Francis Point Ecological Reserve ER #153 update

In February of 2013, I wrote to the Nature Conservancy of Canada, who were listed as wardens for the reserve to find out the status of the reserve. Tim Ennis, West Coast Program Manager
BC Region, Nature Conservancy of Canada replied with the following update of information:

“Your request for information regarding Francis Point has come across my desk.
The Francis Point Ecological Reserve is owned in fee-simple title by the Nature Conservancy of Canada.  It has been leased by us to the Province of British Columbia for the purpose of being an ER.  The term of the lease is 99 years as I recall.

NCC has been in the habit of monitoring the lease as if it were a covenant.  We completed an ecological baseline for the property at the time of purchase, and have repeatedly visited it through time since then checking on it.  Typically only every second year.  In years where our field crews experience higher than normal workloads it is one of the first things to fall off the “to do” list because it is not actually a covenant so we do not actually have the same legal requirements around monitoring it as we do for our covenants.  Also, it is a bit of an outlier property for us, as we don’t have any other holdings in the area, therefore it is a bit expensive to get to.

Regardless, I feel like we have kept a pretty close eye on it over the years, and am planning to continue with this basic “finger on the pulse” approach.

If there were a local resident who would be willing to volunteer as a warden for it, I would encourage that, and would be happy to help guide and focus their efforts on the few basic issues that our monitors have noted over time (broom control issues etc), working in partnership with the Province of course.”