The South Okanagan with its rolling native grasslands is a “hot spot” for biodiversity, hosting more at-risk species than anywhere else in BC. The Nature Trust of BC has protected this diversity for many years on the White Lake Biodiversity Ranch, a combined sustainable ranch and grassland conservation area.

We need your help to add 151 acres (61 hectares) to this complex with the Park Rill Floodplain property. Boasting natural grassy and wetland terrains, Park Rill Floodplain will increase the conservation of biodiversity and connectivity of wildlife habitats.

The property is located North and West of Willowbrook – 3km up the road to White Lake.

The property supports six sensitive ecosystems: sagebrush steppe, grassland, open coniferous woodland, seasonally flooded fields, wet meadow, and sparsely vegetated rocky outcrops. These kinds of ecosystems are a conservation priority for The Nature Trust.

Peregrine Falcons stalk through the daytime skies while Western Screech Owls hunt through the night. Brewer’s Sparrows chirp a lovely song from tree branches, next to threatened Lewis’s Woodpeckers.

Endangered American Badgers burrow in the grounds of Park Rill Floodplain, while at dawn and dusk the Nuttall’s Cottontail, a rabbit species of conservation concern, can be seen through the underbrush. Mule deer descend from higher elevations in winter and American Black Bears visit in
summer.

The property likely contains vital habitat for amphibians like the endangered Western Tiger Salamander with its striking black and yellow mottling and the threatened Great Basin Spadefoot, a frog that spends much of its time underground, along with reptiles like the threatened Great Basin Gopher Snakes and Western Rattlesnakes