Cowichan Community Land Trust SocietyOrganization Mandate
The Cowichan Community Land Trust Society (CCLT) is committed to conserving, protecting, and enhancing the quality of the human and natural environment in and near the Cowichan Valley Regional District
CCLT promotes:
Placement of land in trust for this and future generations of all life
Land stewardship and the establishment of natural habitat reserves, and
Community participation in land stewardship and preservation
Locations
STEWARDSHIP PROJECT
In the Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD), town of Duncan and the District of North Cowichan. Focuses on the Cowichan-Chemainus Lowlands.
Included in this area are the Cowichan/Koksilah and Chemainus estuaries.
Falls in the Somenos Lake and Quamichan Lake watersheds.
Creeks: Richards Creek, SomenosCreek, Bing Creek, Averill Creek , and Bonsal Creek
TZOUHALEM PROTECTION PROJECT
The study area is within the CVRD and extends into the Disrtict of North Cowichan.
Area located east of the town of Duncan includes the communities of Maple Bay and Cowichan Bay.
Other waterbodies included in this area are Bird?s Eye Cove and Genoa Bay.
Creeks: Bird?s Eye Cove Creek, Genoa Bay Creek, Stoney Hill Creek, and Tzouhalem Creek.
COWICHAN FRESHWATER STEWARDSHIP PROJECT
This project focused on the area within the CVRD including the towns of Ladysmith, Duncan and Mill Bay.
Creeks: Porter Creek, Rocky Creek, Bannon Creek, Stocking Creek, Bonsall Creek, Garnett Creek, Shawnigan Creek, and Richards/Somenos/Bing/Averill Creek system.
COWICHAN INTERTIDAL STEWARDSHIP PROJECT
In and near the CVRD and focused on owners of ocean wterfront property. Included Maple Bay, Bird?s Eye Cove, Genoa Bay and Cowichan Bay.
Current Activities and Projects
SENSITIVE ECOSYSTEM STEWARDSHIP PROJECT
The eastern coastal lowland of Vancouver Island and the adjacent Gulf Islands comprise a unique ecological region in Canada, with exceptionally high biodiversity values and many rare and endangered plant and animal species. Intense development pressure in the Cowichan Valley has resulted in the fragmentation and loss of many of these rare ecosystems. As a result, an inventory was initiated by organizations, such as the Canadian Wildlife Service and the Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks which became the sensitive ecosystem inventory of 1993. A number of areas in the Cowichan Valley have been identified as part of the Sensitive Ecosystem Inventory (SEI).
Building on the resources and contacts made during the successful CCLT stewardship projects between 1995-1999, the Sensitive Ecosystem Stewardship Project has further built up our connections with both landowners and other local community groups in our effort to help protect and learn more about the sensitive ecosystems within the Cowichan Valley. A specialized landowner contact program was designed to contact and build up relations from a neighborhood and individual landowner level, combined with a community education and a marketing program. Voluntary stewardship agreements and legally binding conservation covenants were made in the project area. Landowners with previously identified sensitive ecosystems, as well as the larger community, have been invited to assist with and participate in each aspect of the project.
We have also held a number of workshops which have been open to the public for their participation. These workshops include: Conservation Covenant workshop, Streamkeepers, Sensitive Ecosystem Inventory workshop and a Naturescape workshop
Completed Activities and Projects
Stewardship Project
The Cowichan Community Land Trust Society Stewardship Project was a natural areas stewardship program which conducted landowner contact on privately-owned land in and near the Cowichan ?Chemainus Lowlands on Vancouver Island. The project involved identification of environmentally significant areas on private lands, landowner contact through a letter campaign and networking activities, site visits and assessments, provision of management plans and information about legal tools for conservation.
The primary objectives of the project were to provide private landowners of environmentally significant areas with information and assistance to achieve their conservation objectives, and to encourage landowners to commit to voluntary or legal stewardship agreements. A program of community education and awareness was implemented to provide further information to landowners and creat additional public awareness.
Tzouhalem Protection Project
The Tzouhalem Protection Project was an intensified landowner contact program focusing on the Mt. Tzouhalem/Stoney Hill area of the Cowichan Valley. The project involved a landowner contact program coupled with educational workshops and presentations designed to raise local awareness of the ecological sensitivity of the area and encourage land stewardship and the use of conservation covenants as a protection tool. A series of brochures and a manual were developed to help compliment these efforts.
Cowichan Intertidal Stewardship Project
The Cowichan Intertidal Stewardship Project was a marine stewardship project which occurred on privately owned foreshore land in and near the Cowichan Valley. The project involved the production of a marine stewardship handbook called Caring for Our Shores: A Handbook for Coastal Landowners in the Straight of Georgia, a landowner contact program, and a series of workshops and presentation geared towards educating the community about intertidal ecology and preservation.
The primary objectives of the project were to research and produce a shoreline stewardship handbook for landowners and other conservation groups, to develop and implement a shoreline landowner contact program along 160 kilometres of Vancouver Island?s eastern shore, and to promote intertidal stewardship through public awareness, partnerships, and educational activities.
Cowichan Freshwater Stewardship Project
The Cowichan Community Land Trust Freshwater Stewardship Project was a natural areas conservation initiative which contacted private landowners near critical fish bearing streams in the Cowichan Valley Regional District on South Eastern Vancouver Island. The project involved land title and biophysical research on properties near 10 critical streams, landowner contact through mailed letters, networking, site visits, mapping, provision of land management plans, community education, and production of historical brochures tailored to each individual critical stream.
Partners
Cowichan Tribes
Cowichan Valley Regional District
District of North Cowichan
Marine Ecology Station
Cowichan Valley Naturalists
Freshwater EcoCentre
The Land Conservancy of BC
Madrone Consultants
Nature Conservancy of Canada
Somenos Marsh Society
Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
Ministry of Environment
Environment Canada
Habitat Conservation Trust Fund
Vancouver Foundation
D.R. Clough Consulting
Publications
Caring for Our Shores: A Handbook for Coastal Landowners in the Straight of Georgia Volunteers Required
Volunteers always needed 
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#6 ? 55 Station Street
Duncan, BC V9L 1M2 Phone: 250-746-0227
Fax: 250-746-9608
Email: cclt@island.net
Website: island.net/~cclt/ Main Contact
Jennifer Stadelmann
Land Stewardship Representative
Phone: 250-746-0227
Fax: 250-746-9608
Email: cclt@island.net
Secondary Contact
Jim Ayers
CCLT President
Phone: 250-746-0227
Fax: 250-746-9608
Email: cclt@island.net
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