We start at the bottom of this unique hillside property, where the fabled Marron River flows. First named The River of Wild Horses by botanist David Douglas, locals renamed it the Marron River, “marron” being a French term for a feral horse. Doreen, Fred and I chuckle as we blithely step over the Marron, Canada’s smallest designated river. It is midday, but we are enveloped in the full shade of the massive Douglas-firs overhead. As we navigate through the dense dogwood and water birch, various birds take flight, and Doreen casually names them all. An avid naturalist, she has lived on this 77 acre property for a quarter century, and the number of creatures she has identified and catalogued here is stunning: 89 bird species, 16 mammals, 18 butterflies, and 9 reptiles/amphibians. Some of the species she has identified are rare and at risk, like that fascinating little amphibian, the spadefoot.

Leaving the river bottom, we start up the hillside, and the tree cover begins to transition from Douglas-fir to Ponderosa Pine. Fred, an accomplished forester, tags some of the smaller understory trees to be taken down. Prior to European contact, these dry hillsides would have been kept open and healthy by Indigenous cultural burning practices. Now however, we can protect pockets of old-growth like this one by removing small post-suppression ingrowth trees with a chainsaw.

Now we reach a level bench, where the log home, yard, garden and chicken coop stand. Doreen makes coffee for us, and we sit next to a trickling pond where dragonflies hover. I see a tiny ripple in the water, and sure enough, a long-toed salamander makes a brief appearance. Rested, we move on, farther uphill. The ecological transitions we pass through, in this short space of time and distance, are quite remarkable. Closed Douglas-fir forest to transitional Pine-Fir, to open Ponderosa Pine. And now, above the house and yard, we encounter Antelopebrush, an icon of our shrub-steppe ecosystems. Further uphill, we enter into an open grassland. There I see Bluebunch Wheatgrass, the elegant mainstay of the Okanagan’s native bunchgrasses. We stop again, and gaze further upward toward an exposed, rocky hilltop.

This property, southwest of the town of Kaleden, is a kind of Okanagan in miniature, and a haven for naturalists. It is certainly worthy of preservation, and the British Columbia Nature Trust is currently raising funds to do just that. If you would like to lend your support, donations can be made via their website: Marron River Grasslands – The Nature Trust of British Columbia