Late Item - Lasqueti Island Nature Conservancy Email re First Nations Woodland License

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April 12, 2021 
Executive Committee Islands Trust 
 
Lasqueti Island Nature Conservancy (LINC) is a non-profit society located on Lasqueti Island. We 
are a small land trust with over 150 members. We have been partnering with the Islands Trust 
Conservancy (ITC) for over 10 years. In 2018 we negotiated the acquisition of 28 acres of 
Coastal Douglas-Fir forest and raised $250,000 to acquire the property and then donated it to 
the ITC to create the Salish View Nature Reserve. LINC holds conservation covenants on three 
ITC Natures Reserves: Mt. Trematon, Johnny Osland and Salish View. We appreciative very 
much the partnership with ITC and hope it continues. 
 
I write to you today about the recent letter from the Ministry of FLNRORD to the Islands Trust 
announcing the invitation to the Snaw-naw-as First Nation to apply for a FNWL which would 
include two parcels of Crown Land on Lasqueti Island. From what we understand, this FNWL 
could include harvesting of Coastal Douglas-fir (CDF) forest over as much as 800 acres on 
Lasqueti.  
 
We welcome the Snaw-naw-as First Nation to Lasqueti Island and look forward to working 
together. However, this announcement from FLNRORD has created quite a dilemma for LINC 
and I would assume for the Islands Trust as well. For while we both support protection of the 
remaining CDF ecosystem, we also support meaningful reconciliation with First Nations. It is 
unfortunate that the whole process has advanced so far that these two appropriate public goals 
are suddenly in conflict. Some possible solutions to this quandary might include one or more of 
the following: 
 
 Trust Council initiate protocol agreements right away with the Snaw-naw-as First Nation 
to define how we will work together cooperatively going forward to accomplish both 
our goals; 
 Trust Council initiate formal discussions with FLNRORD to cooperatively plan for any 
future licensing proposals that would affect islands in the Trust Area; 
 Trust Council formally request FLNRORD work with Islands Trust and all First Nations in 
the Trust Area to designate appropriate Crown Lands in the Trust Area as 
“Conservancy”.  
 
 
 
 
 

The Conservancy designation is a particularly interesting solution to consider, for Conservancies 
are Crown Land parcels that are transferred to BC Parks to manage for specific uses and with a 
particular First Nations Context. From the Park Act:  
 
(3.1) Conservancies are set aside 
(a)for the protection and maintenance of their biological diversity and natural environments, 
(b)for the preservation and maintenance of social, ceremonial and cultural uses of first nations, 
(c)for protection and maintenance of their recreational values, and 
(d)to ensure that development or use of their natural resources occurs in a sustainable manner 
consistent with the purposes of paragraphs (a), (b) and (c).  
 
The purposes set out in the Park Act for Conservancies could well solve our predicament for it 
protects important ecosy

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