Central Okanagan Land Trust
President's Report
August 31, 2010

Board of Directors                                                Directors

President                             Barry Jones              Hugh Westheuser
Vice President                    Don Knox                   Gwynneth Wilson
Recording Secretary         Judie Steeves            Kurt Zander
Corresponding Secretary Frank Williams       Ellen Pederson
Treasurer                            Gary Reece
Regional Dist. Rep.            Wayne Darlington

COLTs Focus and Functions
Our community is slowly becoming more aware of our existence and COLT has been asked this year to become involved in a variety of projects. It is of concern to the Directors that the sorts of projects that COLT should consider should be more clearly defined, consistent with the Constitution and Mission Statement. This definition process has now started and a clearer idea of COLT’s focus and function should emerge from our ongoing discussions.
Choices Market once again put on a BBQ as a fund-raiser for COLT which we attended, distributed brochures and answered questions from the public.
Our web-site underwent some renovations this year. COLT will continue to work on the web-site as it can be a important tool to increase community awareness of COLT.

Links to Environmental organizations
Hugh Westheuser remains a Director of the Land Trust Alliance of BC and Kurt Zander continues as our representative on the Okanagan Collaborative Conservation Project. Wayne Darlington has attended as the representative of the Central Okanagan Regional District; he will be replaced by another colleague beginning next month.
This year we renewed our relationship with the Nature Trust of BC as we have not had formal communication with them for many years. The Nature Trust is named in our Constitution as the agency to take over COLT’s assets in the event of COLT’s dissolution.

Projects
This year, COLT accepted a covenant of a somewhat unusual sort on what we refer to as the Strachan property in the south Mission. This largely natural property was to undergo residential or commercial development. At the suggestion of the current Chairman of the Regional District Board, COLT was asked to accept a covenant limiting further subdivision as a condition of allowing limited residential development. Being associated with such a development proposal was a contentious issue for the COLT Board. In order to preserve as much of the property as possible in its natural state, it was eventually agreed that COLT would take on a limited responsibility by accepting a covenant that prohibited further subdivision (what COLT calls a Density Covenant). COLT’s understanding was that the Regional District would then require a Conservation Covenant designed to protect the resulting lots from environmental degradation outside the building envelopes. If this protection cannot be achieved to COLT’s satisfaction, COLT will be reluctant to enter into such development-related covenants in future.
COLT continues to monitor the properties on which it has either ownership or a covenant. In the case of Robert Lake, the UBC-O has acquired a large property adjoining the Regional Park and discussion was held with the UBC official responsible for the property to emphasize the wildlife values of the area.
COLT provided funds for fencing and a gate on its south-east Kelowna property and agreed with the construction of a new access road to the property.
COLT has acted as advisor to several regional property owners who have ecologically valuable lands. Some have contacted COLT and others have been contacted as COLT initiatives. One such project is in Winfield and three others are in the lower Mission. The outcome of these interactions may result in new assets or covenants for COLT but the process is very slow and requires patience from COLT. A subject for further study in the next year will be COLT’s approach to contacting and establishing relationships with land-owners.

Future directions
COLT will continue to work on refining the definition of its function and focus until the Directors are satisfied that the ways and means by which COLT achieves its goals and purposes are clearly stated in its Procedural documents. 
Another area of interest will be ways to increase community awareness of its existence and purpose. 
The possibility of developing a membership will be explored as well as the possibility of having a paid employee.

Barry Jones