Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy
BC Provincial Parks: Myra-Bellevue and Okanagan Mountain
FOSS holds a Partnership Agreement with BC Parks authorizing the Society to provide trail maintenance, facility repairs, sign installation and to promote BC Park values. Over 3000 volunteer hours were invested this past year, significantly improving the many, many kilometres of trails in both Parks.
Recreation Sites and Trails BC:
A Land Tenure Application has been made on our behalf by BC Parks Regional Planning (Okanagan/Kootenay) to secure two Crown Lots adjacent to June Springs Road, to have them included in Myra-Bellevue Provincial Park. (FOSS also makes applications to FrontCounter BC for Crown Land Tenures to permit the rehabilitation and maintenance of existing trail systems. Of special interest are those Crown Lots found between provincial and regional parks on the South Slopes, enhancing overall connectivity.)
Ministry of Forests
In 2021, FOSS was invited to attend a roundtable session regarding the restructuring of FLNRORD – the super ministry created in 2010 to foster integrated decision-making on the land; this Ministry has now been split between the new Ministry of Land, Water and Resource Stewardship and the Ministry of Forests.
FOSS has worked with the Ministry area specialists with regard to wildfire mitigation projects (ie. Targeted Grazing experiment above Field Road in SE Kelowna).
In pursuit of our goal of achieving ultimate connectivity on the South Slopes, FOSS has always worked closely with the different levels of government and other strategic agencies and stakeholders.
Working with these various decision-making agencies, FOSS serves as an umbrella organization, fully representing, supporting, and collaborating with other stakeholders – the many recreational user groups and engaged private businesses – with whom we share the South Slopes.