Explore Canada's Desert
Osoyoos Desert Centre is now closed for the season.
See you next year!
A world in which there is unwavering care for ecosystems everywhere.
OUR VISION
OUR MISSION
To inspire curiosity, understanding and active concern for healthy ecosystems through education, conservation, research and community leadership.
Visit Us
Come experience the beauty and diversity of this unique desert environment at the Osoyoos Desert Centre, a 67-acre nature interpretive facility that offered its first tour in July 1999. Enjoy a guided or self-guided tour along our 1.5 km boardwalk, explore hands-on displays in our interpretive building, and stroll through our native plant garden.
What We Do
On the southern edge of British Columbia’s beautiful Okanagan Valley is an extraordinary habitat popularly referred to as Canada’s pocket desert. This semi-arid, antelope-brush ecosystem is one of Canada’s most rare, fragile and endangered ecosystems. It is also home to one of the highest concentrations of rare and at-risk species in Canada.
Osoyoos Desert Society acknowledges that for thousands of years people of the Syilx Nation
have cared for and lived off the unceded land now known as the Osoyoos Desert Centre.
Descendants of these ancient people live here in a continuous thread, from the past to the present.
The thread has been bent, stretched, and stressed but not broken. Their resilience has carried them through many challenges. We honour their sharing this bountiful land
and will strive to be good neighbours.