Communities for Coastal Douglas-fir habitats

This year, we centered our forest conservation efforts around community connection. We listened and learned from W̱SÁNEĆ community members, we created opportunities for youth and S,DÁYES (Pender Island) locals to be stewards of their home ecosystems. We were driven by the inextricable link between people and place.

We had the privilege to hear directly from W̱SÁNEĆ Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and community members during workshops and community events, from cultural fire, to re-establishing of food and medicine systems, to seeing in practice what Indigenous-led stewardship and restoration looks like. With the W̱SÁNEĆ Lands Trust Society on the ȻENEṈITEL (kwun-ung-eetal; “working together to restore our lands and culture”) project, we came to the table with other Salish Sea-based land trusts to work toward collective conservation actions that uphold W̱SÁNEĆ SḴÁLS (laws, teachings, and beliefs).

KELÁ_EKE Kingfisher Forest (45 acres) and S,DÁYES Flycatcher Forest (13 acres), the conservation properties that the Raincoast Land Trust co-owns with the Pender Islands Conservancy, became classrooms this year for youth and local community members who were passionate about having a hand in stewarding these ecosystems. Stewardship activities ranged from invasive species pulling to native species monitoring, and provided unique learning opportunities for people to better understand the role they play in protecting the ecosystems that breathe life into their home communities.

We successfully decommissioned a section of the gravel road at KELÁ_EKE Kingfisher Forest and built a wetland basin, marking a major milestone in our overall restoration plan. In establishing a wetland, we are planting native species and monitoring the biodiversity returning to the landscape. Communities will also benefit from the cooling effects and wildfire risk mitigation the wetland provides.

We launched two new community-inspired projects, Elders for Old Growth, and a handbook on the propagation of arbutus in the Salish Sea. These projects will bring together citizen science, hands-on local knowledge sharing, and the ethos of stewarding landscapes for ecological and cultural values carried by diverse communities throughout the Salish Sea.