The following article appeared in the May/June edition of Outdoor Edge Magazine.

In the March edition of Outdoor Edge, we talked to the Salt Spring Island Conservancy’s (SSIC) Conservation Director, Robin Annschild, about the Conservancy’s success in creating a partnership with the local Rod & Gun club to manage one of their reserves. This month, we continue the conversation with Robin and learn how building upon connections can equal great things for conservation – and ourselves.

It all started with an invitation to a Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation Evaluation Workshop. Each year, the Foundation asks a selection of project leaders to give a presentation on the outcomes of their projects to HCTF Board members, staff and their peers. Not only do these workshops help HCTF evaluate the results of investments, they provide a rare opportunity for grant recipients to get together and exchange ideas about fish and wildlife conservation.

After presenting some of the accomplishments of SSIC’s habitat acquisition project, Robin listened to Neil Fletcher speak about the BCWF Wetlands Institute, currently in its sixth year of funding from HCTF. Neil explained how Wetlands Institute workshops provide participants with the tools to successfully complete wetland restoration projects in their communities.

“I had heard of the Wetlands Institute, but it wasn’t until I saw Neil’s presentation that I realized it might be able to help us with what we wanted to accomplish at Blackburn Lake.’” Robin seized the opportunity to talk with Neil about the Conservancy’s ideas for restoring wetlands on their newest acquisition (which had most recently been operated as a golf course), and soon both of them were excited about the possibility of collaborating on the project.

“I told Neil we were really looking for someone to mentor us through the process,” said Robin. “We had this rough idea of what we might be able to achieve, but none of the technical expertise to get there. Neil suggested having Tom Biebighauser come out to develop a restoration prescription for the property, and offered to loan us some of the necessary equipment. We managed to get Tom up from Kentucky in January, and the experience was phenomenal.”

Tom Biebighauser is a big name in restoration circles: the award-winning ecologist is an expert on the rehabilitation and construction of wetlands, having established over 1,600 of them across the U.S and Canada.

“We learned so much in that week,” recounts Robin. “It completely shifted my understanding of what we needed to do to optimally manage this property. Tom’s explanation of the history of stream modification and drainage let us look at Blackburn Lake- and our other conservation lands – with new eyes.”

The SSIC team learned that they were not only contending with the recent disturbances caused by the construction of the golf course, but a legacy of drainage modifications made by those who had farmed the land, stretching back to the 1800s.

“Tom taught us that anywhere you find a stream in close proximity to agriculture, you can almost bet those streams have been moved,” explains Robin. “As we walked the property, he pointed out where early settlers would have taken the broad, flat creeks running down the middle of a valley bottom and moved them to the base of the hill. This, combined with surprisingly sophisticated drainage modifications, dried up existing wetlands to allow them to be cultivated.”

Unfortunately, the ecological consequences of shifting these streams runs deep: not only did it eliminate important wetland habitats, the repositioned streams cause erosion that continues to deposit silt into the lake today: a concern for fish, wildlife and humans. In this instance, water from Blackburn Lake flows into Cusheon Lake, one of the Island’s major sources for drinking water, and is connected to Cusheon Creek, Salt Spring’s most important salmon run. Restoring these streams and wetlands to their pre-agriculture states will hopefully halt centuries of silting, improving conditions for the juvenile salmon and cutthroat trout in the lake. It will also benefit a myriad of other local species that use wetlands as part of their lifecycle, all while protecting an important source of water for Island residents.

With the restoration plan nearing completion and funding secured for the first phase, the SSIC hopes to begin work on some of the 30 wetland restoration sites identified by Tom this fall. These activities will rely on yet another vital partnership: the one between the Conservancy and its volunteers. Each year, these dedicated participants contribute over 6000 hours to helping make Conservancy projects a success.

“The PCAF grant we received from HCTF and the funding from the Vancouver Foundation are both really about involving the community in these projects, by putting on workshops and informational sessions, and by encouraging them to get their hands dirty in the creation of these wetland areas. Talking with Neil and learning about some of the work he’s done around wetland education in communities has really helped me to see that there is a tremendous opportunity at Blackburn Lake to teach others about the value of wetlands, and what we can do to restore and protect them.”

In true biologist fashion, Robin compares the network of partnerships she’s fostered- the links between the Conservancy, funding organizations, the Rod & Gun Club, Wetlands Institute and volunteers- to the interconnectedness of organisms within an ecosystem.

“When we speak about restoration, we tend to restrict our thinking to the repair of environmental components, but working through these projects does much more. It restores our own relationship to the land, and through a common goal of conservation, connects us to a web of resources that together can create something far greater than we could have on our own. Just like an ecosystem, every relationship has multiple functions and benefits for the project as a whole, and for each person involved in it. It’s been really exciting to see these partnerships develop, and witness how we support each other’s work.”

The SSIC wishes to acknowledge the funding contributions of the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation, the Public Conservation Assistance Fund, the Government of Canada Habitat Stewardship Program for Species at Risk, Wildlife Habitat Canada, the Vancouver Foundation, the Salt Spring Foundation, and the Canadian Wildlife Federation, who, along with other contributors, have made these projects possible. Thank you!

Does your club have a great idea for a project that improves fish or wildlife habitat? HCTF’s Public Conservation Assistance Fund (PCAF) provides small grants for “on-the-ground” conservation projects such as monitoring wildlife, restoring spawning grounds, and building birdhouse and nest boxes. The key requirement is that you must provide at least half of the value of the project in volunteer labour, materials or other allowable donations: click here for further details. Hurry: next application deadline is May 17^th.

Interested in learning more about wetland restoration? This year’s BCWF Wetland Institute will be held September 6-12 on East Vancouver Island. Registration (not including food and accommodation) is FREE up until August 16^th, but space is limited, so submit your application to attend today.

Robin Annschild of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy explains how working together with their local Rod & Gun Club has turned out to be a win-win situation.

Listen to anyone speak about the good ol’ days of conservation in this province, and it will quickly become apparent how much things have changed. Though environmental pressures have increased, stable sources of funding have become increasingly hard to come by. From land conservancies to stewardship groups, organizations have had to find ways of doing more with less, requiring increased resourcefulness, innovation and formation of partnerships beyond traditional allies. The Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation (HCTF) had the opportunity to talk with Robin Annschild, Conservation Director of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy, about how her organization is doing just that, to the benefit of everyone involved.

Robin, over the past 3 years, the Salt Spring Island Conservancy (SSIC) has managed to secure an impressive amount of habitat, but I’m told there’s far more work to be done. Why is land securement so important on Salt Spring?

Salt Spring lies within the Coastal Douglas Fir zone–the rarest ecosystem in the province with the highest number of species at risk. Over 50 rare or endangered species have been found on the Island, but only a small percentage of its most valuable habitats are protected. There are tremendous pressures on undeveloped lands as the population continues to grow. The large percentage of private ownership here combined with high land values means that conservation activities on Salt Spring really centre around working with landowners to find ways of protecting the ecological values on their lands, through stewardship activities, covenants, or transfer of property to our organization by way of donation or sale.

Beyond the obvious hurdle of finding funds for land purchases, what are some of the challenges in working with landowners to secure conservation lands?

Whether we’re acquiring land through donation or purchase, there’s an incredible amount of work and expertise required. Finding money is always an obstacle: the scarce amount of funding available for conservation makes purchasing land something we can do on only a very limited basis, but it also restricts our capacity to work with landowners to receive donations. It’s a huge decision to part with a piece of property you’ve held for decades, and, in the case of an ecological donation, the process can be complex. Demographics suggest that the next couple of decades are going to present a lot of opportunities for securement of conservation properties, and one of the limiting factors is going to be that finite capacity among conservation agencies to support and receive those lands. It’s going to be increasingly important for organizations to join forces across sectors and scales to achieve the maximum possible conservation impact.

Speaking of joining forces, the SSIC has been around for a while now, but it’s only in the last year that you began working together with the Salt Spring Rod & Gun Club. What finally prompted your two organizations to get together?

HCTF! In response to this need for capacity, HCTF provided funding to cover staffing costs during the acquisition of the 320 acre Hope Hill Property, which is now known as the Alvin Indridson Nature reserve. In acknowledgement of the fact that HCTF funds come from hunting & angling licence fees, we made the commitment to allow hunting on the property. This was new ground for us. I am really excited about it because of the potential benefit that hunting could have on the Island’s deer situation. There is mounting evidence that an overabundance of deer can have a significant impact on everything from endangered plants to songbird populations, so for us to have a reserve where deer hunting is allowed is almost an ecological imperative.

However, it soon became apparent that we didn’t have the expertise within the Conservancy to manage a hunting reserve, and (naturally) we thought of the local Rod & Gun club. For a while, I had been thinking that it would be great if we had a way to reach out to Rod & Gun, if we could work together somehow, and the HCTF funding provided such an obvious impetus to contact them. I asked one of their board members how he would feel about me making a presentation to the club sometime. He said, “Well our AGM’s coming up, why don’t you come as our guest speaker?”

So they were open to the idea of working with a conservancy?

They were very welcoming. I joined the club before going to make the presentation, and they introduced me as their newest member. The club was very enthusiastic about becoming involved with the management of the nature reserve. And why not? This is really a classic win-win situation: they are providing expertise to fulfill a management need of ours, and by allowing hunting access to the reserve, we are providing a great addition to their club. What’s even more exciting is exploring how this can lead to other opportunities that can benefit both the Rod & Gun Club and SSIC in achieving our stewardship mandates.

Do you have any advice for other Rod & Gun clubs that are interested in getting involved with their local conservation organization?

Start a conversation! Looking back, it’s amazing that it took twelve years before I ever just sat down with a few Rod & Gun members and talked about what our organizations were up to. I think we’re all aware that there are some people who have been burdened by the idea that conservancies and hunters are two different factions that are not on the same team, but we’re really logical allies, if maybe not traditional ones.

One of your program objectives is to publicize your successes. Why do you think this is so important?

Telling these stories and celebrating our successes is essential to helping people realize that they can make a difference. There is such a universal and repetitive message about environmental doom out there. It becomes easy for the general public to feel like there’s nothing they can do in the face of such big problems: it leads to feelings of apathy. Publicizing local conservation successes inspires people to consider what they can do within their own lives, on their own land, and realize that individual contributions can make a huge difference. Whether we choose to make that investment at the level of a local hunting club, conservation agency or community organization, the important thing is that we each commit to doing something: there’s no one else that’s going to come in and fix these problems for us.

Anything else you’d like HCTF contributors to know?

It’s really important for the hunters, anglers, trappers and guides who contribute to the HCTF to understand just how critical these funds are, and how much we can leverage this money for even greater conservation benefit. For example, the grants we received from HCTF allowed us to meet the fund matching criteria for securing funding from the Government of Canada’s Habitat Stewardship Program, which has been critical to our success. HCTF’s $75,000 investment allowed us to bring to conclusion three of the land acquisitions projects we had proposed, plus an additional one, for a total of 192HA of secured land valued at just over $5 M.