Applications for funding in the fourth intake of the BC Rural Dividend program will be accepted Nov. 15 to Dec. 15, 2017, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development Doug Donaldson announced today.

Public comment is invited until Jan. 15, 2018, on a proposal to increase the amount of Coastal Douglas-fir ecosystem protected on southeastern Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands.

One of British Columbia’s most threatened wildlife species will get additional protection from predators this spring with the installation of a “maternal pen” on conservation lands owned by the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

The Province is taking action to protect big game wildlife in portions of the Kootenay Region that were severely affected by wildfires this past summer.

The B.C. government is providing up to $100,000 to local governments and First Nations communities to help fund urban deer management projects under the 2017-18 Provincial Urban Deer Cost-share Program.

To improve service, the application for new park use permits through BC Parks will be going online, making it easier to access.

In response to an auditor general’s report on the management of grizzly bear populations over the past two decades, the B.C. government will develop a provincial grizzly bear management plan with clear objectives, roles, responsibilities and accountabilities.

The British Columbia government is providing $100,000 so the Town of Golden can move forward with a new access option after the lower canyon of the Kicking Horse River was closed to the whitewater-rafting industry, Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, announced today.