Opportunity Fund
You can help us leap into action when we need it the most!
Sometimes opportunities to save most endangered landscapes come up out of the blue. When they do, we turn to the Opportunity Fund; the fund supporting the region’s most urgent projects.
Donations to the Opportunity Fund have helped protect Brooks Point on Pender Island and Blackburn Lake on Salt Spring Island.
Opportunities to protect old-growth forests, diverse wetlands, species-at-risk habitat and wildlife corridors will arise at unpredictable times. We need your help to replenish the Opportunity Fund so we are ready to help local conservancies jump when these opportunities come their way.
Your donation to the Opportunity Fund will help local island conservancies seize new opportunities to protect our most endangered landscapes.
Lasqueti Island Acquisition Fund
Lasqueti Island Local Trust Area is home to some of the rarest ecosystems in the world that are under threat from development, climate change, and habitat degradation. Only 12% is protected.
With help from people like you, a high ridge top next to Squitty Bay Provincial Park, the Salish View Nature Reserve, was protected in July 2019.
Your donations toward Lasqueti Island Acquisition Fund will help future land acquisition in this Local Trust Area.
Thetis Island Acquisition Fund
Thetis Island Local Trust Area is home to some of the rarest ecosystems in the world that are under threat from development, climate change and habitat degradation. Only 4% is protected.
With help from people like you, Fairyslipper Forest Nature Reserve was protected in 2018. The Fairyslipper Forest Nature Reserve is the first publicly accessible protected area on Thetis Island.
Your donations toward Thetis Island Acquisition Fund will help future land acquisition in this Local Trust Area.
Gambier Island Acquisition Fund
Gambier Island Local Trust Area is home to some of the rarest ecosystems in the world that are under threat from development, climate change and habitat degradation. Only 16% is protected.
Mount Artaban has long been a popular hiking destination. The property was held as Provincial Crown Land for many years and was transferred in 2008 to the Islands Trust Conservancy through the Sponsored Crown Grant Program.
To satisfy the province’s conditions for the transfer, the Islands Trust Conservancy partnered with the Gambier Island Conservancy to fundraise more than $40,000 to cover the costs of the property survey and a management plan. Contributions from more than 80 individuals, businesses, and community groups helped protect the mountain.
Your donations toward Gambier Island Acquisition Fund will help future land acquisition in this Local Trust Area.
Covenant Management and Defence Fund
Success incurs costs – success in terms of landowners voluntarily protecting land through placing conservation covenants, or communities rallying to create nature reserves, has increased the time, effort, and resources required for managing those properties now placed under the care of Islands Trust Conservancy.
Today 5% of all Islands Trust Area is protected by private conservation covenants. The purpose of this designated fund is to ensure that Islands Trust Conservancy can continue to meet the future demands of conservation covenant successes.
By setting funds aside now, the Islands Trust Conservancy intends to be prepared for any restoration or enforcement that may be required in the future.
Your donation will help to ensure these covenanted areas the Islands Trust Conservancy protects, in partnership with private landowners, are well cared for.
Property Management Fund
This newly created Property Management Fund has been established to support the Island Trust Conservancy’s commitment to the Nature Reserves that are entrusted to our care.
Generous donations from kind and caring people like yourself goes to support the following key elements of preservation:
- Natural features: Maintenance, enhancement, restoration and improvement of the natural features, habitats, ecosystem and species-at-risk monitoring and protection, invasive species removal, and restoration of disturbed areas;
- Cutting edge management: Reports and expert guidance to best manage land, including archaeological and biological reports and assistance from First Nations Cultural Knowledge Holders;
- Recreation: Maintenance and establishment of recreational features within ITC nature reserves as determined through management planning;
- Signs: Installation and maintenance;
- Managing Risk: Ensuring the safety of the public and workers;
- Legal: Legal services, arbitration processes, and mediation processes required to properly manage nature reserves and in case of trespass.