KLAS Tool Library
The KLAS Tool Library was formed in 2009 to improve access to necessary equipment for increasing local food production through funding support of the Columbia Basin Trust. Through extensive polling and round-table sessions with local farmers, gardeners, and food entrepreneurs, people were asked to identify tools that would make their farms better and more efficient, but which—because of cost or infrequency of need—they wouldn’t buy themselves. Over the years, it has continued to expand and anchor itself as a unique program in North America.
The centrepiece is our fleet of BCS walking tractors and implements such as the tiller, rotary plow, and flail mower that quickly prepare soil and incorporate cover crops on farms the use land intensively with diverse crops. We also have hoop benders, an essential oil still, BCS haymaking equipment, root washers, and dehydrators to name a few.
Don’t worry about finding a trailer! KLAS also has insured trailers and straps for large pieces of equipment for transporting to and from your farm or garden free of charge. Unfortunately, KLAS does not offer deliveries and equipment must be picked up from the depot.
Rentals
An annual KLAS membership is required to rent equipment. Become a member!
For rental rates and available equipment please see below! Click here for more detailed descriptions of each tool and the solutions they offer.
Please also review and fill out the waiver document required for your rental online. Tool Guardians will have physical copies to sign available as well.
Tractor and tractor implement rentals do require an Annual Tractor Maintenance Fee. This replaces the previous Tool Library Membership Fee that used to be charged for all tool rentals.
Tool Depots & Guardians
All our tools are maintained, inspected, and housed by “tool guardians,” member farmers who volunteer their time to keep the fleet ship-shape, to schedule rentals and train new tool users, and to do the pre- and post-inspection with renters. In exchange for their time and effort, tool guardians have access to use the tools themselves.
Currently, our tool guardians are:
Creston Valley Depot: Nigel Francis, Erikson (Creston)
Central Kootenay Depot: Andrew Carr, Krestova
North Kootenay Lake Depot: Chris Webster & Patrick Steiner, Kaslo
For information on the inspections you and the tool guardian will complete before and after using the tools, and the waiver you will sign will hold you to your responsibility for your own health and safety, and holding you financially responsible for any major damage incurred to the tools during your rental, please download our Waivers and Inspections pages.
Annual Tractor Maintenance Fee
To rent BCS tractors and implements, renters must be a KLAS member in good standing and have paid the annual $30 Tractor Maintenance Fee to help KLAS defray the ongoing cost of maintenance and repair of the tractor fleet.
Additional Fees (if applicable)
Renters are required to return the equipment clean, operational and refueled with premium gasoline. Failure to do so will incur;