This video, written and narrated by Ken Wu, and edited by Darryl Augustine, looks at incredible forest ecosytems, including the charismatic and endangered Garry Oak and Arbutus forest ecosystems found on eastern Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, the Sunshine Coast and the Lower Mainland where the cities of Victoria, Duncan, Nanaimo and much of Greater Vancouver is located, in the territories of diverse Salish First Nations.
Despite constituting less than 1% of BC’s land area, most of the population lives here, with the greatest concentrations of species at risk in the province.
A provincial land acquisition fund from the BC NDP government is vital to purchase and protect private lands with these endangered ecosystems, and unprotected Crown lands and unused Department of National Defense lands with quality habitat should be sought for protection including as Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCA’s) by the provincial and federal governments, who must provide the critical conservation funding for interested First Nations whose unceded lands these are.