Nature group secures wetland

OLIVER — A parcel of land in a birder’s paradise has been secured by the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

The 36.4-hectare property is located in an expanse of wetland near the Okanagan River and is an important acquisition because so much of the valley bottom has been lost to development and agriculture, said Barb Pryce, the southern Interior program director with the conservancy.

“Finding a parcel that’s 90 acres in size is quite a rarity in the South Okanagan and that’s why it’s so important,” she said.

Less than 15 per cent of the valley bottom remains wetlands.

Bird watchers from around the world come to see the birds that use the area for breeding, nesting, hunting and as a migration stopover. The long-billed curlew, yellow-breasted chat and bobolink, all designated as species at risk in Canada, are found in the area.

“Some of the birds in the area are in decline, so anything we can do to support their population levels is really important.”

Pryce said part of the farmland will remain in hay production because the dapper-looking bobolink songbird uses the grassland as a breeding ground. The males are black and white and have a straw coloured head.

Grasslands are rare and cover less than one per cent in the province, she noted.

Pryce said the conservancy and Ducks Unlimited Canada, which co-owns the land, will start a restoration program on the property soon.

The land is criss-crossed with old oxbows, or wetland channels, that have been cut off from the Okanagan River since the river was straightened in the 1950s to control flooding.

A conservancy news release says rebuilding the wetland areas will allow for other species to move in, such as the western painted turtle or the blotched tiger salamander, which is also a species at risk in Canada.