Sacred, spiritual and ceremonial heritage sites on Crown lands within Stó:lō Nation territory now have legal recognition and protection through a landmark pilot agreement. The agreement, which is the first of its kind in B.C., was collaboratively developed by the S’ólh Téméxw Stewardship Alliance (the STSA) and the provincial government under the Heritage Conservation Act. It provides protection for 45 heritage sites and outlines a consensus-seeking, shared decision-making process between the STSA and the Province for ongoing heritage-site management. …The act automatically protects heritage sites that contain artifacts, features, materials or other physical evidence of human habitation or use that pre-date, or are likely to pre-date, 1846, as well as burial places with archeological or historical value, rock art of Aboriginal origin and heritage wrecks. The Provincial Heritage Register includes over 60,000 protected heritage sites.