213_Layard_SSI-Park-Legacy.mp3

otter.ai

30.03.2023

no

Unknown Speaker 0:00
The meeting today and the presentation will be Norris Laird speaking on history and legacy of our parks and salts realen. Assisted by Charles, I believe, is that correct? Or not correct? Only if necessary. All right. Let's make it necessary and get Charles involved in the program a little later. So Nora. Nora is a longtime resident of Saltspring. And I went to school here as a retired to Saltspring again and become very active in the community and a great deal of pleasure to welcome here this afternoon. Welcome, nor can we afford your presentation?

Unknown Speaker 0:37
Well, first of all, I'd like to say thank you to the Historical Society for welcoming, welcoming me here this afternoon to talk about parks on Salt Spring, Mr. Chairman, who was my history teacher in grade 12, grade 11, and 12. So it's sort of full circle to come back and be here. And Charles, but that's not the kind of assistance I need. And members of the historical society and so this afternoon, we're going to talk about parks on Saltspring win, win. Okay, I'm gonna make sure that the look at that it doesn't even really point that way. When something phoned to ask me about doing this presentation, he asked if I would give a snapshot of the parks on Salt Spring, how they came to be what they were and sort of how institutionally they were run. That was how I interpreted the request. Whoo, that's a big, that's a tall order. So I'd like to tell you about what the approach is that I'm going to take this afternoon. And to talk a little bit about the book, the approach, and then what it is that we're going to take a look at. So the approaches that I'm going to look at how does the parks were created here, what what kind of land transfer took place that enabled us to have the parks that we have here today, I'm going to look at a broad spectrum of parks, not just though provincial parks. And what we'll do is go through those, one by one in general, and we'll look at a gamut of them. And we're going to hop around a little bit date wise, I don't know if you normally do things in sequence. But we're not going to do that. Right now. We're going to look at types of parks. And then I'll finish up with a little bit about the future of parks here and some thinking some thoughts about how you might want to be involved over the next number of years. We have an amazing parks history and story here. It's right. And I need to say that this is a much larger project than simply doing a speech presentation on an afternoon, I think that the historical society could really dig their teeth into it like maybe Charles you know, book or something. Really look at deepening the the excuse, I'm just going to brush over a number of major events that have happened here. So let's get going. So if you look at this mouth of Salt Spring, the peripheral areas are the parks, the parks and protected areas on the island. And the light purple is protected watersheds. You might notice we'll come back to this later that most of the parks are in the south end of the island, we might want to start a 537 revolution and try and hit some parks up here, more parks up here. And also when I was when I found this particular slide, I also discovered the next one, too, it showed us the percentage of park area for Salt Spring versus the other Gulf Islands. And I throw this in really just out of interest. But Salt Spring has kind of an average amount of land and parks. This is in 2005. So China has a lot of land as a result of the National Parks purchase of some of the other part carriers or excuse me. Some of the other part some of the other islands have have left area in parks percentage wise. So I think the place that we need to start is really to talk about parks, what are they and not all parks are alike. And certainly that's true here. And not all parks not all public spaces that we might think our parks our parks. And then conversely not all Parkland is actually in public lands, a land that we might think about. Parkland isn't necessarily public lands. So to go back to the parks being a lightweight, we just thinking more broadly now regionally provincially, nationally that the story of parks in our country really is one of people who were primarily recreation of they got out into the into the land they they saw that the beauty of the land and they thought my goodness, this needs to be protected. And the classic example of that really is bounce national park that was was established as a park for tourism and CPR and the the early thinkers and marketing people said, well, we should get people into this park. But over time, our understanding of the role of Parks has changed is changing. And that's really related to our role of our ecosystems and the very functioning of the systems that keep up To live essentially in in a much larger context. So we have now parks that that are protected for nature for wildlife and for ecosystem functioning. and that's an evolution. I'm bringing this up, because I think we're seeing we're in the middle of that transition period. In the in the bigger perspective of Saltspring. We have these types of protected areas. So we have four BC parks. We have two, a large Ecological Reserves, we have capital Regional District Park reserves, sorry, I should have reserves at the end of that, because none of them were actually designated fully as parkland. Yep. And we have Park parks, the Parks and Recreation Commission parks. And then we have a number of different lands that are also protected in perpetuity, and I've labeled them as conservation lands. And they are lands that are held by not. Right, they're held by the conservancy, by the trust fund, by the Land Conservancy, BC PLC, and by the Nature Conservancy of Canada. And if I've missed any, I do apologize, well, I guess got some limited wouldn't need to be there as well, we'll come to that later. And then, at the federal level, we have the national parks that are next door to us, they didn't find you probably remember, there was a bid to try and have them come here. And that was a long discussion. And in the end, they decided not to purchase property here. But we do look out on Russell and Portland and Fort lock islands as part of the fairly new southern Gulf Islands Park. And then there is a movement afoot to create a national marine conservation area, that would be the waters particularly on the southeast side of the island, that would be protected in the sense that the the value that the management values would be conservation oriented, and Parks Canada would have a role in in managing the waters. It's a very complex issue, as you can well imagine, to get that established, but they're they're working on it. And we'll be seeing more of that later. And then we have a number of parks in quotation marks that really aren't parks, but I think we consider them to be part of our public space. And these are the under under designated crown lands on the island, there are trails all the way through many of them, we have private forest lands where there again, there may be community trails that the neighborhood, people walk through them. There are definitely neighborhood trails, we all have, you know, our favorite walks that go over private land of wheeling landowners, or maybe they're not around. There are utility corridors here. And then we have public spaces like cemetery, school yards, community halls, etc. And I do include these in this talk, because in other areas, this isn't Saltspring, necessarily, but in other areas, those, those last ones have become part of the green scape of the community as land is more and more and more developed and there's less and less green space, then the cemeteries take on a larger role in but and the school yards are being re naturalized right across the country. And so there is a tendency tendency to include those in our public space, but I'm just mentioning them. And we'll carry on. I think that one of the things that happens here is that we all take for granted that we have access to some of these lands. And then all of a sudden, somebody will come along and say, Well, no, this is my land. And I'm going to put a host written about trail. And then we lose, we lose our ability. And so I and for me, it's a mobilizing factor. It's it's when that happens, then we we start to think about what parks mean to us and how it is that we have access to. So getting into the nuts and bolts of the presentation. Where do parks come from? Well, they come from land that's donated for that purpose. They come from public land, in other words from Crown them that has transferred into parks, parkland, that come from purchases and often purchases are well they may be two things they may be a straight contract with a with a willing vendor, or they may be a campaign and we we know about campaigns on Saltspring we're you know, we we have to really go to bat for a land but ultimately there is a transaction to monetary purchase of the land. And then finally there's a subdivision approval process and we'll come back to that where Parkland is created when subdivisions are are are created.

Unknown Speaker 9:28
So starting early beaver point points in 1885. Theater tres has already said trading I'm sorry, you did tell me about Charles. And Henry spiker one donated 40 acres and they they were people who saw that there was a need for a school for the beaver point children and they donated land for that effect. And of course now we have the community hall there and the schoolhouse but much of the land no We don't think all of it but I'm not sure the details here. But anyway, that land was converted to a class C Provincial Park. And in now I have a problem I'm going to confess something right here my speaking notes are on the computer over by my friend so I'm just I guess one gets wrong. Somebody helped me out here. But um, anyway, the land was converted from coffee park in the store in the 80s in the 1990s, the classy parks on in the province, posse provincial parks were given back to the communities PC parks didn't want to deal with them anymore. And they they gave them back to the community in one way or the other. And so when that happened, this particular area was was joined to ruckle Park, which is a classic part so so that's some and so here we have two people who were generous and they donated land they they saw the need and they responded to it. And that's very early on. And Drummond Park the same thing we have the the Germans who wanted to see a playground in Fulford harbour and donated land to that effect. And then it was done. My understanding is that there was a celebration attached to it because of the the centennial year in 1971. And then, there are many, many reasons why people give land and sometimes community recognition is another and government donated this land in 1961. And again, Moorpark was the cloth seat Provincial Park, and was later converted to a local park. And so now it's managed by by Park and Bob McWhorter will remember all the Young Bloods. Not necessarily Bob, but those of us in high school, a high school who, you know, went cruising in most part, wrapping the campers, because this was one of the few campground while the only campground in the park at that time. So that would have been the late 60s, I guess, now that I'm a camper myself, I am horrified to them, but anyway. And then, and then there's a land that's donated for nature. And I alluded to this earlier, and this is land that is, is primarily the the owners of the land are very concerned that the the things that they value about their lands, the natural attributes are are protected in perpetuity and beyond their ownership of the land. And so and so there. Now there are very attractive tax incentives to allow gifting of land in terms of ecological dips, and that's right discipline and covenants. And so the three that are up here are donations, fairly recent donations and profounder use both there reserved, up off of Stuart road up on complex, what's it called Desert doesn't redraw etc. And the good ol family has recently made a significant donation and of land and then some covenants and not to the TLC. I think this is where my notes are, my memory is failing me and rosemary Penn and the Bridgman family have covenanted a lot of Monty creek that flows down into the south end of Beaufort and, and again, that those are covenants to the to the Land Conservancy. And so this is a way for it's a fairly, fairly new way that people who care about their land can ensure that it is protected in perpetuity. And now some of these have public access, and some of them will not. And it really would depend on what the owner wants in the long run. And those are just three examples are there are many others in fact, I'm looking around the room and realizing that some of you have done this already. And then there are those who are are possibly more interested in recreation and the Jack Fisher trail was a really good example of that. He wanted he built the trail up from his house up to the top of Mount Erskine off of Collins road and he wanted to see that property that trail used by people and he wanted to make a gift to the community and so that's what he did and that was in 1978 and it's a as you know, it's a well used trail and it's access to art news Provincial Park. And just to round off this this discussion of people dedicating land for public use some going back to my thesis before that, we need to consider these as part of our public realm that we have a cemetery Charles Can you help me out with this because that is my notes who is the baker the baker road Anglican cemetery was donated by

Unknown Speaker 14:38
Arthur Walter and then

Unknown Speaker 14:52
okay, thanks so

Unknown Speaker 14:57
much have land donated either for cemetery or community

Unknown Speaker 15:10
it was the government work was not sold on Knoxville and put them on the spot. loving, loving, loving, loving

Unknown Speaker 15:31
they report work

Unknown Speaker 15:38
no, I'm sorry, yes, I know that actually, like you're talking about

Unknown Speaker 15:46
like fever point donative, as well as up from Puerto Rico. That was the record that made that available.

Unknown Speaker 15:57
Of course, it was, it was good for them as well. Hopefully altruistic, because they needed the money people needed to have their cattle delivered

Unknown Speaker 16:21
not just the other people who have

Unknown Speaker 16:30
Charles, thank you. So, I hope that central hall. So moving along, then from moving from donations of land, to Crown land and transferring title from the crown, to insist for Parklane or other uses. And so central I decided to put in because it was originally a transfer of 100 acres. And, of course, the school was here originally, and now we're in the hall. But that has been going for so many, so many years. That's a wonderful community facility and the cemetery next door. And so a little research project at some point might be to find out what happened to the other several 1000s of acres that weren't kept up as public land. But our first provincial parks were Mount maxvill, and mount Bruce. And these were created in 1938. And again, here's a little research project for somebody to find out why Charles, and I were talking about this this morning and wondered, maybe somebody here knows the answer, I thought maybe it was during a period of expansion for PC, well, expansion, they were just beginning to create parks in the 30s. And so whether this was part of that move, or whether there was actually a campaign to does anybody here know? How it was that we ended up with these two parks in the 30? Was a start a little agenda list of things to be answered. And the thing is that mount Bruce, again, one of these classy parts a little uncertain in its in some commitment to being a park, it was actually removed from Park status so that it could be logged. And that was a decision by the government of the time in the 50s. Right, Charles? Yeah. In the 1950s. And it has never been put back into Park status. Exactly. So we, we lost some human eye. When thinking about this, I wonder, well, gosh, if somebody tried to do that today, what would happen? I suspect it might be a different story. But maybe at the time, people believe that logging was a higher use for that lens, and then Park status. So it's an interesting and that signals a change in the in the way that we view them as well and view parks. So fortunately, Mount maxvill has continued to be a Class A park since then. And we also have two Ecological Reserves here. Now eco reserves are well, first of all, I want to acknowledge crystal Foster. I don't think first of all, I didn't see him. But Chris will manage the ecological reserve department DEP for many years in Victoria and was responsible for the establishment of many eco reserves across the province. But I don't know whether whether he actually actually engineered these ones I couldn't get hold on. But we have two of them and they're there primarily for their natural but they're in place for the natural values and for educational purposes and research purposes. And normally, that they they would say that they're not for recreation, but we know that that the reserves here are used extensively by people who live near them for walking trails. And then there are other crown lands on the island and over the last number of years have been many attempts to try and get those those lands put into some kind of a park. Stop. And the crown lands use coalition was created in the 1990s. And my understanding is it was created at a time when there have been a number of setbacks. People have tried to do things and they haven't been successful. And some lands had been lost from the opportunity to become part. And so they, Maureen Milburn and others created a coalition of organizations on the island to take a look at the remaining parts. We don't have a lot of Parkland here, or crown lands here compared to some islands like Gambia or tech data where a lot of a lot of crown lands, and it's used in a variety of ways we have discrete parcels, and there are less than 20 of them. So they they actually commissioned Linda Adams who was not a planner at that time to, to do a report on the crown lands here. And she marine told me that they were extremely what's the right word, they were astonished to see the value of these lands held and and the Linda's work and subsequent work of this group began to change the sentiment or change the thinking about crown lands here from being simply vacant land that the government might want to do something with at some time to seal these lands, it's really important for the community. And it is a struggle we're still engaged with that they haven't. Mount Erskine is the only the parcel of Crown land, they're two parcels of Crown land are the only ones that have actually been designated as as parkland. But but there is a desire that other lands, the other Crown land also be dedicated as part or for poor community, there's, there's a desire on the part of government to sell many of these crown lands, they have a whole department set up to do that. So we have a job ahead of us to to try and encourage that land to remain in our public realm here. After all, it is our crown, its Crown land, it's our own. And, and so the the other group I have up here is the south and west strategy, collaborative, and it more or less grew out of the crown lands coalition. And it was a group that said, we have the greatest opportunity for new parks in the south and west area where there's been less development off the land. The tracts of forest are still fairly intact. And and what could we do with those and these two are these two groups, some, the work of these two groups really set the stage for being able to acquire a fair amount of parkland in the last 10 years. So let's go there. So that was Crown land, now we're into purchases and where we have people who are willing to sell their land, and who want to know the best case scenario is that the people want to sell their land and they want it to be parked and further and they're willing to, to be generous in their discussions and the negotiations. And this was certainly the case with the record that they wanted their lands and become a part can they in the BC parks negotiations they sold for I believe it was below market value. They certainly they worked with the system to have this happened. And as you know, they have life tendency of the home, the homes there so so that was one example. Another example is Chris here today. I can walk Chris Hatfield on very recent. He similarily wanted his property which is adjacent to Rocco Park. And it's the site of the mill and I, you know, Charlson, Chris has published a book about that area, and if you haven't read it, I encourage you to read it. It's wonderful. But he wanted that land to again to be protected to be used by by the public and so he negotiated with the powers that be to sell his lands at below market value to the to the Okay, who do you sell it to Charles dBc partisan. And it's now in addition to rock apart. And here was another one that now this is a conservation land Ford Lake and this was in the the 97, early 2000 2001, something like that, where this property came on the market and three people from here recognize the value of this they knew it was a really important wetland and Lake area for sensitive habitat for a number of different endangered species. And so they actually interceded they purchased the property they held on to it Thursday, Spencer themselves to keep this out of the hands of purchaser, purchasers who might not value it for its assets. And eventually the Pacific asteroid conservation program came up with the money to be able to purchase it and it is now managed by Ducks Unlimited. It's it is a case where it's not open to the public. It's a working farm in order to keep the the the farmland attributes that are important for the wildlife couldn't help With the area. So it's not open for the public. But it is a, it is an amazing area. And I just want to say, use this as a segue for a moment into talking about that we, it's very easy to only see our island and see ourselves on the island. But in fact, the the various conservation and parks agencies that are in our area in the province and even nationally, they they are very supportive. They've been amazing with us, they've worked that worked with us, they've raised money, they've they've, they recognize that Saltspring is part of a really endangered ecosystem, that is the Douglas per dry zone. It's our beautiful Douglas fir and Gary oak sentence, it's an area that's heavily threatened by development on Vancouver Island, and to some extent here, and so they see that our area is precious, and they're they want to work with us. And I think that we sometimes forget about that help that we get, but I just want to acknowledge that No. So that's Ford lake. And then getting into purchases we have for law Park, and then the 70s, that was purchased by the Lions Club to create a community activity area. And in the early years they raised I think was about $90,000, to build the playing fields and to start to develop area. And over time, it's of course become more and more established. And then of course, we have Rotary Park to an area behind 50s That was pretty

Unknown Speaker 26:31
dope know what the right route forgotten for the Forgotten area for a long time, and the Rotary Club stepped into to raise money to be able to create a lovely, lovely area now. And then we have what I call the seize the opportunity parts. When the when the boat harbor idea was launched, so to speak, they dredged for it, and they had all this fill. And so they basically said, Oh, well, we'll create an area for community park. And many of you may remember the development of it. And Johnny Szczepanik was really instrumental in in using his grater to move the earth around him to make it work. And then he brought topsoil to, to feed it and and then the community came together to raise money to landscape and to do the work that was necessary there. And I think that you also know that it has has some side to it as well in the mirror camera near kami family distress that not being welcomed to be part of that fundraising campaign. It is a part that we use a lot in many different ways. And another campaign that emerged and and in a way. I don't know if it was the first large community campaign, but it certainly was the campaign that drew the community together to say we would like to, to save this beautiful tract of land on the southeast corner. And again, it was people who realized that the land was it was a court ordered sale and a couple of people saw that there was a real opportunity to step in, and they pushed to see if there was a way to get a bid in on the at the quarter to sale. And they were able to hold and to then to be able to raise money to be able to complete the purchase and the community raise $150,000. And at the time, that seems like a huge amount of money. I remember we arrived here just just that that was being completed and people were absolutely exhausted at raising that now we seem to just raise 200,000 like that. I don't know a whole different realm of events now. But it was the first major campaign of the Saltspring Conservancy. And it is now a CRD Park Reserve and there is a team of wardens and I know Charles Charles, you were wondering, are you still not see Are you still a warden? I think that's a great voice. Yeah, you're nasty. Are you still a warden? Yep. Okay, anyway, so there's a there's a group of volunteers who go out to to ensure that things are all right at the ethanol farm. So then Tech Data trouble in paradise, it was a time of great stress. incredible creativity. A time when the community came together in a way that probably never had before. the ingenuity of the tactics, the the way that people worked behind the scenes and so many different ways that well, at the end of the day, the 4950 acres of land were bought by text data, text data logging Corporation, from text data land and not the other way around. It was That's right. The land Corp buying from tax data logging the the prints and the the operation that had been going on there for years sustainable harvesting, we're not and of course, the land Corporation came in and started logging. That's why it's confusing. This is a whole a subject of a whole presentation, I can only to skip over. It's not possible to do it justice in just a few minutes. But what I do want to say is that it was a time of passion. When people were able to really dig into their hearts and into their pocketbooks to to see the opportunity to, to work really hard to do what was necessary to do it. And I would like to recognize Elizabeth white who's here today she was the chief fundraiser. And in the end, the community raised $1.34 million to make the the deal happen. The province threw in 13 million something and the CRD, whatever the remainder is, and other sorry, not quite. You can ask me later. It's all written in those notes. Anyway. But we, but we also had fun. It was a time of of a street theater. Do you remember Susheela and the street theater and they took it to Victoria. They took it to Vancouver and the calendar that was successful beyond anybody's imagination. And Briony running right in writing down house street of Lady Godiva. And one of my favorite parts was the hunts for habitat. And my favorite part of that was, was that people paid money to have Tony Richards from the different keep his clothes on. Keep him leaves on. That's right. Sorry, keep him leaving. Anyway, so ingenious ways of raising money of reaching into the community of getting people involved with this, probably, you know, the suits and the dreadlocks holy hands down at the protests. And we just can't ever forget the novel and the people who put their their lives and the reputations and everything on the line to go and stopped logging trucks to give us breathing space to be able to make the deal happen. So it was an amazing story. So in the end, not all was safe but 2600 acres was saved and and that included the burgling day Provincial Park CRD Park reserves the watershed, the natural like watershed and before the equal reserves. That's right. Thank you, Charles. Yeah, the nature trust owns the the equal reserve which is adjacent to the BC parks enforcer, or the provincial equals equaliser. Oh, dear, I'm getting ahead of myself here. Okay, well, that was Manzanita rich, and sort of a next community campaign that the conservancy took on to be able to raise enough money to purchase from Martin Williams, the the land that is adjacent to mounters can Provincial Park or what became the park. And that, again, was a community fundraising campaign engineering, Charles and others were involved with that. And then of course, most recently, we've we have the very successful fundraising efforts for purchasing Melander skins so that we could create a park of some significance on the on the north end. And again, I want to I do want to recognize Charles and Peter lamb as being the two people that manage that campaign and led to enough money being raised to be able to purchase the land so that now we have we have the crown lands 160 acres next door to the purchase land, becoming a large parcel that becomes an onerous and Provincial Park. Question about that land. Oh, Karen, thank you. I didn't know that. Okay. And Jean, first, can you Sorry. And you Jane Galloway. Absolutely. And Peter and Charles first and Karen Hudson set the back to you. And I know that she put in hours on that campaign conservancy members really to be congratulated on that. So I'm Martin so the Karen mentioned split receding not just let me mention to you, any of you who are thinking possibly of land donations for ecological purposes that you can now actually, it used to be that you had to donate the whole thing in order to get the kind of receipt that would be useful for you and now you can't split receipt where you can sell part of it and, and give part of it. So that's important. Anyway, keep that in mind if you happen to be thinking of these things. So thirdly, this was the rights of way, this is the end of Baker Road, basically, we have, as you probably know, we have right subway that from the ends of the, the roads down to the ocean, if there's a gap between the end of the road in the ocean, there's usually a right of way through that. And there are a number of parallel axis accesses to beaches as a result of that. And, you know, I consider these to be part of the park park, quote unquote, system of the island. And then we have situations like the jack foster trail where the land of Ministry of highways right of way, but Chuck Foster, who many of you probably knew, was the president or chair of the trail nature club and, and the

Unknown Speaker 36:00
controlling nature club and Jack in particular worked very hard to get a trail built along the right of way, it goes from 30 points down to the ocean, it's quite a long trail, I was surprised to hear that it was right away, because it's a fair distance. But it is, and they had workers of Katina Vic, I understand, cucina that workers coming to help to build a trail and, and basically, again, a community event. And also it's a good example of perseverance. And I don't just need to say that that's one of the the attributes that people get to get involved with Park fishing, perseverance, that ability to just hang in there and, and ride through the rough waves and Jack, my understanding is that he did that there were landowners adjacent to the rights of way who were less than interested in having a trail go pasture property, but over time, they were able to make it work and, and it took a number of years, but it happened. And that's one of the most wonderful trails on the on the nose. And then finally, in terms of different types of land subdivisions, you're going to do that normally, subdivisions when a subdivision is created of three or three, three or more parcels. There is a requirement by law by provincial law to dedicate 5% of the land for cash in lieu of a dedication to park purposes. And so we have a number of areas on Saltspring that have been donated as a result of these these subdivision situations. And a few years ago, you may remember that park tried to decide that they wanted to sell some of them, they felt that they weren't that they weren't necessary for the PA our PA RC system. And if you remember, there was a huge outcry. And that was eventually changed that they decided to hold on to them because people within the neighborhoods value these small parcels of land that are that are protected by part. And sometimes they're not so small Bryant Hill Park which is the soggy Andreas Fault reserve, under its votes or reserve is 80 acres that's a substantial piece of property

Unknown Speaker 38:15
Oh, Frank, how do I get rid of that? I press the wrong button. Can we just ignore it? No, go away. Thank you. So that's that was it for land how we get land into public, the public sphere for Park purposes. And I guess I could ask is there any questions at this point about that? Just before we get into a little bit of our management Yeah, Charles. I noticed that

Unknown Speaker 38:56
and that's the story that's happening

Unknown Speaker 39:05
or at least public right away establishing a trail

Unknown Speaker 39:20
Wildwood Wildwood to connect with

Unknown Speaker 39:31
me. So, in the end, they were working on it today. So a lot of it was being done by volunteers and they were waking up at night so that it will be wheelchair accessible. It will connect all the people. People and that's kind of originally true That was put in place maybe one person like that could do that. So many of us tried to get highways to let us do that kind of thing and here's to put that in all by yourself spearheading the drive to me, Vishal we may have a whole lot

Unknown Speaker 40:28
of new things that we hadn't thought of

Unknown Speaker 40:33
before Absolutely, and I think the work of island pathways and in thinking through the stress strategies for connecting trails, very important brilliant and the conservancies work in terms of thinking through the the the trying to be strategic strategic, I'll talk about that more in just a sec. But yeah, thank you on the island I didn't bring it with me there are properties down Cape couple on the very south east corner of the island there's a chart by Christian lake there's the case I need some help here there's some fourth Lake above fourth Lake sort of between Peter arnelle Park and fourth lakes as a tract in there yeah and while they do it to the extent that people have have used them with their trails on them they're not official like

Unknown Speaker 41:45
legally you're allowed to camp on Crown land someplace. But you're not allowed to waterway plants away basically, use them join them because they are public lands. You can't do anything you're not supposed to put in new trails

Unknown Speaker 42:16
Karen Do you have one of the conservancy give them out for the crown lands at the conservancy we have several that you can find

Unknown Speaker 42:26
they're all brilliant. Pr Pr but trust maps to show all the ground lines on the island where they are some of them are kind of landlocked by private ones capitalist sort of access by the roads

Unknown Speaker 43:02
Yeah, take careful you can go by water pepper I am

Unknown Speaker 43:17
yeah, for some lovely trails that's

Unknown Speaker 43:29
what you need That's right. Charles will sell you a hiking book on it shameless marketer that he is. And you need a well, no farm, you might want to have a four wheel drive together. No farm. Is that the towards the end of Musgrave road? It's over very. Has anybody been there?

Unknown Speaker 43:58
Okay, well, let me just close off, but we can have some more discussion with it with the lights on. See. So the story never ends when you dedicate a piece of land for park in fact that it's almost like that's when the work begins. Because the the monitoring of the park the maintenance in some cases and the just the general vigilance that needs to take place, both at a policy level and on the ground. It just seems to never stop really. But We fortunately have some people involved on a regular basis with this. So I just want to start with yesterday. David Denning took some photos with me and we discovered that the two Park workers, banana Joe and Wayne gorrik. We're putting back all of the reeds that have been blown off the day before. And so their full time staff are there Stop with parking there full time. And then VC parks uses contractors they have cake to services in the local park and the they do a little bit of work in Knoxville and and Burgoyne, but, but essentially the the work of keeping track of our parks is done by our volunteers on the island. That's where the the energy of going the other way I think. But just before we leave, I just want to say again to recognize that many organizations that that do volunteer work with our parks in the conservancy, the the salmon enhancement group, Island pathways trail and nature club. Absolutely. The Friends of Saltspring parks others helped me the biking group the Eco reserver wardens, yes, thank you, CRD wardens, as well. So there are many, many people who are involved with our parks in a monitoring and helping way. And it's great, thank you to all of them. Well, thank you for turning up. And some of the some of the kinds of issues that parks now face. I mentioned before the the new awareness that our hearts are part of our their contributors to our ecosystem functioning. And at a very basic level, they are cornerstones cornerstones for the natural area services that that help us to even be alive, so to speak. And I'm speaking globally when I say that, but here on Saltspring were part of that we have to remember that. But some things like invasive species very, very difficult to work with. Verb, we've got that little tiny plant that invaded Bronco park three years ago. It's under control, but it's not eradicated. And that's after many years of hard work by the salmon enhancement crews that were in there year after year in the spring. That's only one of many invasive species that we have here. Fire Management. Yeah, and you probably don't need to say much about that. Because it's such an all pervasive issue here on the island. It's It's worrisome, and recreation access and use. And I think, in the sense of that we it's possible for us to love our parks to death. And and so as people who are involved with thinking about the future of the parks, that needs to be thinking about how to manage, if you will, the recreation use and what's appropriate, given the ecological structure of the park. And one of the ways that that happens is through management planning for parks. And I would like to note that BC parks have been engaged. Finally, after many years of us prodding them to get on with this, they've undertaken a process to develop, manage what they call management direction statements for the four provincial parks on the island. And they had an open house a few months ago, where they asked for people to input into what should happen in the four part. And they will be in the early year, early New Year, they plan to come back with some thinking about the center presents us with with their their thinking and their findings. And it's really, really important that we the people Saltspring be there to talk about and talk with them about what their what they see because they don't live here. They don't they don't have the local knowledge that we have to offer in this kind of discussion about future. So coming events, sure that the BC parks I just mentioned the National Marine Conservation Area I mentioned earlier and again, they will be coming at some point to the island to talk further about their plans in that vein. And as I mentioned, it's a very complicated situation to try and think about how to manage commercial commercial marine traffic with NPC theories taking on BC Ferries and all the different aspects of managing the the proposed marine areas. new subdivisions always an opportunity for for Parkland and it's really a case of what comes in the door at the trust and being vigilant to see what what could be what could be seen cheese from from moments of subdivisions.

Unknown Speaker 49:49
Future subdivision

Unknown Speaker 49:58
of course

Unknown Speaker 50:13
Well, you have to have vision. Absolutely. If we messed up when I moved and we did Charles you've talked about I mean, this is exactly the work that I'm pathways and others are trying to, to create a vision for him to and to make it make it happen. The the campaign for Creekside today's driftwood will have the details for you. But the the piece of property that's near Christian lake, a ravine going out of the out of the lake, the the Land Conservancy and the number of company that is the owner have signed a letter of agreement this week, and they are going to enter. It will be a purchase arrangement, the Maureen Moore who's been spearheading the campaign to save this incredible area that has a number of species that are the red legged frog, the owls, salmon and the mountain magical area. And so she's some, she's been getting people to pledge money, and they're up to about $200,000. So between agency money coming in and a community fundraising campaign to try and increase that, that will be another area that that that will be protected. And she's giving me some brochures, and I'll hand them out to hand them out to everybody, as you leave or something. So the what's the future here? Well, I've alluded to the the need for planning to be able to coordinate all the various players, but to really more importantly, to create that vision that we that we really have a sense of what we want in the way of parks for the island. And I would say in particular for the North North End and for the area in the Ganges in the Ganges area. When we did the charrette in May this year, the design workshop, it became very clear when we hauled load all the mounts and looked at the development potential for the area around GVM. In particular, and in and around can achieve that there's very, very little green public space, there's some but it's not very much. So there's in my mind that that's the kind of thinking we need to be saying, here's an area that needs to look to the future, what were the opportunities to, to protect some areas for the people, the people who will be there. And that's particularly true if there's going to be increased density there. And we have to, we have to think ahead. And that's, that's one one example of these being strategic and then again, seizing the opportunities when non comes up for sale, when there's a subdivision where there's a willing, willing vendor where there's somebody who wants to donate, and those are amazing, amazing opportunities. Partnerships I mentioned before, like the sign really I like the sign for that very reason isn't quite the conservancy brochure at the bottom, the The Nature Conservancy, conservation covenant, fine. And then above it, there's the duck Fisher trail with the donation from Jack in those early days. But the the partnerships are, are very significant. And we, you know, we have to work to keep those partnerships going, but they're, they're there. But I think that the thing that's Saltspring just excels and I mean, we are Saltspring that we have creative energy, and that when we have when we're faced with the chainsaw that took data or wherever that that people have come up with just astonishing ideas to be able to, to meet the challenge and to have fun while we're doing it. I'm almost done. So just wanted to leave this with you to think about what what you could do for our parks on the island. And I think thinking big, you know, what's, what's your efficient? And what's what's happening in your, your neck of the woods? Is there an opportunity for a trail? Is there something that you can do maybe with your property is there I don't know what your what, what, what could be done. And again, I've used the word vigilance a lot, because they do uncreate parks occasionally. And we have to be always on top of what's going on. Get involved with one of the groups that we've mentioned, join one of the groups in the campaign's give generously because ultimately, if it's private land, it has to be bought unless the donor unless the person wants to make a donation. So money is always always an issue. So I just encourage you to think about that. And just today, I wanted to say thank you to the people who helped me with this show, David and Charles Sue mullet. Frank, particularly, to help me get set up this afternoon, Elizabeth was with white. And I just want to leave you with this observation that I have that I've been doing parks work for probably 25 years now and And I'm always astonished at how hard it is to get parts created. And then how, how people who resisted those very parts always claim them as their legacy. When they when they go to the polls or when they, when they want to brag about something. That's just a slight observation. But I think that the real point is that we unsolved for we have a legacy of parks here that is really remarkable. And we should be proud of those accomplishments. We need to honor the people who made those possible, and we need to work together for the future to to make more parts.

Unknown Speaker 55:53
Sure, absolutely. Well, the front of the Saltspring Parks was organized, oh my god, five years ago, I guess, or more it was off to the tech side of the text data came to a good conclusion. And it was really set up as a citizens group to try and keep track of what was going on with the burgling Bay Area that the tuxedo lands. And we've been we've been pushing and pushing pushing parks to get on with their management planning. And we finally we feel finally they're, they're moving and we're keeping involved, Charles is on the Technical Advisory Committee for that process. And so we and the foster we, we set it up as a way to have networks into the various organizations that we've talked about today to and others to make sure that there is a conduit for, for interest for for comments back and forth from Parks. But we're, um, we're looking forward to the next phase when they actually get something out there that we can react to. And also we're we're looking to see what happens that those thoughts have a role to play with the other parks on the island. We have an AGM next Wednesday night, if anybody is interested, come and see Charles, for me after in green legacy, some, if anybody is interested in making an ecological Gift donation, or a legacy gift of some kind, there is a website, green legacies.ca. And I have boxes of the of the book in my basement, because I was involved with organizing, and I'd be happy to share information with any any or all of you about that, if you wish that would be better. Right, so why don't I could make I could bring a box out of next meeting and make them available to people? Basically, it's about different kinds of gifts that you can make for parks and furniture.

Unknown Speaker 57:57
I have to say, well, let me let me just say that, you know, we vigilance. Vigilance is the word here and it's very frustrating V. In the absence of a management plan for Burgoyne Bay, things happen, things have happened. And there's been it's an iterative process that as you learn more about an area, you learn more about what you need to do or what you need not to do. And so that's one thing. And secondly, decisions have yet to be made about the future of the of the pain in the area of the farming. And we've been strongly encouraging BC parks to keep the agricultural thing going there. And to encourage encourage the management plan to reflect that there is some resistance on their part to that. So that's something to talk about at these meetings as they come up. But the the Hain situation this year was, in our view, there was miscommunication. To put it nicely, there was it was a challenge, and now there's a now there's a field, the fields are needing different attention as a result of that. I mean, it's another burger on day management example would be the barges and we're hopeful that the barges that were towed in and put over the eelgrass there are going to be towed out soon so that would be great. But that's the kind of thing that you know, when I talk about sort of keeping on top of parks that we just need to be ever ever vigilant, some other fun

Unknown Speaker 59:35
thank you for bringing that up. Absolutely. Absolutely. Bob's to ask me if the native land claim situation has created reluctance on their part, I would say two things I would say Native land claims and I would say that there we we have a situation where this government sees crown lands as assets to sell. So there is a our sense is up the they're holding on to some of them with a view to potential sales but that's by area we'll see what happens but yet the land claims is very challenging

Unknown Speaker 1:00:23
historical aspect

Unknown Speaker 1:00:32
of the park, are they responsible to maintain that or if they have any

Unknown Speaker 1:00:40
I think that entirely depends which Park you're talking about Botha? Well, in Burgoyne the again the management direction statements will be very important to keep on top of that, I would encourage the people here to be attending to that. The Parks has put money into restoring or keeping the barn there and the the root cellar, right. And Cornell and the houses that love the houses Yeah, and