2293days since
The infamous planning 'charrette' on Echo Heights Forest by North Cowichan which brought the community together into the CRA

Community Bulletin Board

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Hot Tips
From E.J. - Those old creasote ties along the E&N should be disposed of properly. There is a big pile just above Askew Creek.
From Mary - People are already starting to dump their yard waste in ditches and along the railway line. This just spreads invasive species. We have free yard waste dumping at Peerless Road. Use it!
From Rodney - The old MacMillan haul road is getting to be a pig sty. Why do people throw their garbage there? It pollutes Mill Creek and looks ugly.
From T.R.J. - Askew Park is called a "wilderness park". Why doesn't someone (the muni, CRA, Communities in Bloom) take care of the invasive plants like the daphne, blackberry, holly, ivy and other stuff?
From F.R. - I see the Victoria Police are cracking down on loud motorcycles and cars. Can North Cowichan RCMP start doing the same thing? Chemainus and Victoria Roads need policing for noise and speed.
From Don - Communities in Bloom do hard work at the roundabout, but why plant all those annuals and exotics that need watering. We have some great native plants in our yard that are beautiful, perennial and NEVER need watering.

Dialogue and discussion

For the 50 or so people at Chemainus Legion last Wednesday evening, it was an unusual evening for many reasons. First of all, there were no PowerPoint p
resentations and no cell phones were ringing. Amazing!

The real 'stars' of the show were people from around the area talking in heartfelt ways about why Echo Heights Forest is important to them. There was Murray Geiger talking about his walks, and work, on the trails for the past 17 years. And Gord McCaulay (who was away working on the tugs) sent a message about boyhood memories in the Forest and about learning to drive a jalopy on the rough trails. Paul McCuish, the Chemainus elementary teacher, spoke about students annually visiting Echo Heights several times a year and looking forward to familiar places. And Bernie Jones talked about the importance of places like Echo Heights in terms of future recreation needs for the community.

Then there was Kyra Bell-Pasht, the Environmental Law Centre student from UVic, who plans to use our stories about the Forest as part of her argument to North Cowichan that Echo Heights is de facto parkland because of its historical use.

And speaking of historical use… you should have been there to listen to Florence James talk about our favourite Forest in terms of its use by the Penelakut people of centuries past. She gave us the Hul’qum’num language names for places while speaking about how Echo Heights was once a stopping place for medicines and dancing on the way to mountaintops on a vision quest.

All in all, it was a good, old-fashioned evening of dialogue and discussion. It was good to see some new faces among the ‘old campaigners’. Even after more than 1,200 days, the commitment to preserve all 52 acres of the Forest has not diminished.

Our thanks to the Legion for making our favourite venue so accommodating.