Local conservation groups raising funds to protect Deep Bay propert

A local conservation group is helping raise money to protect a more than 120-acre parcel of land in Deep Bay.

The Comox Valley Land Trust is helping raise money to protect the property in perpetuity.

Executive director Tim Ennis said the land is special and unique because it includes mature forest, wetlands, salmon-bearing streams, estuary and shoreline habitat.

“It’s one of the only unprotected parcels of coastline along eastern Vancouver Island’s shoreline,” said Ennis. “It connects a really significantly large amount of protected area upland through creeks and rivers down to the shoreline.”

The BC Parks Foundation has an agreement to purchase the property for $4 million, with $395,000 still needed from the community by Sept. 30.

The Comox Valley Land Trust and Nanaimo and Area Land Trust have each committed $50,000 toward the purchase.

The property sits next to another 83-acre parcel already protected by the BC Parks Foundation.

“Places like this don’t come along very often. It’s one of those rare spots where forest, wetland, estuary, and ocean still meet the way they’re meant to,” said Andy Day, BC Parks Foundation’s CEO. “By protecting this land now, we’re keeping salmon moving through its creeks, birds returning to the estuary year after year, and the shoreline doing its job of filtering water before it reaches the Salish Sea. Opportunities to protect an intact land-to-sea system like this are increasingly rare, and stepping up here makes a real difference for this coast and all the life that depends on it.”

Click here to donate to the campaign.

– Article includes link from Comox Valley Land Trust