Conservation covenants and TLC: A ten year retrospective

Presented by: Christina Waddle Regional Manager

Vancouver Island/Coast Region

ESRI User Conference, Thursday, June 21, 2007

Special Places. Forever, for Everyone.

Presentation Overview

•Introduction to TLC

•What are conservation covenants?

•Conservation covenants and TLC

•The future: GIS and covenant management

Arbutus tree, Arbutus menziesii

What is TLC?• Charitable, non-profit land trust, protecting private

land in BC

Sea blush, Plectritis congesta

What is a conservation covenant?

• Legal agreement between a landowner and a conservation organization, binds current and future owners

• Very similar to a conservation easement in the US

• Legislated by Land Title Act amended in 1994

• Increasing land prices increase value of covenants

• Restricts use of the land to protect certain values

Land Ownershi

p in British

Columbia

Top 5% Rarity

Hotspots in British Columbia

Prepared by G.G.E. Scudder,

University of British ColumbiaDepartment of Zoology and Centre for

Biodiversity Research

First Steps in the Conservation Covenant process

• Landowner submits application to TLC, review and approval process

• Once approved, several steps are required prior to registration

From Approval to Registration

• Baseline Documentation Report

• Covenant document drafting

• Possible survey and/or appraisal report

Registered covenant management

• After registration, annual monitoring is required

• Landowner visits for danger trees, waivers, violations, etc.

• Dealing with violations

Trincomali Nature Sanctuary

Conservation Covenant Successes

• Protect over 1300 hectares, with over 150 individual covenants

• Leading the way on covenants in BC, cooperation with the Land Trust Alliance of British Columbia and others

• Cooperation with landowners and the community

Conservation Covenant Challenges

• Accurate and complete baseline inventories

• Annual monitoring obligations

• Violations

• ‘Development Covenants’

• Second generation landowners

• Solutions… one will include GIS

The Future: Covenant management and GIS

• Develop geodatabase to store and display data, and generate maps for baseline documentation reports

• Accurate and complete baseline inventories

• Complete and georeferenced record of monitoring observations and violations

• Additional program for properties we own and manage, including possible future research

For more information contact:

Christina WaddleRegional Manager

Vancouver Island/Coast Regioncwaddle@conservancy.bc.ca

(250)479-8301

Thank you to the Society for Conservation GIS International Scholarship Program.