Basil Franey’s special bond with his Salt Spring Island property makes safeguarding it the natural thing to do.
“I love living here, I count my blessings every day,” the 91-year-old said of his land at the entrance to Fulford Harbour. “While I own it legally, I just regard myself as a custodian of it during my lifetime.”
Franey, who bought the land in 1985, has arranged for permanent protection of a 2.15-hectare portion of it through the federal Ecological Gifts Program. The area features rocky bluffs and Douglas fir, cedar, arbutus and maple trees, and is home to such species at risk as the peregrine falcon and band-tailed pigeon.
Franey said the area now under a conservation covenant is a “particularly beautiful” portion of the site.
“There’s a beautiful, grassy slope up from the ocean that goes up to 150, 200 feet high, so when you’re up on the top it’s a great viewpoint,” he said. “You get probably a 120-degree view out over the ocean.”
Franey said he felt that protecting the area was something he had to do.
“I just decided that it’s so lovely there, I think it would be spoiled if anybody ever did anything,” he said. “So, for perpetuity, I thought I would like to offer protection so that can never happen.”
The parcel is not a place for casual visitors, Franey said.
“It’s not open to the public, it’s not a park,” he said. “It is still private land, but it can never be developed. It’s a covenant that’s registered in the Land Title Office.”
The covenant is held by the Islands Trust Fund and the Salt Spring Island Conservancy.
A ceremony was held Friday at Isabella Point to mark the protected status.
Franey said a key inspiration for him was a landowner at Salt Spring’s Beaver Point who donated property adjacent to Ruckle Provincial Park to the province to ensure its protection.
Islands Trust Fund board chairman Tony Law said the step Franey has taken is important because there is a scarcity of publicly owned lands on local islands, making private holdings vital to protecting ecosystems.
The Islands Trust Fund works to conserve land on islands throughout the Salish Sea. Since 1990, the fund has protected more than 1,190 hectares and joined partners to protect another 300 hectares.
