Contributor: Heather MacLeod and Sara Muir
Location: Lower Mainland, British Columbia
Land Use: Settlement
Habitat Type:
Project Timeline: 1997-1999
Highlights
The Denman Stewardship Project is a landowner contact stewardship program which works to encourage landowners to voluntarily preserve valuable natural areas on private lands. Project activities have included landowner contact, site visits, preparation of stewardship plans for each property visited, wildlife monitoring, participation in community events and delivery of an extensive education program.
Denman is a northern British Columbia Gulf Island situated in the Strait of Georgia. Denman features a wide range of habitats in a relatively small geographical area and supports a diversity of wildlife populations. Denman is rare among Gulf Islands, supporting numerous wetland ecosystems and 2 salmon-bearing streams. The coastline consists of 60 kilometers of stunning cliffs and coastal flats, which contain unique geological features and rare fossils. While, the foreshore includes important salt marshes and productive eel grass beds. The terrestrial landscape includes agricultural lands as well as 3000 hectares of forestland representative of the endangered Coastal Douglas Fir forest.
Denman’s terrestrial, fresh water, and marine habitats are home to at least 150 bird species, 27 mammal species, 15 species of amphibians and reptiles, at least 3 fresh water and anadromous fish species as well as abundant marine species and a host of invertebrates. Twenty wildlife/fish species found on Denman Island are classified as Red- or Blue-listed on the BC’s endangered species list. The preservation of Denman’s ecosystems is of international significance. Denman is situated on the Pacific Flyway for migratory birds, and the island’s numerous wetlands provide critical breeding and over-wintering habitat along the migratory route.
To assist in the preservation of Denman’s significant ecosystems, The Denman Stewardship Project was initiated. The Denman Stewardship Project is a landowner contact stewardship program that has worked to encourage landowners to voluntarily preserve valuable natural areas on private lands. The project has been active on Denman Island from June 1997 to March 1999. Project activities have included landowner contact, site visits, and preparation of stewardship plans for each property visited, wildlife monitoring, participation in community events and delivery of an extensive education program.
Project Objectives
The objectives of the Denman Stewardship Project were to- secure 600 hectares (12% of Denman Island) of privately owned land for habitat protection by obtaining stewardship commitments from private landowners
- involve land stewards in wildlife and habitat monitoring projects on their properties in order to assess the Denman Stewardship Project’s success in protecting wildlife.
In 1997, just as the Stewardship Project began, an off-island logging company purchased over 4000 acres, an equivalent of 35% of the island’s land base. The purchase of this land for industrial logging made the Stewardship Program’s objectives of protecting 12% of the island’s entire landscape a significant challenge.
To address this challenge, the Denman Conservancy Association (DCA) has been active in seeking any possible stewardship for the forest lands. The conditions of sale of the forest lands required the current owner to place conservation covenants on narrow buffer zones along two highly sensitive areas. The DCA took the lead in the covenanting process, working with the present landowner to ensure that the buffer zones will be created. Negotiations are ongoing.
The DCA has also embarked on a massive fund raising initiative to acquire lands for preservation. The acquisition campaign will focus on nine parcels of land. The first parcel selected for acquisition is Chickadee Lake, an 80-acre parcel enclosing all of the lake except parts of two adjacent sedge marshes. Unfortunately, six of the other prospective acquisition parcels have been logged.
The Denman Stewardship Project began to take shape in 1996. At this time, the Denman Conservancy Association (DCA) developed a Stewardship Committee in response to requests from island residents for information about options to protect habitat on private land. In September of 1996, the DCA circulated a Land Protection Options Questionnaire to all island residents to gauge public support for a stewardship project. The residents responded favourably to the survey, which directed the DCA to conduct research into the development of a Denman stewardship initiative.
Two exemplary Canadian stewardship projects, the Natural Heritage League in Ontario and the Cowichan-Chemainus Stewardship Project in British Columbia, greatly influenced the project during its early development phase. Landowner contact procedures and administrative structures developed by these organizations were adopted. The project also benefited from participation in the Private Land Stewardship Committee of the British Columbia Stewardship Pledge Program that was jointly funded by Wildlife Habitat Canada, Environment Canada, The Ministry of Water, Air and Land Protection and the Habitat Conservation Trust Fund.
The unique format of the Stewardship Project was determined by Denman’s ‘island identity.’ A long-term conservation strategy for Denman required that the island ecosystem be protected from fragmentation in its entirety. Therefore, the Denman Stewardship Project had to establish a network of stewardship lands across the entire island landscape. An island-wide approach to stewardship would aim to protect significant and vulnerable habitats and wetlands, as well as remnants of coastal Douglas-fir forest, as these habitats are distributed throughout the island.
Characteristics of the Denman Island community also influenced the Stewardship Project. Tremendous community spirit exists on Denman. It was recognized that the Denman Stewardship Project would have to be a community project that islanders could embrace with enthusiasm and sense of commitment. The project, to be most successful, would also have to recognize individuality, a highly respected community value.
The Denman Stewardship Project became a truly ‘community project’ by providing opportunities to participate in this unique stewardship activity to all island landowners, regardless of the size of their properties or whether they resided on or off the island. The project’s Voluntary Stewardship Pledge (which was signed by all the landowners involved in the project) and the Stewardship Award Plaques were essential unifying and community building features of the project. The project recognized individuality by preparing a stewardship plan for each stewarded property. The stewardship plans honoured the landowner’s individual approach to conscientious land use on their unique property.
Landowner Contact
On July 10, 1997, the Denman Stewardship Project made initial contact with island landowners by mailing a letter introducing the Denman Stewardship Project to the island’s 550 permanent households and 400 off- island landowners. The letter invited landowners to telephone the project coordinator to book a site visit or to visit the Denman Island Stewardship information office.Throughout the project, and particularly during the summer of 1997, it was important for project staff to take the lead in initiating site visits. Project staff telephoned potential land stewards to discuss their willingness to participate in the Stewardship Project. The project also benefited from the numerous networking opportunities available in a relatively small community because project staff were able to discuss stewardship opportunities with community members during informal community meetings.
Participation in community events was also an important component of the landowner contact. The project’s first community event was the Denman Fall Fair in September 1997. Islanders were able to discuss the project with the staff as well as view the map of Denman’s growing number of stewarded lands. Participation of the Denman Stewardship Project in the Fall Fair resulted in three people signing up for site visits and one person requesting information regarding land covenants. Between September 1997 and March 1999 the project participated in seven community events and sponsored 19 workshops which also provided networking opportunities.
By the end of September 1997, the project staff began to receive numerous requests for site visits from interested landowners. Many landowners indicated that the possibility of receiving a stewardship plan and a stewardship award plaque motivated their participation in the project. Key to the project’s success at continuing to involve new landowners in stewardship over the course of the project was the consistent emphasis of the stewardship’s voluntary nature. Some landowners feared that the project was a mechanism for controlling land use, however most landowners were willing to arrange a site visit after receiving a full explanation of the projects intent.
Stewardship Site Visits
Site visits of the land stewards’ properties were carried out over the course of the project. Site visits were conducted to record the natural features of the property as well as to record landowners’ plans to protect these features. These site visits also assisted landowners in identifying native plants and animal species and enabled landowners to understand the interrelationship of these species with the habitat their land provided. The data collected during the site visit was incorporated into the landowner’s stewardship plan for the property.Stewardship Plans
Stewardship plans provided present and future landowners of the property with a written record of the site visit in order to support stewardship activities over the long term. The plan provided a holistic perspective for sustaining the natural features on the property. It included a written description of the land’s natural features, its history and the landowners’ conservation goals as well as tables of native plants and animal species and a sketch map of the property.Draft stewardship plans were prepared during the site visit with the aid of a laptop computer and printer. The plans provided immediate reinforcement and encouragement of the landowner’s vision and stewardship goals as the plan was drafted with the assistance of the landowners and was presented to them upon completion of the site visit. In addition to the written record of the site visit, landowners also received an information folder containing a project evaluation form, a copy of the Stewardship Series booklet, “Stewardship Options for Private Landowners in British Columbia,” and a Project Evaluation Questionnaire. Landowners were provided with an opportunity to edit the draft plan, and could then forward these changes to the stewardship clerk who prepared a final copy.
Confidentiality was a concern to landowners. The success of the Denman Stewardship Project was due in part to allowing landowners to control access to their site visit data. Landowners were able to classify data as ‘confidential’ or ‘conservation use only.’ Data classified ‘conservation use only’ could be accessed by the public but only upon the condition that the applicant sign the DCA’s memorandum of understanding whereby the applicant must agree to use the data strictly for conservation purposes. Data classified as ‘confidential’ is accessible by landowners only.
Landowners consistently expressed their appreciation of the stewardship plans. The plans were a tangible expression of the deep feelings of care and pride that land stewards felt for their land. As such, these plans will serve to strongly reinforce landowners’ good intentions over time because people are most likely to act upon what they care most deeply about.
Stewardship Pledge
All participating land stewards signed the project’s voluntary stewardship pledge. The Denman pledge resembled stewardship pledges used by other projects in that it asks landowners to respect biodiversity and wildlife habitat as well as to inform the project of any significant changes to the land use, including sale of the property. However, the Denman pledge specifically addressed the stewardship plan, committing landowners to protect documented natural features.The pledge was discussed during the site visit. Landowners were informed that the pledge represents the “community component” of the Stewardship Project. Through the pledge, all individual landowners were united by a collective commitment to care for the land to the best of their ability.
Wildlife and Habitat Initiatives
Wildlife monitoring must begin with knowledgeable monitors. This is true whether wildlife participants are monitoring their backyard or completing an environmental impact assessment. If the public is doing the monitoring, education must be offered and monitors assessed. For this reason, the Stewardship Project conducted a series of wildlife workshops. The workshops had two primary purposes. First they were intended to raise general awareness and caring for the many fish, wildlife and plant species that shared the island. These workshops exposed many islanders to their first view of the Northwestern Salamander (Ambystoma gracile). The workshops also provided technical information about wildlife species on Denman Island to enable the public to know and to record wildlife and plants. The Stewardship Project provided 15 wildlife workshops and cosponsored three other education programs on a wide range of topics from birds and bats to plant phenology and wetlands.Because the Stewardship Project aimed to involve as many people as possible in monitoring wildlife, the monitoring wildlife projects were able to function at two levels. Certain projects such as the swan count, Christmas and spring bird counts, deer count and salmon habitat assessment used existing accomplished monitors and produced publishable results. For other efforts, such as the mapping of properties, the public was initiated into the role of wildlife recorder during stewardship visits and workshops. The educational aspects of the Stewardship Project were intended to lay the foundations for, not only a more wildlife knowledgeable public, but also for a greater pool of interested and accomplished monitors for ongoing and future monitoring efforts.
Evaluation
All land stewards were presented with a Denman Stewardship Project Evaluation Questionnaire upon completion of the site visit. Project staff suggested that land stewards return their completed questionnaire to the stewardship clerk along with their edited stewardship plan.Land stewards’ feedback was important not only to ensure that the project’s methods of conducting the site visit were effective but also to ensure that the Stewardship Project was addressing community conservation issues and expressing community values. The evaluation questionnaire also asked land stewards to indicate how they would like to see stewardship on Denman supported over the long term.
From August 1997 to March 1999, the project conducted 118 site visits, which resulted in the landowners of 114 properties pledging to steward nearly 1200-acres of private land (nearly 15% of the land base outside of the land purchased for logging, with a total of 9% of the entire island landscape). Stewardship lands cover the island from its northern bay, to the border of Boyle Point Provincial Park on Denman’s southern tip. Denman Island’s wetlands and salmon bearing-streams are well woven into this network of protected lands.
The Denman stewardship project also involved land stewards in wildlife monitoring in order to assess the success of stewardship in protecting wildlife habitat. In addition, the project worked with the provincial Urban Salmon Habitat Program to assess the habitat quality of two Denman salmon-bearing streams, Beadnell Creek and Valens Brook. In February 1999, neighbourhood meetings were convened to discuss the findings regarding each of the creeks to ascertain public willingness to resolve the problems identified.
The extensive education program implemented by the project served to increase awareness and appreciation of stewardship values. The project delivered 15 wildlife workshops. In addition, the project worked in partnership with the Denman Island Community School to present two summer science day camps for children and adults as well as to sponsor a school based wetland program delivered by the Vancouver based Friends of Boundary Bay. The project also hosted a West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation Conservation Covenants workshop, which presented information on legally binding forms of land protection to islanders.
As a result of the Denman Stewardship Project, a network of stewarded lands has been established across the unique island landscape. The project has developed a sound foundation for the continued support and growth of stewardship on Denman Island. Landowners have not only responded positively to site visits, stewardship plans and workshops, but they have also been enthusiastic about the development of the community stewardship program and the development of stewardship neighbourhoods across the island.
The proven ability to protect significant ecosystems through landowner stewardship, alongside strong community support for the Denman Stewardship Project has encouraged the Denman Conservancy Association (DCA) to continue, on a voluntary basis, with this unique private landowner stewardship initiative. Elements of the Denman Stewardship Project that will continue into the future include
Site Visits
The DCA will continue to conduct a number of site visits each year. DCA Directors and others who have worked together over the last two years will continue to offer support and expertise to both committed and new land stewards.Stewardship Plans
Draft stewardship plans will continue to be produced during site visits. The project has developed ‘do-it-yourself’ stewardship plans for landowners who wish to take themselves through the process of developing their own stewardship plan for their private land.Landowner Recognition
The Denman Stewardship Project has 30 Stewardship Awards Plaques that will be awarded over time to new land stewards, and these new stewards will periodically be added to the Denman Land Stewards Recognition Marker. Wildlife tree plaques will also continue to be distributed.Workshops
On the Denman Stewardship Project evaluation, land stewards indicated interest in workshops. To address this interest, the project will continue to offer the Plankton workshop (a video of the workshop will also be produced for distribution) and the Bat House Building workshop. Other types of workshops are currently being considered.Wildlife Monitoring Projects
As follow-up to the July 1998 Bat House Building workshop, the Denman Stewardship Project will offer a Bat-Monitoring Project. And, the Spring Bird Count will continue to be conducted, alongside the Swan Count, the Deer Count and the Christmas Bird Count.Communications
Stewardship Project volunteers will publish at least one more article in the Denman Flagstone. The article will outline the projects successes to date, and indicate the intention to continue the Denman Stewardship Project into the future on a voluntary basis.
Acknowledgements
The Denman Stewardship Project wished to thank the agencies that provided funding support:
- Environment Canada’s ecoACTION 2000
- Habitat Conservation Trust Fund
- Urban Salmon Habitat Project
- Wildlife Habitat Canada
- Human Resource Development Canada.
The Denman Stewardship Project also wished to thank the community members, agencies and organizations who provided support and assistance for the project: Cowichan Community Land Trust Program; West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation; Chris Pielou; Janice Hayward; Teresa Duynstee; Peter Karsten; Mike Morrell; John Tayless; Brain Miles; Richard Porter; Daniel Terry; Susan Holroyd; Pam Willis; Jim Aiken; Graham Suther; Wendy Pope; Keith Keller; Bill Turner; Doug Olstead; Paul Scanlon; Julia Blanchet; Jim Matthew; Jean Allan; Jennifer LeBaron; Louise Bell, Island’s Trustee; Island’s Trust Fund; Tracy Michalski; Jaspal Rai; Maureen Wayne; Rochelle Allison; Friends of Boundary Bay; Project Watershed; Denman Island Community School; Om Mogerman; Private Land Stewardship Committee of British Columbia (Stewardship Pledge Program).
The Project thanks the Denman Conservancy Association for its vision and ongoing support as well as the Stewardship committee: Jenny Balke; Juan Barker; Anne de Cosson; Peter Karsten; Bentley LeBaron, and; Heather MacLeod for stewarding the project.
Finally, to the Community of Denman Island and the Denman Land Stewards the Denman Stewardship Project expresses special thanks. Thank you for sharing your deep appreciation for our beautiful island and all of its residents, great and small, as well as your visions and your hope for the future.
Recognition and Awards
Annual Land Steward Recognition Ceremonies
In March of 1998 and 1999, the project held recognition ceremonies to honour Denman Island’s land stewards. The purpose of the events was to celebrate the project’s successes, to bring individual land stewards together as a stewardship community and to recognize the individual efforts made by land stewards to preserve Denman’s natural features. The celebrations also provided opportunities for land stewards to voice their appreciation for the project and for the efforts of other land stewards in the community.
The March 1999 Recognition was highlighted by two special features. First, several long time residents of Denman were invited to attend the ceremony as honoured “historians.” Land stewards had an opportunity to ask these historians questions about their lands and add this information to their stewardship plans. Second, the project unveiled a beautiful Land Stewards Recognition Marker bearing the names of all of the project’s land stewards as well as the project’s funding providers. The stewardship marker was designed and created by a member of the Denman Conservancy Board. The marker will be permanently installed in a public location on Denman Island although a final location for the marker has not yet been determined.
Stewardship Award Plaques
The presentation of Stewardship Award Plaques was an important and highly successful aspect of the project’s landowner recognition program. In the course of the 3-year program, a total of three land stewards were recognized for excellent stewardship participation, and each received an award plaque. The Stewardship Award plaques were designed to allow landowners to personalize their plaques with a decal bearing a property or family name. The personalized plaques were also a way for the project to recognize individuality. Examples of property names include Frogwatch Farm, Kla-how-ya, Newt Narrows and Cedar Blest.
Two other plaques were developed for landowners: The Salmon Habitat Stewardship Plaque and the Wildlife Tree Plaque. The Salmon Habitat Stewardship Plaque was presented to the landowners of properties bordering the two salmon bearing streams on Denman Island. The Wildlife Tree Plaques were provided to the landowners to identify the trees on their property as ‘critical habitat’- trees that were used by an abundance of wildlife.
Landowners consistently expressed both their appreciation for the project’s recognition of their efforts and their pride in displaying the plaques. As islanders’ participation in stewardship has increased, the display of stewardship plaques expressed islanders’ shared vision of conscientious land use and conservation.
Contacts
Denman Conservancy Association
Stewardship Project
PO Box 60
Denman Island, BC Canada
V0R 1T0
www.denmanconservancy.org
Email: info@denmanconservancy.org
Partners
The success of the Denman Island Stewardship Project is a result of a committed partnership among the many individuals and Denman Island community members, including: Jenny Balke; Juan Barker; Anne de Cosson; Peter Karsten; Bentley LeBaron; Heather MacLeod; Janice Hayward; Chris Pielou; Teresa Duynstee; Peter Karsten; Mike Morrell; John Tayless; Brain Miles; Richard Porter; Daniel Terry; Susan Holroyd; Pam Willis; Jim Aiken; Graham Suther; Wendy Pope; Keith Keller; Bill Turner; Doug Olstead; Paul Scanlon; Julia Blanchet; Jim Matthew; Jean Allan; Jennifer LeBaron; Louise Bell, Island’s Trustee; Tracy Michalski; Maureen Wayne; Rochelle Allison; and, Om Mogerman.
Other important partnering agencies and organizations who supported the project include
- Denman Conservancy Association
- Environment Canada’s ecoACTION 2000
- Habitat Conservation Trust Fund
- Urban Salmon Habitat Project
- Wildlife Habitat Canada
- Human Resource Development Canada
- Cowichan Community Land Trust Program
- West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation
- Island’s Trust Fund
- Private Land Stewardship Committee of British Columbia (Stewardship Pledge Program)
- Friends of Boundary Bay
- Project Watershed
- Denman Island Community School.
Project Partner Contacts
Habitat Conservation Trust Fund
PO Box 9354
Stn. Prov. Government
Victoria, BC Canada
V8W 9M1
Fax: (250) 952-6684
Denman Conservancy Association
Heather MacLeod
Stewardship Project
PO Box 60
Denman Island, BC Canada
V0R 1T0
Phone: (250) 335-0933
Email: kkeller@island.net