North Valleyview

Highlights

The North Valleyview project consists of 64.8 hectares of forests and shrub lands adjacent to the Valleyview Marsh, a locally significant waterfowl area.

The purchase of this land paves the way for potential land use exchanges with the owner of an adjacent Class 2 (Canada Land Inventory rating) marsh and will help demonstrate the effectiveness of this BC Prairie Care approach to other landowners in the region.

Future management may include the designation of some of the project area for livestock grazing in return for the designation and management of the adjacent privately owned wetlands for conservation purposes.

Background

The North Valleyview project consists of a mix of aspen parkland, partially drained spruce bogs and willow thickets on a gently undulating landscape. Most small wetland areas are shallow wet meadows, but the adjacent marsh is a locally significant prairie slough with high waterfowl values, although it is susceptible periodically to water losses due to surrounding activities.

Forest habitats of this nature are limited in this region of intensive agriculture and local wetlands are threatened regularly by drainage practices. Together this project complex provides a safe haven for a wide variety of forest and riparian wildlife including moose, mule and white-tailed deer, black bear and timber wolves.

The project consists of the purchase of the land and fencing to allow for regulated livestock grazing. Pending land use exchanges involving the adjacent marsh will entail the exchange of these grazing rights for Valleyview Marsh water level management agreements and/or the conversion of some its adjacent uplands to planted nest cover.

Project Partners

The BC Ministry of Water, Land & Air Protection (WLAP)
The BC Habitat Conservation Trust Fund
BC Crown Lands
Ducks Unlimited Canada