The Western Canada Wilderness Committee is pleased about the latest protection of key endangered coastal Douglas-fir ecosystems on Crown lands on the east coast of Vancouver Island.

But it's concerned that areas in Nanoose Bay are being left out. One is a 50-hectare site with streams and old-growth Douglas fir.

"The Nanoose Endangered Wetlands and Wildlife Sanctuary, a parcel of Crown land that includes several Sensitive Ecosystem Inventory-identified forested wetlands in Nanoose, has raised concerns that this Crown land property and many other such unique pieces of endangered Crown Land parcels, have been left out of the Land Use initiative," spokesperson Annette Tanner said in a release.

Only 110 hectares of old-growth Coastal Douglas-fir have been protected in the entire province of BC," before this initiative, said Tanner. "This forest type represents the most biologically diverse ecosystem in British Columbia. The rare plants and endangered animal species that depend on these last fragments of Mediterranean-style coastal forests exist nowhere else in Canada."

The lands are being protected through a land use order from the Integrated Land Management Bureau. Comments can be directed to: Bill Zinovich, e-mail bill.zinovich@gov.bc.ca by February 15.