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Putting fund from Tsawwassen Springs development to good use

It is money well spent. Delta staff recently provided council an update on the status of a fund established 11 years ago for the Delta Farmland Wildlife Trust to create and maintain grassland set-aside areas in Delta for a minimum of 10 years.
DFWT
The fund was established through a $300,000 donation from the developer of the Tsawwassen Golf and Country Club redevelopment for off-site habitat compensation.

It is money well spent.

Delta staff recently provided council an update on the status of a fund established 11 years ago for the Delta Farmland Wildlife Trust to create and maintain grassland set-aside areas in Delta for a minimum of 10 years.

The money came from the Tsawwassen Golf and Country Club as a Habitat Compensation Fund during the Tsawwassen Springs development approval, a fund totaling $300,000.

The one-time funding from the developer was directed to the DFWT in early 2009.

As a condition of receiving the money, the DFWT entered into an agreement with the city on conditions of use including annual reporting requirements.

A memo from staff notes the city is pleased with how the funds have been managed over the last 11 years and the trust will continue to manage it.

There was still a balance of $182,522 as of Dec. 31, 2019.

During the 2019 reporting period, the DFWT didn’t create new set-aside areas but maintained 13.9 hectares (34.4 acres) of grassland set-aside and met the requirements.

According to the trust’s annual report on the Habitat Compensation Fund, the balance is in an interest-bearing bank account that’s managed separately from any other account that the trust holds.

The original agreement had money directed to the grassland set-aside program used exclusively for the purpose of creating and maintaining set-aside areas within Delta, creating or maintaining at least 22 hectares (55 acres) of set-asides in any given year.

Wherever possible, the trust creates set-aside areas in locations that would be of greatest benefit to wildlife in Delta.

On another front, Delta council last year agreed with a separate staff recommendation to provide $35,000 to support the trust’s winter cover crop, grassland set-aside and forage enhancement stewardship programs, as well as research and outreach, but also bumped up the recommended to $50,000.

The trust earlier in the year requested $200,000 in seperate funding from the city in increments of $50,000 over four years.

The organization had been getting funding from several sources, including an annual $15,000 grant from the city’s separate Delta Wildlife Forage Fund.

That fund ran out of cash the year before but the city continued to provide funding, although the trust would ask for additional funds.

In a letter to council last year, program manager Drew Bondar noted that to ensure the stewardship programs remain viable, it’s important that cost-share rates with farmers are at a level sufficient to promote enrollment.

The previous year, the trust increased its rate for grassland set-asides, noting interest in the last couple of years had been waning as it became apparent the cost share was no longer sufficient to justify participation.

Since the DFWT’s establishment in 1993, more than 38,000 hectares (96,000 acres) of farmland has been enhanced for wildlife habitat and/or improved for soil conservation through several stewardship programs. Of those 38,000 hectares, approximately 30,000 hectares have been planted to winter cover crops, over 5,000 hectares enrolled in the grassland set-aside program, over 3,100 hectares have been laser levelled and roughly eight kilometres of hedgerows have been established.