BC Interior

Your Gift in Action

Your gift will conserve critical habitats and ensure a future for species at risk. It will also build healthier, more resilient ecosystems that provide essential benefits and services to people and their communities, while countering the effects of climate change and biodiversity loss.

Since 1962, NCC has brought Canadians together to conserve and restore more than 15 million hectares, coast to coast to coast. But we must do more faster and accelerate the pace of conservation. Every gift and donation counts.

BC Interior

From the sun-drenched valleys of the Okanagan-Similkameen to the vibrant grasslands of the Thompson Nicola and open forests of the Fraser Plateau, the interior of British Columbia hosts an array of beautiful and ecologically distinct landscapes.

Situated in the rain shadows of the high coastal mountain ranges, the BC Interior includes some of the driest and hottest places in Canada, as well as forested mountains and Douglas fir trees. This region accounts for more than 30 per cent of the province and is home to a great many at-risk species, some of which exist nowhere else. There are almost 100 different ecosystems in the BC Interior, including many that are unique to Canada.

The valleys in the south support a wide variety of wildlife, but they also appeal to developers. Large stretches of protected land are needed here to provide safe passage for migrating birds and wildlife. Threats include invasive species, catastrophic wildfires and declining water quality and quantity. Grasslands are shrinking, and almost 90 per cent of the Okanagan’s wetlands have already dried up.

By symbolically adopting BC Interior habitat, you are protecting several species at risk that depend on this landscape for survival, like American badger, burrowing owl, Lewis’ woodpecker and western painted turtle.

Photo 1: Lac du Bois Grasslands, photo by Brendan Matthews. Photo 2: Bunchgrass Hills, photo by NCC. Photo 3: Frolek ranch landscape, photo by NCC. Photo 4: South Okanagan Similkameen Natural Area, photo by Cori Lausen.