2007 Community Stewardship Award - Recipients

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Sustaining the Islands – Community Stewardship Awards Program 
 
 
 
2007 Award Recipient Profile 
 
Winner:   Gambier Island Conservancy 
 
Category: Group/Organization 
 
Project: Mount Artaban Land Acquisition  
 
Nominator(s):  Mike Van Der Ree 
 
Project Description:  The Gambier Island Conservancy helped select a major 
part of Mount Artaban Crown land for protection under the province’s Free Crown 
Grant Program and led the fundraising campaign for it.  The Islands Trust Fund 
applied for the land, valued at $1.2 million from the Province of B.C. for a nature 
reserve.  The conservancy raised more than $30,000 in donations towards the 
costs required to complete the acquisition, improve safety and access to the 
land, and institute the terms of protection.  The condition of the transfer of land is 
that a Land Act Survey be registered and that it be established as a nature 
reserve.  A management plan is vital to ensure the nature reserve is maintained 
as a conservation area.  Donated funds will be allocated to both aspects of the 
land acquisition.  This parcel will be the second one secured under this program 
and ensures the perpetuation of the program by making it more affordable to 
island taxpayers.   
 
The project involved the Trust Fund Board, local trustees, BC Parks, the 
Sunshine Coast Regional District, the Gambier Island Community Association, 
local strata corporation, local summer camps, local businesses, Gambier Island 
residents and residents of the Sunshine Coast. 
 
The 107-hectare nature reserve on Gambier Island will complete a natural 
network, connecting areas protected by local, regional and provincial agencies. 
 
  

Sustaining the Islands – Community Stewardship Awards Program 
 
 
 
2007 Award Recipient Profile 
 
Winner:   Salt Spring Island Alternative Gypsy Moth Control Program 
 
Category: Group/Organization 
 
Project: Implementation of an ecologically-friendly program to control 
the outbreak of gypsy moths  
 
Nominator(s):  Island Natural Growers, Gulf Islands Chapter of Canadian  
      Organic Growers 
 
Project Description:  In the spring of 2006 the Ministry of Forests and Range 
applied for the aerial spraying of approximately 389 hectares of land with a 
pesticide (BtK) to combat an outbreak of gypsy moths on Salt Spring Island.  The 
proposed spraying of agricultural and residential property would have annulled 
the organic certification of several area farms and would have killed all 
Lepidoptera species in the areas, including several rare species.   It would also 
have affected Salt Spring’s well-deserved reputation as a centre of organic 
growing. 
 
In response, a group of community activists came together to devise an 
alternative gypsy moth control program to:  stop the planned aerial spraying; and, 
to assess the gypsy moth risk on the island and implementation an ecologically-
sound control program in cooperation and collaboration with provincial 
government authorities.  An information

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