Nature corridor presentation (photo credit: OCCP/ONA)

By Kevin Rothwell

65 kilometres long

Okanagan wildlife corridor project explained

May 21, 2021 | 6:30 AM

An ambitious plan to keep a one kilometre wide, by 65 kilometre long, nature corridor open from Kalamalka Lake Provincial Park to Okanagan Mountain Provincial Park has been laid out for Regional District of North Okanagan (RDNO) directors.

The Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA) and Okanagan Collaborative Conservation Program (OCCP) are spearheading a research project using computer modelling and mapping to predict animal movement and identify corridors.

The idea came about five years ago when UBC-Okanagan researchers and the Regional District of Central Okanagan started working with the OCCP, on the idea of keeping wildlife connectivity through corridors.

“One of the top ones was the grassland eco-system between Okanagan Mountain Park and Kal Lake Provincial Park,” Scott Boswell OCCP Program Manager told RDNO directors. “The main objective of this corridor is to maintain the natural areas, to protect the biodiversity and ensure the parks don’t become isolated.”

A variety of protection methods are being looked at from agriculture environmental plans, to official community plan amendments for municipalities and land use covenants.

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“You can see the complexity of the corridor, with parkland, Crown land, rural residential development, First Nations lands, and farm land. Just the length of this corridor and the complexity of the land use makes it challenging. We decided to come up with an action plan. For the next 12 months we will be working with 35 different organizations to ensure connectivity in the long term,” Boswell said.

Kal-Okanagan wildlife corridor (photo credit: OCCP/ONA)

There has been some initial research into corridors in the Monashee Valley and Coldstream, but no plans are currently being worked on. It is considered a major wildlife corridor connecting to Washington State.

Boswell indicated they would like to work with RDNO staff going forward.

The idea of wildlife corridors isn’t a new one but competing interests have made them difficult to achieve.

The Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) corridor is one of the largest plans in North America, and includes parts of the Okanagan. The initiative involves 450 organizations, and since 1993, the amount of protected area has been increased by 50 per cent.

You can view a power point of the Kal-Okanagan plan and related slides at this link.