The Land Conservancy of British Columbia has lately taken on a major conservation project in the Clearwater Valley. It’s called the Wells Gray Wildlife Corridor Project, and I thought you might like to hear about it.

At the heart of the Project is the establishment of a permanent wildlife corridor to ensure safe passage for the park’s large mammals – moose, wolf, deer, cougar, black bear and grizzly bear – as they migrate between their summer range in the mountains to the east and their winter range in the valley to the west.

At the present time these summer and winter ranges are separated by a narrow strip of private land along the Wells Gray Park road. The park’s wildlife must cross these private properties twice each year in order to perform their annual migrations.

Housing development has lately alienated several traditional wildlife crossing points, while future development threatens to block most of the remaining ones. At the present time it would be relatively affordable to secure a permanent wildlife corridor for Wells Gray’s wildlife, though this will soon change as development continues. This is why we urgently need to create a wildlife corridor now, before it becomes too costly to do so.

And there’s more. Besides strengthening Wells Gray’s conservation values, the Wildlife Corridor Project will also protect critical wildlife habitat, create opportunities for wildlife viewing, and foster wildland education and research.

Lately my neighbours (John and Edwina Kurta) and I have lately decided to support this initiative by donating 72 and 10 acres of wetlands and other biologically sensitive land to the B.C. Land Conservancy. TLC is now seeking to match this by fundraising for the purchase of three additional parcels critical to the project.

Compared to other similar conservation ventures, the Wells Gray Wildlife Corridor Project comes at remarkably low cost. In it’s first phase it needs only about $350,000 to permanently secure 110 acres of land.

Please click on the following links if you’d like to read more about this exciting project, or if you’d like to make a donation to TLC.

Thanks so much for your help!

Trevor Goward

P.S. To kickstart TLC's fundraising campaign, I will be putting an undescribed species of lichen up for auction later this summer. The winning bidder will be invited to give this species – currently known only from Wells Gray Park – a name! Watch this space for details.