| Current Projects
Habitat Stewardship Program 2009 / 2010
Green Bylaws Toolkit and Species at Risk Workshop 2010
Starting in January 2010, Fraser Valley Conservancy will be conducting workshops for targeted municipalities to learn green bylaws in the local municipalities and identify occurences of species at risk in the area. This is a one day presentation with both "in-class" setting and a field trip. Check out the poster for more information:Green Bylaws and Sar Workshop 2010.
To View the Green Bylaws Toolkit Presentation click here.
Land Stewardship 2009/2010
In December of 2009, Fraser Valley Conservancy welcomed Steve Clegg as the new Environmental Stewardship Coordinator. He will be actively communicating with landowners within Ryder Lake on ways to help preserve and protect the natural environment and providing landowners with the resources to do so!
Western Toad Rescue 2009
Every year Western Toads are killed by vehicles while they cross Ryder Lake Road and Elk View Road in Chilliwack, BC. The toads are following their natural migration path and have no choice but to cross the road to reach forested areas where they will spend the terrestrial part of their lives. In early July, the Fraser Valley Conservancy volunteers helped move over at least 39, 232 toadlets (a baby toad). Thousands more hopped over on their own during the City of Chilliwack approved road closures. A very big thanks goes to the volunteers, the City of Chilliwack and the Community of Ryder Lake who used the detour during the migration.
  
Completed
Projects
HSP 2008-2009
 Through our involvement with the South Coast Conservation Program funding from the Federal Government of Canada's Habitat Stewardship Program we monitored species at risk on private land, increased the known occurrences of species, and protected Species at Risk and their habitat through signed stewardship agreements. Stewards were also involved in the first year of the Western Toad Rescue. Through the help of the Fraser Salmon Watershed program, we expanded our land stewardship efforts into the Chilliwack River and Cultus Lake Watersheds. Finally, three land use professional workshop training events were held on Species at Risk topics.
2008 Toad Rescue Press Release - Toad Rescue Report
Real Estate Foundation – 2006-2008
The Fraser Valley Conservancy completed a Real Estate Foundation funded project to pilot and set up a Wildlife Reporting system for development proponents in the City of Abbotsford. An important outcome of this project is the preparation of a Wildlife Report by all development proponents in certain areas Abbotsford. Each report provides an equal playing field for reporting on the wildlife and habitat potential of land parcels before they are developed. It is hoped that this project will inform potential land professionals and land regulators of areas requiring protection early in the development process to avoid impacting significant wildlife and their habitat needs. The wildlife reports and system will be used to develop a wildlife bylaw.
HSP year 2007-2008 The area of the Chilliwack, Sunshine and Squamish forest districts that make up the South Coast region are home to 29 COSEWIC listed species and over 200 Provincial red and blue listed species. The pace of development in the valleys of this region and lack of a coordinated approach to species protection necessitates the use of a multi-species and multi-partnered approach. This approach is the South Coast Conservation Program. Through this funded project we have increased awareness, positively changed land-use behaviours and provided long term habitat protection for Species at Risk through a landowner contact program and workshops for land use professionals. From the former, seven hectares of land has been additionally protected by donation of title and nineteen hectares of private land is being actively stewarded for Species at Risk. An acquisition project has been identified, the success of which would increase protected SAR habitat lands by at least 20 hectares. Finally two classroom and field workshops were conducted for 120 regulators and land professionals that focused on human impact mitigation by striving to encourage participants to reduce harm and apply technologies for select Species at Risk. More workshops are planned for different species using, in part, funds collected from the workshop fee.
HSP year 2006-2007
Species at Risk (SAR) on the South Coast face tremendous pressure from loss of habitat due to urbanization and regional growth. The leading edge of growth in the region, Abbotsford and Chilliwack, contain two South Coast Species at Risk hot spots, Sumas Mountain and Chilliwack River Valley. This project followed up on the prior year's engagement of Abbotsford municipal and political staff in development of the McKee Peak plan on Sumas Mountain. It also developed a landowner contact program to engage residents in the Chilliwack River Valley / Ryder Lake and Huntington (Abbotsford) areas. Activities included raising awareness of Species at Risk through the program information package, media articles, maps, and plush toys. The Landowner Contact program also identified and helped landowners be better stewards for Species at Risk by performing property walk abouts and written property reports. Landowners were also encouraged to make a written commitment by signing stewardship agreements and some landowners are thinking about conservation covenants.
One workshop in each of Surrey, Burnaby and Chilliwack were held for land use professionals (biologists, landscape architects, consultants), and land use regulators (local / regional and provincial / federal government staff) in order to increase level of knowledge about legislation and shared stewardship of SAR, raise awareness and deliver tools (Best Management Practices, bylaw examples) for use in protecting SAR, and case study presentations of local government efforts to be better stewards for SAR.
The project resulted in 166 informed landuse professionals; 25 active landowners (requested info, walkabout and/or report) whom contact will continue to be made in subsequent years to encourage further stewardship actions; 4 signed stewardship agreements and; one potential 2.46 acre snail habitat donation.
Natural Areas Stewardship Project
In 2004, the Abbotsford Land Trust was informed of our successful application to Environment Canada's EcoAction Community Funding program and added to funding received from the Vancouver Foundation. The Fraser Valley Conservancy was able to set priority targets for donation and acquisition projects and worked on a watershed by watershed basis. A watershed map was produced and data loaded onto the Community Mapping Network's website under the Abbotsford Watershed map application.
This project allowed us to identify priority property (Maclure Wetland - acquired in 2008) and work with those that share our goals. We encouraged individuals to use the Fraser Valley Conservancy's tools, like membership, stewardship agreements, conservation covenants, donations, and acquisition campaigns to protect land. The fee for service wildlife reports started in 2006 are a outcome of this program's success.
Restrictive
Fisheries Covenants in Abbotsford 2003
We found just
over 50 different properties in Abbotsford that are protected by Restrictive Fisheries
Covenants totaling about 55 acres of previously unknown protected land. One additional
covenant exists in the Unorganized territory on Sumas Mountain. The main finding is how closely linked some
of the restrictive fisheries covenants are with parkland and the buffer of protected land they provide. The information uncovered in this project will be used in for planning purposes within the municipality of Abbotsford and our own land trust priorities. Please contact the FVC for more
information on these covenants.
To
learn more about the covenants and to see photos and descriptions
of many of them, click on the map below. 
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