Scored highly for protecting one of British Columbia’s most at-risk biogeoclimatic zones, helping conserve ecosystems under significant pressure.
Scored highly for the presence of rare species and sensitive ecological communities.
Recognized for supporting a high diversity of plant and animal species.
Together, we protected rare and vulnerable coastal forests and wetlands at Quennell Lake on Vancouver Island forever. With our supporters and generous funding from our partners at MapleCross, NTBC raised $340,000 to protect 136.8 acres of Quennell Lake’s ecologically significant land near Nanaimo.
Quennell Lake – MapleCross Forest, located within the Stz’uminus, Snuneymuxw, and Snaw-naw-as Coast Salish First Nations traditional territory, is ecologically rich, culturally important, and urgently at risk. Its merchantable timber value means it could be harvested, forever changing the landscape.
Quennell Lake shelters an extraordinary mosaic of habitats: mature coastal forest and wetlands vital to 167 species of waterfowl. Its waters and shorelines support birds from blue-winged and cinnamon teal to redhead and canvasback ducks, western and least sandpipers.
Beneath the surface and along the edges live equally remarkable invertebrates, including the blue-listed blue dasher dragonfly and the delicate Oregon fairy shrimp — species found in few other places.
With our supporters, we purchased and protected the final 136.8 acres of forests and wetlands at Quennell Lake – MapleCross Forest, and it ensured it remains a wildlife haven forever.
We gratefully acknowledge that our Vancouver office is located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, who have been stewarding this land since time immemorial. Our work and conservation areas encompass many lands throughout the province, and we humbly acknowledge the First Nations communities who live on and steward these lands.
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