Amid concern that changes to British Columbia's Agricultural Land Commission will open up more Interior farmland to development comes news that the Nature Trust of British Columbia has bought its first property since 2012, in the Kootenays, and will be able to preserve those two hectares from construction.
The most likely kind of development on the land, near Elko in B.C.'s East Kootenay region, would be someone building a vacation home, Nature Trust CEO Jasper Lament told Business in Vancouver.
That kind of development may also have included a high fence to keep elk and deer from nibbling at someone's garden, he added.
The $118,000 purchase from the Tregilges family adds to 10.3 hectares that the Nature Trust previously bought from the Tregilgeses and another four hectares that it bought from the Tregilges in partnership with the provincial government.
"The family that has owned the land for generations has taken good care of it and have not developed it but the possibility is always there in the future if there were a change in ownership," Lament said.
The Nature Trust has spent more than $80 million to save 70,000 hectares of land in B.C. since the non-profit organization was created in 1971. That includes outright purchases, conservation covenants and leases.
The organization has an annual budget in the $2.5 million to $3 million range with money coming from donations, corporate partnerships and private foundation grants.
Its number of annual property purchases varies greatly given that there were seven purchases in 2012 and nothing since.
@GlenKorstrom
