British Columbia Grasslands
According to the Grasslands Conservation Council of British Columbia (GCC), grasslands constitute less than 1% of provincial land base, but provide critical habitat for more than 30% of the province's threatened or endangered species.
Approximately 95% of of the provinces grassland habitat is are used as working rangeland, mainly for beef cattle. Of this total, 9% belong to First Nations; 39% of is privately held; and 47% is under crown grazing tenure (that is, owned by the government, but managed as extensions to nearby ranches). Thus, the ranching community necessary plays a pivotal role in the conservation of these habitats.
The bulk of the provinces rangeland is tied in very large ranches, several of which are enormous. For example, the Douglas Lake Ranch in the Nicola Valley controls a total land base on the order of 800 square miles—larger than several countries. These large ranches with their great swaths of open grassland wilderness are home to an enormous diversity of plants and animals.
We believe that preserving the province’s large working ranches is the most practical way to preserve grassland habitat. The greatest threat to our ranches is posed by fragmentation, via residential and recreational development. Ranching families are often forced to hive off sections of valuable habitat because of financial pressures caused by rising costs, and more recently, by market issues related to BSE.
The BC chapter of the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) has pioneered a strategy that offers ranchers an alternative to fragmentation and subdivision.
- The NCC purchases a portion of the ranch—typically a portion that has very high habitat value.
- The NCC then leases the land back to the rancher with appropriate covenants and other agreements governing the use of the land and future stewardship.
- Typically the rancher also places convenants (e.g. preventing subdivision) on some or all of the remaining land of the ranch.
We agree with the philosophy of NCC’s program, so we have been happy to support several projects, particularly where we have seen strong support from the local community.
Grasslands, cattle in the valley bottom in the distance, Thunderhill Ranch
Grasslands in winter, Fraser River, near Chilcotin