A 20-hectare forested property in Saanich that’s home to numerous species at risk will become a regional park, after the Capital Regional District and Habitat Acquisition Trust obtained it from the family that owned it for decades.
Existing trails and accesses on the property, located south of Excelsior Road and southeast of Prospect Lake, will continue to be open for public use, as they have been for years.
Known as the Mountain Road Forest, the land includes a Garry oak meadow and rocky outcrop, among Canada’s most imperiled ecosystems. At-risk species there include the western screech owl, the common nighthawk, the northwestern garter snake and the northern Pacific tree toad. The area is part of the headwaters of the Colquitz River system.
The family that owned the land wishes to remain anonymous, but issued a statement saying that having it saved was always their vision.
“We are delighted that our father’s 30-plus year love affair with this wonderful forest and our dream of preserving it as a greenspace in perpetuity in his memory have both been honoured,” the family said. “We will always be extremely grateful to the many individuals and organizations who helped make it possible.”
The family resisted offers from developers and other buyers intent on subdividing the land into exclusive residential lots.
The purchase price was $3.4 million, including $2 million from the CRD Land Acquisition Fund and most of the rest from over 1,440 individual donors to an eight-month fundraising campaign that began Dec. 1, 2020.
The purchase was helped by Canada’s Ecological Gifts Program, which provides income-tax incentives to landowners who take steps to preserve ecologically sensitive private holdings.
Habitat Acquisition Trust executive director Katie Blake said preserving the land was a true community effort.
“We’re really excited, mostly because of the sheer number of people that participated in the campaign,” she said. “We were not expecting such a huge outpouring of support and generosity.”
Blake said the number of donors who contributed “demonstrates the importance that people place on keeping nature a part of their lives and their community.”
She said there are few opportunities in the region to preserve larger, entirely natural parcels so close to the city.
“This was a spectacular opportunity,” she said. “It’s an incredible piece of land.”
