Name
Rocky Mountain Trench Natural Resources Society (the Trench Society)
Established
As a non-profit organization under the BC Society Act in 1996 and registered as a federal charity in 1999.
Members
The Trench Society is an umbrella organization representing the following:
- Cranbrook Archery Club
- East Kootenay Wildlife Association
- Kootenay Livestock Association
- Rocky Mountain Naturalists
- Southern Guides & Outfitters Association
- The Land Conservancy of BC, Kootenay Region
- Wildsight (formerly East Kootenay Environmental Society)
- Windermere Farmers' Institute
- Waldo Stockbreeders Association
Total membership in the above organizations is approximately 3,000.
Each of the nine member organizations appoints a representative to the Trench Society's Board of Directors.
Mission
To achieve properly functioning Trench ecosystems that sustain plants, animals and people.
Purpose
To enhance Trench ecosystems for the benefit and sustainability of its plants, animals and people by establishing a Trench ecosystem restoration program.
Role
To encourage, support, participate in and initiate operations which will restore lost ecosystem function, with emphasis on the forage resource. This is accomplished through a collegial relationship with district government agencies and other stakeholders, such as the forest industry. Specific roles are:
- bringing forward social issues
- problem identification
- acquiring funding
- administering contracts
- sponsoring projects
- lobbying government
- public communications
Area of interest
That portion of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Trench, from Radium Hot Springs south to the US border, which is classified as a fire-maintained ecosystem.
History
- The Trench Society partnership was formed as a vehicle for public stewardship of the low-elevation dry forests and grasslands of the Rocky Mountain Trench.
- The Society grew out of the East Kootenay Trench Agriculture/Wildlife Committee (EKTAWC), a multi-stakeholder group established by the provincial government to resolve conflicts between agriculture and wildlife over Crown range use. The EKTAWC's final report identified ecosystem restoration as the solution to these decades-old conflicts. Using scientific research commissioned by the Committee, the final report said forage had to be increased on Crown range if the needs of agriculture and wildlife were to be met and biodiversity of other species maintained. The way to increase forage production was to remove forest ingrowth from the grasslands and open forests of the Trench. Forest ingrowth, the result of 60 years of fire suppression, makes grasslands forest-like and converts open forests to dense stands of unproductive, often unhealthy trees.
Click here to download the complete text (130 kb/22 pages pdf format) of the EKTAWC report.
- The Trench Society is a member of the multi-sectoral Rocky Mountain Trench Ecosystem Restoration Steering Committee and its Operations Committee.
Click here to download the complete text (49 kb/14 pages pdf format) of the Steering Committee's original guiding document, published in 2000.
