Photo: Osoyoos Desert Centre
ODC photo from early '00s.

The Osoyoos Desert Centre is looking back over 25 years of conservation efforts and noting just how much the towns rare brush has grown.

During a town committee meeting on Tuesday, ODC executive director Jayme Friedt shared sets of photos at the centre from the early '00s and from within the last three years.

"[This] certainly shows where we've come from," Friedt said.

"As an organization with a mandate to conserve the at-risk and valuable antelope brush ecosystem unique to this part of Canada, this picture really does speak 1,000 words. You can see the first 'Then and Now' photo is a photograph of our gate from 146th Avenue. You can see how the brush has grown."

Last year, the organization celebrated its 25th anniversary. Decades of protecting Osoyoos' endangered semi-arid desert ecosystem have evidently paid off.

Photo: Osoyoos Desert Centre

ODC "Then and Now" photos.

"You can see in the second images, again, just how much things have regenerated at our site, at the Osoyoos Desert Centre," Friedt continued.

"We're pretty proud of that. I think it really speaks volumes."

According to the not-for-profit organization, less than nine per cent of the antelope-brush ecosystem is undisturbed today. And of 5,000 hectares, only a small portion of that is protected.

Additionally, about 25 per cent of endangered vertebrates in B.C. call the South Okanagan home.

Since the centre's opening in 1999, roughly a quarter million global visitors have walked through.

Photo: Osoyoos Desert Centre

ODC in recent years.