A wide swath of grasslands south of Kamloops is now under new protection status.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada has announced its put 61-hundred hectares of land in and around the Stump Lake Ranch under environmental protection.

The Bunchgrass Hills Conservation Area includes a number of at-risk or endangered species.

“Bunchgrass Hills secures substantial, diverse and connected habitat for dozens of species iconic to BC’s interior, including several listed on the federal Species at Risk Act, such as the Great Basin spadefoot toad (threatened), Great Basin gopher snake (threatened), American badger (endangered) and Lewis’s woodpecker (threatened),” said the Nature Conservancy of Canada in a release.  “Sharp-tailed grouse leks (mating sites) are known to occur in the area, which indicates these grasslands are important breeding grounds for this provincially at-risk species. Waterfowl feed and breed in the numerous wetlands on the conservation area, while mule deer and other ungulates find important winter habitat here.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada’s BC Interior Director, Danielle Cross, says the move is critical to support the environment around Kamloops.

“Grasslands are critical for biodiversity,” said Cross. “Although they make up less than 1-percent of our province, they hold over 30-percent of our species at risk. So they are extremely diverse.”

“Grasslands are an integral part of the province’s Interior ecosystems, and the Bunchgrass Hills Conservation Area is significant for its ecological attributes,” said BC Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, Nathan Cullen.

“This is a great example of conservation financing that brings together the resources of government and individuals to achieve important conservation goals and protect valuable ecosystems, which is critical in this time of climate change and biodiversity loss.”

Creating the Conservation Area will restrict activities on the land, but will still allow for cattle grazing.