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land protection: our projects and covenants
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The Comox Valley Land Trust works with private landowners wishing to permanently protect ecological values on their land by registering conservation covenants on land title. If you want to read more on covenants, or learn more about how to protect land, please use the links in the top menu.
The Land Trust currently holds and monitors three conservation covenants in the valley:
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Hurford Hill Nature Park |
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Hurford Hill Nature Park
a 26.5 acre Courtenay City park. An island of green surrounded by suburban development, Hurford Hill Nature Park is a critical link in a greenway corridor along Glen Urquhart Creek in East Courtenay.
Private covenant (Comox)
a 2.9 acre parcel of forested private land adjacent to Comox. This property has many natural attributes including a spring fed wetland and mature trees used by blue herons that come up from the foreshore to rest and feed.
Future Regional District park
on an 11 acre rural property that will become a park on the expiry of a life estate.
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Next to these three covenants the Comox Valley Land Trust is working on several ongoing projects. These projects include:
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Millard/Piercy Watershed
We are working with the Millard/Piercy Watershed Stewards on the implementation of their Watershed Protection Plan. Our contribution will be to hold covenants on properties with critical habitat values. We are working with landowners to place covenants on three properties in the Millard/Piercy watershed, two along Millard Creek and one on Tributary 7 of Piercy Creek. These properties serve as critical fish and wildlife habitat and contribute to the overall health of the Millard/Piercy system by protecting the watercourses and riparian areas along it.
Sandwick Forest
We are working with the Sandwick Waterworks Improvement District to ensure that a 31 acre forest owned by the Sandwick Waterworks Improvement District will become a park protected by a conservation covenant. This property is part of the Finlay Creek catchment basin and contributes spring fed water to the Portuguese Creek and Tsolum River systems year round. One of the most significant limiting factors to fish production in the Tsolum River is low summer flows; the flows of Finlay Creek are critical for fish survival in this system. Sandwick Forest has cedar trees over 150 years old and many wildlife trees used by cavity dwellers.
Cumberland Community Forest
We are working in partnership with the Cumberland Community Forest Society to raise funds for the purchase of approximately 1200 acres of forestland near Cumberland. The property will become a community forest for recreation and heritage, protected by a conservation covenant.
Whyte's Bay
We are working in partnership with the Whyte's Bay Forest Society, raising funds for the purchase of approximately 1100 acres of forestland near Comox Lake. The property will become a working forest patterned on the model of Wildwood Forest near Ladysmith and will be managed sustainably to protect and improve the ecological values of the forest while providing economic return.
One-Spot Trail
In partnership with the Regional District, CVLT is working to open the One Spot Trail along the old Comox Logging Company rail grade. The One Spot Trail is a key part of the Regional District's greenway plan. CVLT is partnering with the Regional District to plan and promote the trail and will assist in construction and maintenance.
Crown Lands (Millard Greenbelt, Lerwick and Lannan Forests)
CVLT is working in partnership with many individuals, local governments and community groups, to promote the retention of key Crown land parcels in the Valley and to place them under long-term legal protection as public greenspace. Our focus is on two environmentally significant Crown land parcels recently purchased by the City of Courtenay - Lerwick Forest and Millard Green Belt. In the winter of 2003-2004 we actively collected pledges and donations to assist the Regional District of Comox-Strathcona in making a bid to purchase the Lannan Forest. (read more in an article by Frank Hovenden).
The Land Trust has offered to hold and monitor conservation covenants on these parcels.
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Millard/Piercy Watershed
Chinatown Marsh
Lerwick Forest |
| We monitor and maintain existing protected areas annually. We have undertaken the removal of non-native invasive species and other restoration activities, in consultation with landowners. |
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