, and integrate Indigenous Knowledge.
To support this work, we established the Raincoast Restoration Fund in 2023. We also have been granted the ability to write and hold conservation covenants. This means in the year ahead we will be working to expand our land protection purview to privately held lands in other vulnerable areas of the Coastal Douglas-fir biogeoclimatic (CDF) zone.
We continue collaborating with the W̱SÁNEĆ Leadership Council on the ȻENEṈITEL (Working together to restore our lands and culture) project. This initiative aims to apply Indigenous-led climate solutions to improve biodiversity, carbon sequestration capacity, and ecosystem resilience.
Valuable resources to aid individuals, fellow organizations, and governments in participating in forest protection work within the CDF zone were also produced this year. The Project TEACH Report, published in April 2023, identifies gaps between knowledge and action in environmental decision-making. The collaborative report between Raincoast and Transition Salt Spring, Fire risk reduction in the Coastal Douglas-fir biogeoclimatic zone: A practitioner’s report, was published in September 2023 as a living document, intended to evolve alongside the best available science and provide guidance on how to manage wildfire risk in the CDF zone. The Story of the CDF series continues to grow, with new expert perspectives being added regularly.
This is an excerpt from our annual report, Tracking Raincoast into 2024.
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.
