Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Nature Trust of B.C./Graham Osborne January 27, 2021 - 5:30 AM The Nature Trust of British Columbia is working to protect grassland near Princeton with the recent purchase of hundreds of hectares. The non-profit land conservation group is working to buy up to 1,052 hectares of land known as the Princeton Grasslands-MapleCross Meadow in three phases, according to a Nature Trust of BC media release. Phase one and two are now complete with 868 hectares acquired with 189 left to go. The property is home to important habitat for the Williamson’s sapsucker, a small woodpecker that is estimated to number less than 500 adult birds in Canada. The Princeton Grasslands are also habitat for barn swallows and olive-sided flycatchers, both threatened species, and the western screech owl. It is also adjacent to provincial winter range for mule deer.