Published on : Thursday, July 3, 2014
Wildlife habitat on central Vancouver Island is better protected today following new additions to the Green Mountain Wildlife Management Area.
Today’s announcement by Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Minister Steve Thomson adds 105 hectares of highly productive alpine meadow and subalpine habitat on Crown land near Nanaimo.
The additions increase the overall size of the Green Mountain Wildlife Management Area by more than 40%. The WMA now covers a total of 342 hectares.
The area is important habitat for the endangered Vancouver Island marmot, and also is ideal terrain for Roosevelt elk, black bear and various threatened and endangered species including the white-tailed ptarmigan, western toad and northern pygmy owl.
The Green Mountain Wildlife Management Area was first established in 1991 to assist with Vancouver Island marmot recovery.
Recent marmot recovery efforts have had increasing success.
In 2008 there were an estimated 166 Vancouver Island marmots in the wild. Today they are estimated to number between 280 and 400.
The increase to the Green Mountain Wildlife Management Area will ensure they will have protected wild spaces as the populations continue to recover.
The Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations works to maintain and restore the province’s ecological diversity of fish and wildlife species and their habitats.
One way the ministry meets these goals is through the management of the province’s various types of conservation lands, including the establishment of wildlife management areas under Section 4 of the Wildlife Act.
This designation gives the ministry additional tools to manage the land and associated land uses.
Tags: central Vancouver Island, Wildlife habitat
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