More than 30 hectares of land on Saturna Island, home to endangered plant and animal species, is now protected after being acquired by a non-profit conservation group.
The Nature Trust of British Columbia bought 31.2 hectares of land on the southwest corner of Saturna to protect the area’s biodiversity from development.
“It’s a remarkable bluff … it’s a really cool terrain feature with some amazing biodiversity on it,” said Jasper Lament, CEO of the Nature Trust, which has acquired about 73,000 hectares of ecologically significant land to protect wildlife, fish and plants.
The area on Saturna, known as Mount Fisher Bluffs, is home to a steep, grassy bluff and a rare Garry oak ecosystem, which provides habitat and food for at risk species.
Rare plant species such as the slender popcornflower, which is only known to grow in seven sites in Canada, and the white meconella, found in eight other locations nationally, grow on the protected land.
The area is also home to the rare barn swallow, an aerial insectivore, which flies around catching insects to eat while airborne, Lament said.
“It’s a really agile, beautiful, graceful bird, and like many aerial insectivores, their populations are in decline in North America, so it’s important to be able to protect habitat that these birds use,” he said.
The non-profit purchased the land for $1 million, with funding from the federal government and private donors.
The Nature Trust was first approached by one of multiple owners of this parcel of land nearly a decade ago who suggested it would be a good area to protect, Lament said.
“He talked about the peregrine falcons that nest on the Fisher Bluffs and the eagles that fly overhead, and the great blue herons, and how much he loved his land and how much he wanted to see it protected,” he said.
This parcel is connected by conservation land to a nearby plot of 58.1 hectares purchased by the Nature Trust last summer.
“It’s a nice opportunity to expand on existing conservation lands by building connected corridors,” Lament said.
The Nature Trust will start creating a management plan to guide future stewardship of the land. The group continues talking with neighbours about other conservation opportunities on the Saturna, Lament said.
Saturna is an important place for conservation work because protecting grasslands and forests is a great nature-based solution for climate change, he said. The ecosystems on the land include shallow-soiled grassland, herbaceous rocky bluffs, coniferous woodland, mixed woodland, wetland and mature coniferous forests with trees up to 250 years old.
“These habitats are important carbon sinks so protecting these lands is just critical … for protecting biodiversity, fighting climate change and keeping B.C. an amazing place to live,” Lament said.
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