CivicInfo Library

The Capital Regional District (CRD) has announced that the next milestone in the creation of a new community park on Hwmet’utsum (Mt. Maxwell) on Salt Spring Island has been achieved.

The formal transfer of land between the previous owners and the CRD was recently completed and the project can now move toward the creation of a management plan. As part of this next step in the creation of the new park, the CRD, with the support of project stakeholders, First Nations, CRD/PARC, neighbours, community groups and trail users will participate in an open engagement and planning process to envision the new park for the long-term stewardship of the forest and ecology of this area of Hwmet’utsum.

The Salt Spring Community Park campaign completed the initiative to raise the final $350,000 towards the purchase of 75 acres of forested land on Hwmet’utsum ahead of the October 31, 2022 deadline, thanks to a final grassroots push, and a generous grant from the Salt Spring Island Foundation which was enabled by a grant from the Trust established for the estate of the late Susan Bloom. The total value of the newly acquired parkland was finalized at $1,750,000 which included a significant portion of the value donated by the previous landowners.

The Salt Spring Community Park campaign was a collaborative effort between countless volunteers, donor businesses and key organizing groups, including Salt Spring Solutions, the Salt Spring Island Foundation, the Capital Regional District, Salt Spring PARC and Island Pathways. The Salt Spring Community Park campaign team would like to again thank all of their collaboration partners, donors, and volunteers who helped make possible this new, once-in-a-generation park space for our community. The campaign team would in particular like to thank and acknowledge again the Quw’utsun elders and community members who gave their time to celebrate and honour these lands and the fundraising success with the community last fall at Fulford Hall.

The Salt Spring Community Park Campaign respectfully acknowledges the ancestral and unceded traditional territory of the Coast Salish peoples and their ongoing stewardship of the lands within which the new community park is being created.

The campaign team, along with the CRD, will be reaching out to project stakeholders as the community engagement and management planning work now begins over the next many months.

Learn more about the Salt Spring Community Park project at communitypark.ca

• Capital (Regional District)