The Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation is pleased to announce the 2026-2027 approved project list.
124 projects have been approved, totalling over $7.5 million in funding for fish, wildlife, and habitat conservation throughout British Columbia.
The list includes projects from HCTF’s Fish & Wildlife Grant (including the Caribou Habitat Restoration Fund, white sturgeon, and wild sheep priority species funds) and Quality Waters, Conservation Lands O&M, Fisheries O&M, Land Stewardship, and Invasive Mussel Monitoring Grant programs.
Nearly half of HCTF’s revenue comes from the conservation surcharge on freshwater fishing, hunting, guide outfitting, and trapping licences sold in B.C. HCTF also receives funding from partner organizations, provincial government contributions, court awards, and endowments. (Learn more here.)
Cooperation and collective investment are crucial to support B.C.’s fish and wildlife, and it’s clear that there is no shortage of organizations and individuals willing to lead the work. “We continue to receive a growing number of funding requests from project leaders,” says HCTF’s CEO, Dan Buffett. “This year’s applications highlighted a growing gap between available resources and the number of strong organizations ready to deliver conservation projects. Unfortunately, the number of high-quality proposals outweighed the available funding, leaving several strong applications unfunded, despite their clear conservation value.” HCTF is incredibly grateful for additional funding this year from the Province of B.C. and the Hancock Wildlife Foundation for projects enhancing forests, wetlands, and grasslands.
Approved projects this year include:
3-419 Fraser River Bighorns: Fraser East Disease Assessment and Herd Recovery – Ewe release. Photo by Ben Berukoff
- $105,620 to reduce road densities in south Skeena to increase the amount of secure habitat for grizzly bears
- $12,290 to restore a fishway on Hastings Creek in North Vancouver, to allow trout and Coho salmon to access valuable spawning and rearing habitat
- $58,256 to support grassland raptors of the Fraser Valley through habitat restoration, nest site protection, and promotion of raptor-friendly land-use practices
- $166,889 for Stone’s sheep habitat enhancement in current and historical range through prescribed burns
- $67,428 to improve the Deadman River resistivity counter, ensuring better functioning for Steelhead enumeration
- $59,570 for enhancement and maintenance of the ȾIKEL wetland, one of the last remaining large wetlands on the Saanich peninsula (3-year Land Stewardship Grant)
- $252,188 for habitat restoration in core North Columbia caribou range through rehabilitation of 40km of resource roads (3-year CHRF grant)
In addition to the above programs, HCTF provides grants for conservation stewardship and education. Additional projects will be announced in early summer through our Action, Capacity, and Community Grants, and scholarship recipients will be announced in autumn.
8-520 Assessing Riparian Refugia for Birds as Heat Waves Increase – UBCO students assisting vegetation surveys. Photo by Henry James
