Photo Credit: Michele Halleran

Kootenay Conservation Program (KCP), a partnership of over 85 organizations, leveraged significant funding in 2024 towards land stewardship in the North Kootenay Lake area that, in turn, supports community well-being. With funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada for the Kootenay Connect Priority Places initiative, KCP has brought in millions of dollars to support monitoring and restoration work throughout the Kootenays, including the north end of Kootenay Lake.
“We are extremely proud of KCP and the ability of our partnership to work collaboratively towards shared conservation goals that benefit local ecosystems and communities” says Juliet Craig, KCP Program Director. “Collectively, KCP partner organizations have a large conservation impact on wildlife and the habitats they depend upon in our region.”
In 2024, Kootenay Connect Priority Places funding continued to support species at risk surveys in the Duncan Lardeau area, with a record 32 Western painted turtles observed basking on logs in Argenta Slough. This conservation work enables a baseline for understanding local ecosystems, planning restoration efforts, and monitoring ecological health over time. Future work includes expanding and enhancing turtle habitat.
KCP has also leveraged conservation funding by working with the Regional District of Central Kootenay (RDCK) to establish the RDCK Local Conservation Fund, a dedicated fund to support high priority local conservation projects in Electoral Areas A, D, E, F, and H. Over the past decade, the RDCK Local Conservation Fund has provided 58 stewardship and land securement grants, contributing $740,000, which has leveraged nearly four times that amount in external grants and in-kind contributions.
With funding from both Kootenay Connect Priority Places and the RDCK Local Conservation Fund, three beavers that were translocated to the Duncan River floodplain in 2023 continued building dams and channels to increase water retention in the floodplain. By the end of September, wetlands in the upper portion of Argenta Slough had doubled in size. Later in the fall, despite the exceedingly low inflow below the Duncan Dam, the beavers’ efforts resulted in water levels on the Argenta Slough remaining nearly constant. Given the wildfires experienced in this area last summer, these beaver created and maintained wetlands have an important role to play in retaining water year-round, helping prevent wildfires, and providing refuge for wildlife.
Through the Bat Habitat Enhancement project, bat roosts were created, constructed with artificial BrandenBark™ and chainsaw cuts in wildlife trees to mimic habitat provided by old growth trees. Through creating more critical roosting habitat, this project led by the Wildlife Conservation Society of Canada supports bat recovery and essential ecosystem services such as mosquito control.
All this work would not be possible without the support of our local and regional funders, including Columbia Basin Trust and the Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program. The KCP Team and Board would like to acknowledge the important contribution of these funders, as well as KCP partners, as we look ahead to 2025 projects that continue to benefit ecosystem health and our north Kootenay Lake communities now and into the future.
For more information about these initiatives and much more, please visit KCP’s website at kootenayconservation.ca.

KCP