The Nature Trust of British Columbia was established in 1971 with a $4.5 million grant from the federal government in honour of the BC centennial. Since that time, we have continued to work with all levels of government. Local, provincial, federal and First Nation governments have been involved in supporting the organization. We have contributed land to municipal and regional parks, provincial wildlife areas, ecological reserves and parks, and national wildlife areas, through leases of our private conservation lands to our conservation partner agencies.
A key component of The Nature Trust of British Columbia’s success is our ability to partner with various levels of government to create or strengthen conservation areas through the addition of our lands. Over half of our land parcels are leased to the Province of BC for co-management with The Nature Trust of British Columbia and some are leased to local and federal governments.
Like all non-profit organizations that own land in BC, we are eligible to apply to individual municipalities to request property tax exemptions on our lands within each municipality. These tax exemptions are very important; as they allow us to focus our limited funding on land management activities.
The Nature Trust of British Columbia applies to various levels of government for project-specific funding on our properties throughout the province. We have been successful in requesting contributions for a wide range of land management initiatives, including Conservation Youth Crews and habitat protection and restoration initiatives.
