McFadden Creek Management Plan

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McFadden Creek Nature Sanctuary Management Plan – FINAL Page 1 
 
McFadden Creek Nature Sanctuary 
Property Management Plan  
Salt Spring Island 
 
 
 
Prepared for 
 
 
 
 
 
 
By 
 
Carrina Maslovat, RPBio #1407 
175 Stewart Road, Salt Spring Island, BC 
 
 
Approved by 
the Trust Fund Board, November 17, 2015 
Resolution # TFB-2015-088 
the Salt Spring Island Conservancy, November 3, 2015 
 

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McFadden Creek Nature Sanctuary Management Plan – FINAL Page 2 
 
i. Executive Summary 
McFadden Creek Nature Sanctuary is a 5.08 hectares (12.57 acres) protected area on 
northwestern Salt Spring Island near the northern end of North Beach Road.  
 
Efforts to secure McFadden Creek Nature Sanctuary began in 1996 as a collaborative effort 
between the Island Waterbird Watch Collective, WBT Wild Bird Trust and Islands Trust Fund. 
Wild Bird Trust assumed a mortgage on the property in 1998, which was paid off in 2004 and 
between 2004 and 2014, the Wild Bird Trust, the Waterbird Watch Collective and the Trust Fund 
Board negotiated to transfer the land from the Wild Bird Trust to the Trust Fund Board. The 
transfer was completed in 2014 and at that time a Section 219 Conservation Covenant and 
Section 218 Statutory Right of Way in favour of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy (SSIC) were 
registered on the land. 
 
McFadden Creek Nature Sanctuary is one of the few protected areas on northern Salt Spring 
Island and acts as a refuge for the many native species that require maturing forested areas. To 
date, five Species at Risk have been found in the Sanctuary. Great Blue Herons used the site as a 
heronry from 1990-2000 and at their peak in 2000, there were 138 nests on the property. Other 
Species at Risk include Peacock Vinyl Lichen, Pacific Sideband Snail, Threaded Vertigo Snail 
and Coastal Cutthroat Trout.  
 
The property is within the asserted traditional territory of 13 First Nations and 2 Treaty Groups. 
The area has also had a long history of European settlement dating back to 1875. The Sanctuary 
has not been developed although old growth Douglas-fir was selectively logged in 1953. 
 
The Islands Trust Fund (ITF) manages nature reserves and protected areas to ensure that 
ecological communities and native species are protected in perpetuity. The management vision 
for McFadden Creek Nature Sanctuary is to protect the unique ecological values in perpetuity in 
order to support a diverse range of native plants and animals. The current threats to this vision 
include encroachment by non-native invasive plants, unauthorized tree cutting and over-grazing 
by Black-tailed Deer and Eastern Cottontail Rabbits. If Great Blue Herons return to the 
Sanctuary for nesting, they face specific threats associated with disturbance. 
 
In order to achieve the management vision, the 

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