SOSCP works with Transboundary Partners
As one of the biodiversity strategy’s strategic directions, SOSCP has been supporting connectivity planning initiatives with partners in Canada and the USA. In April, SOSCP shared environmental planner Alison Peatt, attended the Great Northern Landscape Conservation Cooperative (GNLCC) workshop in Bozeman, Montana. The partnership is a network of U.S. federal, Canadian provincial and federal, Tribal Nations, state, academic, and conservation organizations. Working to achieve a collective landscape vision, they are planning robust ecosystem connectivity between Canada and the US covering nearly 300 million acres extending from the interior of B.C. to southwest Wyoming.
Closer to home, Peatt attended a Transboundary Climate-Connectivity Project workshop at the North Cascades Environmental Learning Center in June. The focus was transboundary connectivity planning in the context of climate change. Participants included climate scientists, provincial government staff, First Nations representatives, and NGOs. Working with a science team that focuses on the Washington-BC border, SOSCP has been supporting the review of species models and transboundary connectivity to facilitate long term species movement.
SOSCP is also collaborating with Okanagan Collaborative Conservation Program, Okanagan Nation Alliance, Conservation Northwest and others to initiate pilot habitat connectivity projects in the Okanagan, aimed at enhancing opportunities for retaining connectivity, focusing on site specific locations in the north-central and south Okanagan-Similkameen regions.