Penticton Indian Band partners with province and wildlife group on Garnet Valley enhancement project

PENTICTON – An environmental and cultural enhancement project in the Garnet Valley near Summerland is underway.

Penticton Indian Band members, officials from the B.C. Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations and B.C. Wildlife Federation members met yesterday morning, Oct. 24, in the Garnet Valley north of Summerland to begin the project, according to Dawn Russell with the First Nation.

The focus of the cooperative project is to improve forest growth and reduce habitat degradation in the area through the use of traditional indigenous methods and knowledge, working in conjunction with ecosystem and fire science to produce the most enhanced results possible in cultural and environmental terms, she says.

Funding for the project is being provided by the Forest Enhancement Society, which has allocated $94,170 to the Garnet Valley Enhancement project.

Work will include mitigating of wildfire effects in the area through a prescribed burn and ground fuel reduction, improving wildlife habitat, improving funding opportunities with the Forest Enhancement Society and building relationships between all stakeholders, Russell says.

The work is expected to be completed in the spring of 2017 and will be followed by similar work in another region. The work is expected to continue on an ongoing basis throughout the Okanagan territory.

Russell says the project is one of only two awarded in the Thompson-Okanagan region.

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