In 2025, totalling 90 hectares, Council directed the Village to designate three separate parcels of land to the Municipal Protected Areas Project (MPAP) and Canadian Protected and Conserved Areas Database (CPCAD): 70 hectares at the Nakusp Hot Springs, 14 hectares in the Upper Brouse (Wilson Lake Road) area, and 6 hectares at Bird Island.
The MPAP is a collaborative partnership between Nature Canada, Ontario Nature, Wildlands League, the Alliance of Canadian Land Trusts, and BC Nature. It’s inspired by Canada and British Columbia’s commitment to conserve 30% of its lands and waters by 2030 (the “30×30” commitment). To count towards this 30×30 goal, areas must:
- Have clearly defined geographic boundaries;
- Achieve in-situ conservation of biodiversity;
- Prohibit actions incompatible with conservation; and
- Are intended to be protected in perpetuity.
The Village’s designation was part of 203 total sites submitted in 2025, and helps to show that even a small Village like ours can make meaningful contributions to national biodiversity targets.
The Village’s designation also overlaps with and includes habitat for a variety of threatened and endangered species, including:
- Woodland Caribou (Southern Mountain population);
- Grizzly bears;
- Wolverines; and
- Whitebark Pine.
This designation also includes areas of hot and warm springs that serve as important ecological features.
As highlighted by Andrew Banks, BC Nature Project Manager, MPAP, “conservation value is not only always about the quantity of hectares protected, but the quality of the biodiversity preserved.”
For more information, please contact the Village Office at info@nakusp.com or 250.265.3689.