West Chilcotin land donation completes protection of Tatlayoko Valley

A pristine area of the West Chilcotin has now been preserved.

After 15 years, the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) has received the final land donation needed to protect the Tatlayoko Valley, an area about 165 km southwest of Williams Lake.

"The Tatlayoko Valley is this critical link between the rainforest at the Pacific Coast and the dry grasslands of the central Interior," said the conservancy's West Coast program director Tanya Wahbe.

'Breathtaking'

The preserve is now 2,700 acres or nearly 11 square kilometres in size. It include key habitats for many species including a number of at-risk creatures like the northern red-legged frog and Lewis's woodpecker.

"It's just breathtaking," said Wahbe.

"You can just imagine the grizzly bears and cougars that roamed through that landscape," she said.

"Wide-ranging species are able to move though the Tatlayoko Valley as they did thousands of years ago"

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The final piece of land that just been added to the preserveborders the north end of Tatlayoko Lake.

It was donated by Joerg Fischer and his wife Hannelore. They first visited the area in the 1980's and fell in love with the region.

The couple first offered to sell the land to the conservancy 15 years ago, but it's only recently that they decided to donate the piece of property.

"We promised ourselves we would conserve this beautiful place, and now, thanks to our partnership with the Nature Conservancy of Canada, we have fulfilled this dream," said Joerg Fischer.

The public will still have some access to the land even though it is now part of the conservation area.

"Where habitat sensitivityis not a concernthen we make sure that those lands are protected but remain available for public use," said Wahbe.

NCC started working on protecting the area in 2000 withthe Tatlayoko Lake Ranch.

Afterconservingthe ranch, the conservancy expanded the area though including theLincoln Creek Ranch, Enchantment, Skinner Meadow, Moore Lake and, most recently, the Joerg FischerConservationArea.