The Comox Valley Regional District Board has received 40 acres of oceanfront property in the Merville area.
The land was donated through the federal government’s Ecological Gifts Program and Mark Harrison, the manager of parks of the CVRD says that the property needs to be more conservation-focused.
“At this stage, we’re not really sure what we’re going to do exactly with the property,” said Harrison.“But it needs to be a conservation focus, and anything we do on that property would need to get approval through that federal program.”
In terms of the next steps, Harrison adds that they will likely have a grand reveal with the representative of the former property owner in the spring, given that they have just gone through the donation process.
One of the benefits the donation can provide to the residents of Comox Valley is ecosystem services that help protect the land, according to Harrison.
“The land is basically comprised of mature second-growth forests, with some old-growth ones, so the land is all intact,” said Harrison. “Providing these ecosystem services is definitely a benefit to the residents as we need to talk more about climate change and climate resiliency.”
Once they get to the next steps, Harrison says that they’ll look into adding a small trail system to give residents better access to the oceanfront.
He also says that given that the nature of the Comox Valley is privately-owned land, it makes the properties by the oceanfront fairly rare within the region.
