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BCWF
04-11-2016, 10:53 AM
Formed in 1988 to purchase land for wildlife in the Okanagan Region, the board of the Southern Interior Land Trust Society, (formerly, Okanagan Region Wildlife Heritage Fund Society) aims to conserve and restore wild land as habitat for wildlife, since it is under increasing pressure from development.

A rapidly growing population in the Okanagan Region threatens many remaining pockets of wilderness, and has already altered ecosystems in many areas.

The society was started by a group of B.C. Wildlife Federation members in the Okanagan.



Southern Interior Land Trust (SILT) is the new name of the local conservation trust with a mandate of conserving land for fish and wildlife.

Formerly the Okanagan Region Wildlife Heritage Fund Society, the board felt a simpler name would be easier for people to remember and relate to, and the expanded mandate is more inclusive.

SILT is a registered charity so is able to issue donation receipts for income tax purposes, and is an eligible recipient under the Environment Canada Ecological Gifts Program, which allows property-owners to donate ecologically-sensitive land to approved conservation organizations—entirely free of capital gains taxes.

Properties currently owned by the trust include Edwards Pond, 20 hectares of wetlands and ponds in the Grand Forks area which are home to a healthy population of painted turtles; 20 hectares of rocky hillside with a spring-fed brook, as well as frontage on the Similkameen River west of Keremeos; and Ginty’s Pond in Cawston.

Since it was formed in 1988, the organization, which is run entirely by volunteers, has also been involved in such projects as the oxbow restoration project along the Okanagan River, protection of Rose Valley Pond in West Kelowna, the Mission Creek Restoration Initiative, preservation of the wetlands around Swan Lake in Vernon and purchase by the Nature Trust of B.C., of California Bighorn Sheep habitat on the eastern shores of Skaha Lake.

The land trust welcomes offers of land donations, bequests or funds to purchase land; suggestions of properties that should be protected, either by a covenant or purchase; as well as interest from volunteers willing to join the effort to conserve land for wildlife.

For more information, visit the website at: www.siltrust.ca


Media inquiries: President, Ross Everatt 250-499-9840 (phone or text)
Treasurer, Gord Wilson 250-258-2394 (phone or text)