A revised management plan will take into account additional land that has been added to Mount Benson Regional Park.
Regional District of Nanaimo staff are in the process of updating the guiding document for Mount Benson park, which encompasses land in both the RDN and the City of Nanaimo. The regional district announced acquisition of two parcels of close to 80 hectares from Mosaic Forest Management in August 2022, intended to bridge Westwood Lake with Mount Benson.
Amendments to the previous 2010-20 plan are intended to "address emerging issues and provide direction for the two new land parcels … and provide direction for managing recreation and conservation opportunities in the park for the next 10 years," stated a March 18 committee of the whole staff report.
At the meeting, Tom Osborne, RDN general manager of recreation and parks, said, thus far, an archeological overview assessment and preliminary park analysis, which includes trail condition and environmental field assessments on the two plots, have been completed.
Work thus far has included a workshop with stakeholders, such as Nanaimo and Area Land Trust, Nanaimo Mountain Bike Club and Island Mountain Ramblers, who have an agreement to maintain the park's trails. Jonathan Behnke, RDN parks planner, told the committee that public engagement is anticipated to take place later this spring.
Information gathered will help formulate the park management plan, according to Rick Daykin, RDN manager of parks services.
"Once we get the plan refined, have the community engagement, we'll have a really good sense of what the improvements could be, whether they're kiosks, trail improvements, special-use improvements for mountain biking or hiking or walking," he said. "At that time, we'll put down some cost estimates, utilizing our growing community funds that we have."
He added that the community fund has $400,000 earmarked, which is a good sum of money to put toward improvements.
The RDN enlisted the services of Lanarc Consultants to spearhead the project, with assistance from regional district staff.
The committee accepted the staff report as an information item.
