"Development of land for recreational housing is the single greatest threat to wildlife habitat in B.C. today. Any area within 3 hours of a major city may be considered at risk." CBC Radio

Our Society, the Kirksland Restoration Society, has been working for 4 years to keep the grasslands and treefarm of the Edgewater District as productive range for both wildlife and the community. Our latest challenge is to present a satisfactory alternative to the concept of a "recreational paradise" covering the Upper Columbia. To begin with, the word "paradise" is from the Persian for "WALLED GARDEN", or a zoo - something wildlife could not get into or out of. So much for "paradise" co-existing with wild animal populations where seasonal and daily movement to and within protected rangeland is the key to survival! We believe that land of this value to wildlife, agriculture and the community is best kept as it is, that although this land has been low in the resources conducive to a dense human settlement, it shines with potential as fine habitat for wildlife. The Edgewater Rangelands were once open grasslands and legendary in historical times for winter grazing, it was called the finest looking land in the country by the explorers of the Palliser Expedition. A trail from the foothills through the Luxor pass brought the wildlife, the livestock of the natives, and the first settlers down what is now the Camp 3 road into the winter-grazing of the Edgewater Range. Camp 3, a work camp on the still-functional Edgewater Flume, is located just 3 miles out of town. In more recent times, this area just north of Edgewater sufficed as choice hunting grounds for guide-outfitters, offering various species of game animals in its range of habitats. The guides would boast that a hunting trip might only take that three mile ride out of town. This would take them to the head of the historic Luxor Trail, believed to be used heavily by wildlife. This ancestral trail brought wildlife right into the rangelands of the Edgewater District and under the guns of the hunters. Our sensiblities have changed since then but the requirements of wildlife to move freely has not. Now in the process of designation, the "Old Vermilion Trail" has had a summers clearing to help enable it to serve as a mountain thorough-fare once more.

These days the the herds are less numerous - some of these productive ranges have filled-up with forest in-growth, stifling the animals’ forage and the winter shelter of the old-growth canopy has been deforested as part of the tree-farm plan. Even though the area offers some of the best potential wildlife habitat in South Eastern B.C., a habitat restoration program is vital to the survival and increase of wildlife in the area. As Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation has determined, there is a substantial reduction in the quantity of wildlife supportable on grassland range that is settled by humans. Now, with pressures for human settlement on the increase, it is the travel corridors to and from the winter grazing in the wetlands that need to be protected as well, particularly if, like the Luxor Trail bottleneck, it is one of a kind. Grassland range is a vanishing feature in this Province as most benchland is privately-owned and at risk of human development. Only a co-ordinated effort by the people of the region, the land- owners and the authorities can keep valuable land aside for wildlife. At the present time it is still possible to reserve this ”land at the end of the trail” for the purpose it seems most suited. The Habitat Restoration Proposal of the Kirksland has been in progress for many years, approved and supported by the most knowlegable Conservation Foundations in this country. There is a large group of concerned citizens who believe Habitat Restoration is the best alternative and that such a project would pay dividends to us and generations to follow by developing a flourishing habitat for wildlife and the rural community in a world where this is becoming a rare thing. Barry Moore KRS

EVEN WITH THE NEW REALISM, DEVELOPMENT PRESSURE MAY STILL DRIVE THE PLANNING PROCESS FOR LAND IN THE PROTECTED AGRICULTURAL AND MANAGED FOREST CLASS.

Kirksland, the thin sliver of privately-owned land along the west border of Kootenay National Park joining it and Crown forestland to the Columbia Wetlands is highest in priority for Habitat Restoration in the SE Interior of BC. It has been the focus a well-financed drive to suburbanize it and of community-based efforts to restore its ecosytem, so economically vital to the rural and tourism economies.

CAN WE MAINTAIN OUR WAY OF LIFE AND OUR WILDLIFE?