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About the Allan Brooks Nature Centre

The Allan Brooks Nature Centre is a "community based project" supported by it's members, volunteers, donors, sponsors, partners, granting agencies and admission fees. We rely heavily on community resources for our success in nature interpretation and habitat conservation.

The Nature Centre provides visitors a first-hand opportunity to see and learn about the North Okanagan's unique and diverse natural heritage through views, information, programs and displays of the region's natural areas. The Centre occupies the old Vernon Upper Air Weather Station overlooking the city of Vernon. It is ideally situated on a grassland knoll at the confluence of the Okanagan and Coldstream valleys. Three lakes and five ecosystems can be seen from this site and a total of nineteen points-of-interest provide spectacular, panoramic views of the North Okanagan and its diverse ecosystems.

"The Allan Brooks Nature Centre is committed to promoting the enjoyment of nature and increasing awareness of habitat conservation through environmental education and nature-related activities in the North Okanagan region."

The North Okanagan Area is the northernmost part of the Okanagan Valley, which is located within the Great Basin lowland that extends from the United States up into the forests of South Central British Columbia. The Okanagan Valley has one of the warmest and driest climates in British Columbia due to the rain shadow effect of the Coast and Cascade Mountains to the west.

"The Okanagan is considered as one of the three most endangered ecological regions in Canada."

The combination of the warm/dry climate and the varied landscape elevations has promoted a diversity of natural habitats here, ranging from dry, valley bottom ecosystems to forested subalpine ecosystems. North Okanagan ecosystems provide important habitat for several sensitive grassland and wetland species (some of these are not found anywhere else in Canada). Unfortunately, many of these animal and plant species are threatened or endangered.