RDCK News: Commission plans for upgrades at regional Parks
By Nelson Daily Staff
By Suzy Hamilton, The Nelson Daily
Regional parks may look natural, but there’s a lot that goes in to keeping them that way.
The RDCK operates 20 regional parks in the area and their 2013 maintenance and upgrades were reviewed at the April 11 Regional District of Central Kootenay’s monthly board meeting.
Parking, monitoring, community stewardship, fire prevention and management plans were among the most common topics brought forward from the Nelson, Salmo and Areas E,F and G Regional Parks Commission that met March 25.
“Some have management plans and some don’t,” explained Ramona Faust, chair of the Commission. “Some are regional in nature and some local.
“People want to hang on to common space and we need community stewardship because we can’t be everywhere.”
Faust said monitoring for numbers of visitors is being discussed, but “everything has a cost.”
Pulpit Rock for example, where the RDCK shares some of the costs, recorded that it received 20,000 hikers in 2012. Actual numbers help planning, she said, noting that with these numbers, parking will have to be added at the base of the Pulpit Rock trail on Johnstone Road.
Making new parks can be touchy. The new Balfour Beach Regional Park still faces controversy as residents who live above a part of the beach now in parkland are worried about parking, fires, party goers and human waste.
The nearly two kilometers rugged piece of beach at the west end of Queens Bay was recently acquired by the RDCK for 30 years with a licence of occupation. The proposal was in the works since 2005 as a way to preserve the rocky beach and hiking trails.
It is used mostly by locals and is difficult to access, said Faust. But still, residents such asGary Edighoffer, whose land is above the beach,are concerned about future use. He and other neighbours opposed the park when it was in the proposal stages.
In a letter to the Commission on March 25, 2013 he proposed that the south area of the park above which he lives—about one third of the area—be subdivided from the northern portion. He offered to pay for the entire procedure.
“I implore you to look at this solution very closely, and decide to resubmit to the Province for a subdivision of the Balfour Beach Park area,” he wrote.
But Faust said Balfour Regional is a done deal.
“The area is an ecological unit.
“It has some lightly altered shore line…a rarity. It was a provincial Use Recreation and Enjoyment for the Public Area (UREP) for a long time prior to it being applied for as a park. People use it for hiking along forested trails below private land and beach walking,” she said.
“We don’t have any ownership right to subdivide the area and could lose it entirely if opened up again. We have a 30 year agreement signed, sealed and delivered.”
She said she is hoping a management plan can address the residents’ concerns.
A bright spot in the RDCK’s parks initiative, Morning Mountain in Blewett has also proved to be troublesome. Vandals recently destroyed a $1,200 gate to the property by using a dumpster as a battering ram to break down the gate. Residents also leave “car carcasses” there and have palette-burning parties, Faust said.
“The situation with Morning Mountain is very discouraging as far as being able to improve the area,” said Faust.
Morning Mountain is not a park within the Nelson Salmo Area E F Park commission. It is a stand-alone recreation area of Area E and F and is a license of occupation from the province.
The RDCK owns an in-holding of the old lodge site (which burned) and the Nelson Cycling Club has a recreation tenure above and slightly overlapping the license of occupation. The vandalism, Faust said, will make it more difficult to gain funds for trail improvement.
Other plans for the regional parks are benches at James Johnstone, washrooms and sand sifting for Taghum, sprinklers and hockey rink discussion for winter at Bonnington, a wheelchair accessible dock at Cottonwood Lake, and brushing and widening the Nelson/Salmo Great Northern Trail. McDonalds Landing, a new park at Six Mile on the North Shore will require signage notifying boat moorage can be no longer than 10 minutes, which means no winter moorage.
The RDCK hired a dedicated parks supervisor last summer and have approved funding for a planner aid which Faust says will help park management.
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