For the Beaufort Vineyard and Estate Winery we have prepared an Environmental Farm Plan under the BC Agriculture program Environmental Farm Stewardship Program. This program is voluntary is enables a farm to develop a plan to implement beneficial environmental management practices that will result in a positive impact on the environment. Beneficial environmental management practices are defined as any agricultural management practice which:

- Ensures the long-term health and sustainability of land-related resources used for agricultural production;
- Positively impacts the long-term economic and environmental viability of the agricultural industry; and
- Minimizes negative impacts and risk to the environment.

The Beaufort Vineyard and Estate Winery Environmental Plan has helped us assure ourselves that we are in compliance with all relevant BC and Canadian regulations with respect to environmental protection. But more than this it has pointed out a few areas where we could improve and further enhance environmental protection – we will endeavour to undertake these initiatives as soon as practicable.

Here is a list of the practices we currently employ to do our part to minimize our impact on the environment:
- Drip Irrigation to minimize water use.
- Drip application of nutrients to minimize use.
- Use organic fertilizers where practical.
- Minimize trips into the vineyard (save on fuel, minimize ground compaction).
- Recycle programme for household, winery and vineyard waste
- Minimize spraying for powdery mildew. Due to our choice of varietals, >65% of the vineyard should require no, or very little, spraying. Also due to use of a high trellis technique and wide row and plant spacing, improved air flow and sun exposure will likely result in less need for spraying on the remaining 35% of the vineyard.
- Non-organic weed control will be used and applied sparingly using hand application or an “Enviromist” sprayer -- which minimizes the quantity applied and directs it only to the areas where it is required.
- Composting all organic household, winery (pomace, filter pads) and vineyard wastes (cuttings as long as they are disease-free).
- Wildlife fencing (deer, rabbit, racoon, sheep) to minimize conflict and crop loss
- Wildlife corridors are maintained - natural walking corridors kept open and allow ease of movement for all wildlife.
- Overhead bird netting to minimize conflict and crop loss – overhead netting has less surface area than side netting and is therefore there is a lower probability of entangling birds. Overhead netting also has less impact on our neighbours than bird scare cannons or bird distress callers
- Equipment selection – small equipment has been selected to minimize impact on the vineyard and minimize fuel consumption
- Offsetting greenhouse gases initiatives:
        *  Planted 500 fir trees on 1 acre, in 2006. 
        *  Planted 7500 grape vines, on 8 acres, in 2007. 
        *  Allowing approximately ½ of our site (about 40 acres) to regenerate to a natural forest, after having been severely logged by previous owners. This will not only help offset greenhouse gases, but will provide a safe habitat for wildlife.
- Decorative gardens in the picnic area and wine shop are majority drought-tolerant species -- to minimize water use. Any watering will be done using drip irrigation, or hand watering, only and will be strictly minimized. In addition, we will not water the grass in our picnic area – Brown is Beautiful!
- Employing low water usage systems – low volume toilets, mechanical restrictors on taps, low flow shower nozzles.
- Low energy lighting is in use in the house and winery, and all buildings are insulated to minimize energy consumption.

Future initiatives being considered/evaluated:

    *  Convert current diesel tractor to run on bio-diesel 
    * Plant a permanent cover crop to minimize/eliminate weed control (mechanical and chemical) efforts – subject to vine growth study in 2008. 
     * Green energy initiatives: evaluating use of solar or wind energy production – cost estimates have been received and we plan to develop this along with the winery expansion project 
     * Grey water recycling: cost estimates have been received