“We Saved Cottonwood Lake” Celebration

The Cottonwood Lake Preservation Society is holding an event October 8, 2022 to celebrate saving the regional park from logging.

Four years in the making and the Cottonwood Lake Preservation Society (CLPS) has finally done it. They’ve saved Cottonwood Lake. With support from the surrounding West Kootenay communities, the society successfully raised just under $650,000, which supported the purchase of 49 hectares of mature forest slated to be logged. Over 1,000 different individual donors, from families to businesses, locals and non-locals, helped reach the goal of protecting Cottonwood Lake so it can remain wild.

Of that amount, $400,000 went to the land purchase with the remainder going to endowment fees, surveys, and operational costs that contribute to Cottonwood’s future.

Over the past year, the work of the CLPS has been focused on the transition of lands to be protected in perpetuity. The money the CLPS raised was passed to the RDCK, who became the on-title owner of the property. From there, the CLPS continued to work with the RDCK to transfer the land to the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC). Supported by the funds raised by CPLS for an endowment, NCC will manage and protect the property’s important ecological features. “It’s taken some time, but we’re happy to report that the mature, forest ecosystem above our beloved Cottonwood Lake will be protected from any type of development for generations to come,” reads a recent press release.

To celebrate the closing of the Save Cottonwood campaign, and to recognize the many of you who donated their time, creativity, energy, and money to Save Cottonwood, the society is throwing a shaker.

Join them on Saturday October 8th, 2022, at Cottonwood Lake between 12 p.m. and 4 p.m. as they unveil their new donor kiosk, and officially celebrate the closure of this amazing story of a small community rising to a very big challenge. Check savecottonwood.com for a bus schedule or to sign up for the rideshare.