Following all provincial health orders, SILT volunteers worked on Saturday at the R.E. Taylor Conservation property to perform reclamation work on the land where safety improvements were made to the access onto the property and also where we recently constructed a winter den for snakes.

Pictured from left to right in the photo above are Danielle Chapman (Director); Judie Steeves (President); John MacMillan; Al Peatt (Executive Director); Luke Chutter; Gord Wilson (Sec / Treasurer).

This property was purchased by SILT with a substantive contribution from the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation (HCTF), which also provided funds toward this project and other important management activities on the property. SILT appreciates and thanks all the hunters, anglers, trappers, and guide-outfitters of BC that contribute to the HCTF through their licence fees, and the many people that appreciate wildlife and donate directly to the Southern Interior Land Trust.

Earlier this week, Brad Siemens (of Grand Forks Wildlife Association and WSSBC) encountered a badger (SARA Endangered) just inside of the SILT-owned DL 492, a few tens of meters from the eastern boundary of Lot A DL493 that SILT is currently fundraising to purchase.

Badgers are carnivorous mammals that live in the grasslands and dry forests of the interior of British Columbia. Even though we live with badgers, not many people are fortunate enough to see one because badgers generally move around at night and are secretive by nature.

Badgers are endangered in British Columbia and it is believed that probably less than 350 badgers live here now. The grasslands and dry forests of the Thompson, Okanagan, Boundary, Nicola, Cariboo, and East Kootenay regions are home to most of the remaining badgers in BC.

Habitat loss, through housing developments and intensive agriculture, and deaths caused by road mortality, shooting, and poisoning are contributors to the decline of badger populations in BC.

As one of the sponsors of the John B. Holdstock Scholarship, the Southern Interior Land Trust is pleased to announce that Katie Zinn is the 2020 recipient, chosen from a field of six this summer by a group of judges representing a variety of organizations.

Zinn is a fly fisher who has recently completed her thesis on the effects of reduced streamflow on hypoxia and habitat use of threatened Salish Sucker and juvenile Coho salmon.

She begins her PhD this fall at the University of B.C. in the department of zoology and is studying the effects of recreational catch and release on Chinook salmon.

She grew up spending summers on the Sunshine Coast exploring the intertidal zone and poking anemones and fishing off the dock.

Her undergrad degree is in Natural Resource Conservation with a specialty in Science and Management.

She has volunteered in the Pacific Salmon and Ecology and Conservation Laboratory, and she has also worked fighting wildfires out of Cranbrook.

It was an amazing experience to work in the East Kootenays, and it forced me to open my eyes to the freshwater world after growing up on the coast. Shortly after I got to Cranbrook, I was introduced to fly fishing. It’s easy to learn to fly fish when you are surrounded by world-class dry fly rivers. I fell in love with the sport and have been chasing fish with my fly rod ever since, she commented.

John Holdstock was a founding director of the Okanagan Region Wildlife Heritage Society in 1988 (now the SILT) until his sudden death in 2010. He was also a past-president of the B.C. Wildlife Federation and involved in a number of other outdoors organizations.

The signature on his e-mails was always:

The world is run by those who show up.

The annual scholarship is coordinated by the B.C. Conservation Foundation. Go to: bccf.com for more information.

SILT frequently inspects its properties to ensure they are in good condition and functioning as desired.  Edwards Pond is a 50 acre wetland-cottonwood complex near Grand Forks. While it is in great shape we’re concerned about periodic trespass by off-roaders and have had reports of painted turtle needing safe crossing structures as they move to and from their surrounding habitats. Buying the land is not enough! Donations help SILT to keep Edwards Pond and our other conservation properties protected and productive forever. Please donate now!