A Year of Remarkable Progress, Made Possible by You – The HAT Community

As 2025 draws to a close, and time with family over the holidays draws nearer, I’d like to take a moment to look back at the incredible work that we’ve accomplished together at HAT. 

The year wasn’t without challenges, including the flooding of our second-floor offices in July, changes to the financial management and member database tracking internal systems, and a downturn in the provincial and federal funding landscape for conservation. Through it all, your support has not only kept us going—it has empowered us to continue to evolve as an organization and to innovate new solutions, mechanisms, and approaches to delivering conservation in the Salish Sea Region.  We are deeply grateful to you, the HAT community, for your continued and sustained support. 

Your Impact: 2025 Milestones Powered by HAT Members, Donors, Volunteers, and Partners 

This year, our focus shifted from simply doing conservation to deeply living stewardship, guided by the wisdom and partnership of Host Nations, walking with local communities, and centred on the well-being of our organization. Here are just a few ways your generosity made a difference: 

• Inspiring Habitat Stewards: Over 1,000 volunteers contributed to bat counts, owl-nesting habitat enhancement, workshops, and events in 2025. Seventeen new habitat stewards participated in our Good Neighbours Program in 2025, with 61 total site visits by our Stewardship Team. 

• Community Restoration: Over 170,742.5 square metres of invasive species were removed from prairie-oak habitats.  

• Leaving a Legacy for Wildlife Habitat: A legacy giving donation was received, and nearly three-quarters of a million dollars was allocated to the HAT Foundation towards a Land Protection Fund and a Permanent Endowment for Wildlife Habitat Stewardship.

Evolving HAT’s Approach for a Challenging Future 

While we honour these accomplishments, we also recognize that the scale and complexity of the challenges facing the Salish Sea Region—from climate instability to the urgent need for meaningful reconciliation with Host Nations—demand more than just continuous effort. They require a systems change and an evolution in how HAT operates. 

The urgent work of protection and healing in this region demands that we be more thoughtful, resilient, and collaborative than ever before. Looking to 2026 and beyond, we are shifting our focus to not just what we do, but how we do it. 

Our Three Strategic Goals for 2026 and Beyond 

To meet this moment, we have centred our organizational evolution around three strategic goals, focusing on longevity, deep commitment, and ethical practice: 

1. Conservation through Reconciliation 

We are committed to fundamentally shifting our conservation practices by prioritizing and integrating the inherent rights, knowledge, and traditional ecological practices of Indigenous leadership, stewardship, and governance. This means moving beyond colonial conservation mechanisms toward genuine co-stewardship and mutual learning, ensuring that our work respects and supports the ancestral caretakers of this land. 

2. Focusing on Organizational and Staff Wellbeing 

The work of conservation is urgent and demanding. To ensure our effectiveness and longevity, we must first sustain our team. In 2026, we are committing to supporting the well-being of our staff and organizational health, creating resilient internal systems that prevent burnout and enable us to approach our mission with thoughtful, long-term effectiveness. 

3. Deepening Stewardship through Collaborative Partnerships 

We are committed to nurturing a diverse and powerful network of allies. Our focus will be on strengthening long-term, reciprocal collaborative partnerships—with Indigenous communities, local governments, and other non-profits—to amplify our impact, share resources, and create collective responsibility and action for the health of the Salish Sea Region. 

Join Us in this Evolution 

This strategic path is about building a HAT that is stronger, more ethical, and better equipped to serve the land and community for the next generation. It is a fundamental evolution, and it requires your continued faith and support. 

We are writing to you, our dedicated community, to ask you to be part of this needed change and to support us on this pathway in whatever way you can: through your time as a volunteer healing the land by helping us to remove invasive species; through stewarding your land as a Good Neighbour; or through your continued donation of time and resources to our mission and goals.  

Thank you for supporting HAT. We wish you a peaceful holiday season and a New Year full of hope and renewed connection to the lands and waters of the Salish Sea Region. 

With profound gratitude, 

Kevin Smith

Executive Director, Habitat Acquisition Trust 

P.S. Every gift, large or small, helps us build the resilience needed to protect the land for the long term. Donate today and partner with us in this crucial new chapter of stewardship and reconciliation.