The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) has completed purchase of 525 hectares of prime grassland near Kamloops.
Purchase of the grassland habitat at Napier Lake Ranch makes the non-profit conservation organization one of the major landholders in the region. It held a press conference on Frida, Oct. 17, at Thompson Rivers University to announce completion of its campaign.
The NCC announced earlier this year it was raising $3.4 million to purchase the land, located about 30 kilometres south of Kamloops along Highway 5A, from rancher Agnes Jackson.
“It’s a vast expanse of grassland,” said NCC’s Southern Interior program director Barb Pryce, noting it remains open to further purchasing of covenants or ranches.
The ranch is set among some of B.C.’s rarest biogeoclimactic zones and may be visited by or home at different times to species ranging from the world’s fastest animal — the peregrine falcon at 320 km/h — to the red fox, American badger, Lewis’s woodpecker, Clark’s nutcracker and sharp-tailed grouse.
An estimated 30 per cent of this province’s endangered species make use of grasslands at some point in the year.
Jackson and her husband Roy, who died in 2008, purchased the ranch in the early 1970s. None of the couple’s three children wanted to take over the cattle operation, although two daughters who live in the region are both involved in the agriculture industry.
The family has maintained ownership of some of the ranch, in a forested area.
“They all have meaningful professions they enjoy,” Agnes said of her children. “Our obligation was to the land.”
Throughout the years, Agnes said, developers would occasionally call to query about possible sale of the land.
“I’d get random calls,” she said. “We’re only 3.5 hours from Vancouver. There was opportunity for that [development].”
But, the land is now protected from development — and from being sliced up into ranchettes — by the NCC. The group now owns or has development protection on nearly 4,000 hectares of grassland in the Thompson and Nicola valleys.
The federal government was a major contributor to the purchase through its Natural Areas Conservation Program.
Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo Conservative MP Cathy McLeod, who was on hand for the event on Friday, said she is a strong believer in the $100-million fund over five years.
The NCC came to her during pre-budget consultations to emphasize importance of that fund.
“The message to the minister was we need to keep this program going,” McLeod said.
The NCC has conserved about 2.6-million acres of land in Canada since its founding in 1962, including one-million acres in B.C.
Purchase of Napier Lake Ranch grasslands marks its 100th project in this province.
In the past six years, the NCC has either purchased outright or placed conservation covenants on extensive grasslands in the Thompson-Nicola to protect it from development.
That includes in Lac Du Bois north of Kamloops and between Kamloops and Merritt.
The post Nature Conservancy completes purchase of Napier Ranch grasslands appeared first on Kamloops This Week.