Bowen Island Municipality Website

Representatives of the Islands Trust Fund visited Bowen recently to talk about their work as a regional conservation land trust. Board members Louise Bell and Nerys Poole, who is also a councillor of the Bowen Island Municipality, presented Council with an overview of how the Trust Fund is carrying out its mandate locally to preserve and protect lands of ecological significance and sensitivity.

The Trust Fund has developed a Regional Conservation Plan that identifies priority areas for conservation. Throughout the Islands Trust Area, the Trust Fund holds 56 covenants, owning outright 19 properties obtained through donations or purchases. On Bowen, the Trust Fund has been successful so far in establishing two nature reserves and protecting three properties through covenants.

Wolfgang Duntz of WCD Developments donated nine hectares of land in 1999, during the development of the Cates Hill subdivision. The critical habitat, now known as the Singing Woods Nature Reserve, is managed by the Bowen Island Conservancy. It is located within the headwaters area of Davis and Terminal creeks and includes two wetlands. Originally known as Cates Hill Nature Reserve, local school students renamed it Singing Woods in reference to the song of the endangered red-legged frogs that breed in the swam, the dawn chorus of the songbirds that nest in the forest, and the wind in the trees.

Also obtained via the subdivision process of Cates Hill are the covenants held on Terminal Creek North and Terminal Creek South. These combined covenants protect a little more than one hectare of riparian habitat and mature forest, including veteran old growth trees.

The McIntyre Covenant is a 1.2 hectare property donated by Betty McIntrye, also in 1999. It is a mix of cedar and maple forest, with an understory that includes mosses, fern and mushrooms. The covenant is co-held with the Bowen Island Conservancy.

The David Otter Nature Reserve, donated by Neil Boyd and Isabel Otter, and named after their son, comprises three hectares and holds veteran Douglas Firs and Western Red. The property includes several rocky outcrops and two small streams. This reserve was the first “Ecogift” on Bowen – a program administered by Environment Canada that provides tax incentives to land and covenant donors.

The Islands Trust Fund is taking steps to add Fairy Fen to the list of protected areas. It has applied through the provincial free crown grant program for transfer of the 18-hectare wetland, which contains red listed plant communities and is recognized as holding significant ecological values.The Bowen Island Conservancy has raised funds for and completed a survey and management plan.

Islands Trust Fund seeks to protect Bowen’s natural areas