Fintry
Provincial Park
History
The Park was
established April 30, 1996. The
estate was purchased in December 1995 and officially became a park
in the Spring of 1996. It is one of the few remaining natural areas
in the Okanagan that has not yet succumbed to the pressures of growth
and development.
The Protected
Area was established on April 18, 2001
Cultural
Heritage
The
small amount of archaeological evidence visible at Fintry suggests
that the Shorts Creek delta was a summer fishing camp and was
on a trade route through the Okanagan Region. During the 19th
century, fur traders for the Hudson's Bay Company were the first
to make contact with the native inhabitants of the valley. The
park contains a short section of the Okanagan Brigade Trail.
The
Fintry Estate exemplifies the agricultural and settlement history
of the Okanagan Valley. It was one of the valley’s early
pioneer settlements functioning as a self-sufficient community
in the early 1900’s. Fintry’s first Eurocanadian
settler was a pioneer steamboat captain, Thomas D. Shorts who
established a fleet of freight boats on Okanagan Lake and played
an important role in the maritime history of the Okanagan.
In
1909, James Cameron Dunwaters purchased the property naming it
Fintry after an ancestral estate in Scotland. He erected many
of the heritage buildings which currently exist, including the
Manor House, made of stone quarried from the area, the very unique
Octagonal Dairy Barn for his Ayrshire cattle, the Packing House,
the Gatekeepers House and several farm buildings. Remnants of
power generation and irrigation systems are visible along Shorts
Creek. The octagonal barn and packing house are possible candidates
for national historic designation underscoring their value and
the importance of the park
Conservation
The high importance of the park for conservation
is unexpected in an area this size given its immense heritage value.
A key feature protected by the park is the Shorts Creek Canyon,
which contains many scenic waterfalls. It offers important spawning
grounds for kokanee and essential rearing habitat for rainbow trout
and eastern brook trout in their first two years of life.
Fintry was important within the historic range of California bighorn
sheep with a full range of habitat including escape terrain along
the canyon. The park also has class one deer winter range that
is used extensively during severe winter conditions.
The old growth cottonwoods along the beach are a red listed plant
community. The park offers two dramatically different topographical
areas: a delta at the mouth of Shorts Creek dominated by old orchard
trees and hay fields, and a forested area made up of mature ponderosa
pine and Douglas-fir. Ponderosa pine forest is one of the most
threatened forest types because of urban growth and resource development
activities and is very sensitive to disturbance. Another rare plant
found in the park is the blue listed Okanagan Flame Flower.
Wildlife
Blue listed California
bighorn sheep and Townsend’s Big-eared
bats are present in the park along with the red listed Western
Grebe. Other wildlife is abundant and includes black and grizzly
bear, lynx, marten, coyote, moose, white-tail and mule deer, ruffed
grouse, northern goshawk, great horned owl, pileated woodpecker.
A bald eagle’s nest is found in the cottonwoods south of
the Packing House.
Return to Fintry
Provincial Park.
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