Upper Nicola program a ‘gold standard’ in effort to save B.C.’s burrowing owls

A decade after the first burrowing owls were released onto its reserve lands, the Upper Nicola Band is marking what leaders and partners describe as a rare conservation success in a province where the species remains on the brink.On April 22, community members, knowledge keepers, and conservation partners gathered on the Douglas Lake reserve to release six more captive-raised burrowing owls as part of an ongoing recovery effort that has quietly become one of the most productive breeding sites for the species in British Columbia.