HCTF is proud to announce $783k in funding for 45 conservation stewardship projects throughout B.C.
The projects are under HCTF’s Action, Capacity, and Community Grant programs.
Action Grants, which have a two-year term, support projects that result in measurable changes in the behaviours or practices of a defined audience, creating solutions that mitigate, prevent, or reduce human-caused impacts on fish, wildlife, and habitat.
Six Action Grant projects were approved this year, including:
- $48,467 for BC Conservation Foundation to work with ALR landowners such as farmers, ranchers, orchardists, and vineyardists in Creston, Grand Forks, and Oliver to protect and support bats by promoting simple, practical bat-friendly practices on agricultural land.
- $50,000 for Fraser Basin Council and Fraser Valley Watersheds Coalition to engage farmers on adopting conservation-based riparian management practices that will help mitigate flood risk while improving habitat and water quality in streams in or near their property.
Capacity Grants, also with two-year terms, support activities that build skills, foster collaboration, and advance planning to enhance future conservation outcomes.
Sixteen Capacity Grants were approved this year, including:
- $25,000 for the Taku River Tlingit First Nation to lead a capacity-building project, training youth and staff to document alpine ice patch and glacier recession and assess implications for caribou habitat in the Taku watershed.
- $25,000 for Wei Wai Kum First Nation to pilot a freshwater monitoring and feasibility project designed to build Guardian program capacity and inform future habitat restoration planning within the Loughborough Inlet.
- $25,000 for B.C. Wildlife Federation to build capacity for community conservation and restoration through hands-on training and engagement events tied to a wetland enhancement project at East Wellington Park in Nanaimo.
Community Bat Program and volunteers installing double 4-chambered bat boxes – photo by Habitat Acquisition Trust
Community Grants have up to five years to complete and involve as many volunteers as possible to implement on-the-ground conservation work, with a particular focus on hands-on, community-based, and public awareness initiatives.
Twenty-three Community Grants were approved this year, including:
- $4,500 for another year of restoring a wetland Garry oak ecosystem in Vanier Park, led by Comox Valley Nature (learn more here).
- $1,080 for the Arrow Lake Environmental Stewardship Society to improve common loon nesting success at Arrow Park, where fluctuating water levels have repeatedly flooded or exposed shoreline nests, by building floating nest rafts.
- $4,940 for A Rocha Canada to build a demonstration pollinator garden at the Buck Creek Hatchery and Nature Centre to provide visitors with an example of what they could do in their home or school yard to provide habitat for pollinators.
- $4,280 for Stanley Park Ecology to mobilize community volunteers to monitor freshwater health at Lost Lagoon and Beaver Lake, building a long-term ecological baseline to guide habitat conservation.
See the list of all 2026 HCTF-funded stewardship projects here (PDF download) or see the projects near you on our Project Map.
