This week, a group of conservationists announced their plan to raise money in order to purchase and protect a 14.4 hectare area of sensitive forested wildlife habitat on Cortes Island.
The Nature Trust of British Columbia needs to raise $408,000 in order to attain the area, which is referred to as the Manson Bay Forest.
Mason Bay Forest is home to mature Douglas-fir, western hemlock, and western redcedar trees with some trees being hundreds of years old.
The Nature Trust says that Cortes Island’s coastal ecosystems are home to wolves, cougars, deer, mink and over a dozen at-risk bird species that frequent the area they are trying to protect.
Additionally, the waters surrounding the island provide habitat for marbled murrelets, river otters, sea lions, as well as humpback and orca whales.
These lands are located within the unceded and traditional territories of the We Wai Kai, Kwiakah, Homalco and Klahoose First Nations.
“There are trees in Manson Bay Forest that are more than 200-years-old,” said Dr. Jasper Lament, CEO of The Nature Trust of BC.
“We’re on a mission to protect them and this critical land on the Salish Sea because it is rare, ecologically important and irreplaceable.”
The Nature Trust’s whole goal is to safeguard important habitat and powerful carbon sinks, directly addressing the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, which is directly tied to this plot of land on Cortes Island.
“We must safeguard Manson Bay Forest and the species that live there like the threatened barn swallow,” said Dr. Lament.
“This will protect the biodiversity and resiliency of our coast not just for today but for future generations.”
Since 1971, the Nature Trust of British Columbia has helped conserve over 73,000 hectares—roughly 37-times the size of Victoria—of ecologically significant land to save vulnerable wildlife, fish and plants.
To make personal donations to protect the Manson Bay Forest, or to learn about the area, visit the Nature Trust’s website.
