This species occurs primarily in the warm valleys of the southern Interior of B.C. especially in the Okanagan Valley (Cannings et al. 1998, RBCM and UBC data 2004). It is known from the Clearwater/Avola area in the north (iNaturalist; accessed February 2023), the Nicola Valley and east to the Creston area. Range Extent is estimated at 55, 000 km2.

There are at least eight including three Provincial Parks: (Kalamalka Lake, Paul Lake, Champion Lakes), three Wildlife Management Areas: (Vaseux Lake, Creston marshes, Osoyoos Lake oxbows) and two Nature Trust properties (Madeline Lake, Kilpoola Lake).

The small range, the rarity of the species in BC, and the type of breeding habitat (small ponds and marshes subject to drying in summer) make the species vulnerable to the destruction of ponds required for breeding; This can happen during housing, industrial, recreational or agricultural development. There also may be trampling and pollution of ponds by cattle and the loss of breeding habitat with increased drought and warming. The typical habitat that this species uses is already subject to summer drying even in most years of normal temperature and precipitation, this will exasperate this threat and the number of protected areas will not protect against this issue.

There isn't enough data or monitoring to be able to determine a trend for this species in B.C., however in the western USA, "Many of the habitats occupied by this species in the West have dried up in recent years, and it has declined in those regions." (Paulson 2009).

Small ponds and open, warm, nutrient-rich marshes dominated by cattails and bulrushes; often in waters that dry up in summer (Cannings 2002). Such temporary ponds may bear the brunt of drought and climate warming, reducing the number of breeding sites available to this darner (see Paulson 2009). On the other hand, this apparent adaptation to breeding habitats that may dry up in summer may also help it as climate warms and other ponds and marshes, now permanent but subject to future drought, tend to dry (Cannings pers. comm. 2015).