Proposed Conservation Area In The Mansons Bay Forest

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - The Nature Trust of British Columbia wants to purchase 35.7 acres in the Mansons Bay Forest for a land conservancy. They have already raised about half of the necessary funding and have until December 31 to rise the remaining $408,000.  “One of the landowners has come forward, and they're interested in selling the land for conservation. They've never developed the land, and they'd like to see it stay in the intact condition that it is right now. We are working with them to purchase the land so that we can prevent the conversion of habitat to residential use and maintain the habitat values for the species at risk that live on Cortes Island,” explained Dr Jasper Lament, CEO of the Nature Trust of Canada. “The Mansons Bay Forest lands are located near Mansons Bay and quite close to Mansons Landing Provincial Park. It has some forest on it that's over a century old and then scattered veteran trees that are over 200 years old. There's habitat for species at risk including Barn Swallows, Band-tailed Pigeons, and Common Nighthawks.” The associated press kit also mentions “Evening Grosbeaks, Purple Martins, Olive-sided Flycatchers, and Northern Red-legged Frogs, all of which are of SARA Special Concern.” “Marbled Murrelets are one example of a species-at-risk that has been observed in the ocean waters surrounding Cortes Island. These small seabirds can travel over a hundred kilometres a day between their inland nest sites located in large areas of old forest and marine foraging areas, where they hunt for small fish to feed their chicks. Murrelets are unusual among seabirds because of their solitary and secretive nesting requirements. They avoid predators by flying silently at high speeds (greater than 80 km/h) during dark twilight to visit their secluded forest nests.”   Jasper Lament: “These are just examples of over a dozen at risk species that have been observed within one kilometer of this important forested parcel.” Cortes Currents: What about animal species? I would imagine you have wolves going through there at least. Jasper Lament: "We don't have wildlife cameras up on this particular parcel but if we did, we might detect wolves, black tailed deer, cougar, mink, etc. There's definitely the potential for those species."
    Cortes Currents: Tell me about  your organization.   Jasper Lament: "The Nature Trust of British Columbia is a land conservation organization that was founded back in 1971, and since then the Nature Trust of BC has conserved over 180,000 acres of land across British Columbia." "Cortes Island is one of the landscapes where the Nature Trust has worked. The first project  was back in the early 1980s, when the Nature Trust acquired Hague Lake Island."