Private lands within the Great Bear Rainforest donated for conservation

A vast tract of pristine waterfront within British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest has been donated to the Nature Conservancy of Canada, filling in part of a patchwork of conservation efforts in the prized wilderness.

Parcels of private land are scattered throughout the Great BearRainforest that stretches along B.C.'s central coast. It accounts for one-quarter of the world'scoastal temperate rainforests.

Only about one-third of the rainforest is fully protected underparks and conservation areas, while nine per cent of the total areais available for logging.

"Ecology doesn't respect who owns the land," Linda Hannah,regional vice president for Nature Conservancy of Canada, saidduring the announcement on Thursday.

"To create a larger network of conservation, it's important tolook at those pockets of private lands."

The newly donated private lands along the coast will protectanother 185 hectares of ecologically significant old-growth forestsand estuaries.

Three of the parcels were donated to the conservancy by the ownerTony Allard and his family. Hannah said Allard wanted to leave alegacy by preserving the land in its natural state.

Hannah said the addition will help improve forest management byallowing for research to occur in more areas and determine whereconservation efforts need to be focused.

One of the donated parcels is located on Spider Island where allof the land, except that property, had been protected as Crownterritory.

Hannah said a provincial program exists that protects wildlife onthe marine archipelago but the private parcel was left out.

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With the private land now belonging to the Nature Conservancy ofCanada, Hannah said the whole island will beprotected.

The rainforest is home to a number of endangered or threatenedspecies and supports some of the most dense populations of black andgrizzly bears in the province, along with the white kermode orspirit bear.

Director of conservation, Nancy Newhouse, said private propertywithin the rainforest tends to be located on the highest qualityland.

"The people and the animals are looking for the same values inland so it's typically going to be in valley bottoms, in estuaries,in places that there is good water and good soil," Newhouse said.

The newly conserved parcels include the Gullchucks Estuary,Spider Island, and the Geldala and Kiidiis shores that sit oppositeof Rivers Inlet.

The conservancy says protections on these lands will be funded bya mixture of government and private donors.

On Monday, Premier Christy Clark announced the Great BearRainforest will be endorsed under the Queen's Commonwealth Canopyinitiative aimed to conserve forests around the globe.

The endorsement will be made officially when the Duke and Duchessof Cambridge visit the rainforest as part of the Royal Tour laterthis month.