Conservation Story

Here we tell the story of how Burns Bog was conserved:

• In 1996, Delta Council struck a deal with the City of Vancouver to allow the landfill in the bog to grow taller, instead of filling further into the bog as originally planned.
• At the same time, Delta residents took part in a referendum – 75 per cent of voters supported Delta Council’s request that the provincial government purchase Burns Bog in its entirety.
• In 2000, the Burns Bog Ecosystem Review was completed. The scientists concluded that 73 per cent of Burns Bog (2,200 of 3,000 ha) must be protected to maintain its ecological integrity.
• The morning after the ecosystem review was released, former Mayor Lois E. Jackson was on the phone to arrange a meeting with regional, provincial and federal governments to purchase the bog lands: 

“We all sat in the room upstairs, and I said, ‘Set your politics aside because, guess what, we’ve got a job to do’. It took until 2004, and together we put together all of the documents, signing papers on ferries and on the front of trucks and all kinds of things. It took a tremendous amount of work to make that happen, through many years. We thought we’d lost it many, many times.”  - former Mayor Lois E. Jackson

• The final configuration of the purchased lands was based on the results of the Burns Bog Ecosystem Review, in which a map highlighted the parts of the bog that were critical to the integrity of the ecosystem.

Purchasing Partners

How Much of Burns Bog is Protected?

At the October 4, 2004 Regular Meeting of Council, the following motion was put on notice:

“That The Corporation of Delta hereby give notice that it views all land areas in Burns Bog as possible candidates for future environmental protection.”

The motion was carried by Council on November 29, 2004.

Parcels of Burns Bog that are currently owned by government agencies:

The entire ecological area of Burns Bog is 2,857 hectares. Total land ownership from the above table amounts to 2,468 hectares. Therefore, approximately 86% of Burns Bog is currently owned by the City of Delta, Metro Vancouver and BC.