Gabriola Land and Trails Trust and Gabriola Memorial Society
After gathering more than 1000 signatures from Gabriola community members – almost ¼ of Gabriola’s population – the Gabriola Land and Trails Trust (GaLTT) and the Gabriola Island Memorial Society (GIMS) are preparing to have local MLA Routley present the “Save Honeysuckle Woods” petitions to the BC Legislature in mid-May.
This action will formally express the Gabriola community’s strong desire to protect the “Barrett Quarry” land (aka Honeysuckle Woods) from industrial development and is an important first step in acquiring the beautiful 40-acre forested property for public parkland and a small, much-needed natural burial site.
The land is currently licensed to the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoTI) as a “gravel pit.”
Rob Brockley, GaLTT past president and a key organizer of the Save Honeysuckle Woods initiative says, “We’ve talked to hundreds of Gabriolans over the past few months and have received overwhelming agreement that Honeysuckle Woods should never be used for gravel extraction.
“The undeveloped property has high conservation and recreation values that should be protected, and the surrounding residential neighborhood makes it clearly unsuitable for industrial use.”
MoTI owns another gravel site and storage area on Gabriola which should easily meet their future needs.
Kristina Baerg, GIMS co-chair said, “Following a preliminary meeting with MoTI staff in October 2022 there seems to have been no consideration of the important community and environmental interests and concerns raised by GIMS and GaLTT.
“Protecting Honeysuckle Woods is a clear opportunity for MoTI and the provincial government to do what is in the best interests of the Gabriola community.”
Hugh Skinner (GaLTT president) adds, “By having our signatures recorded in The Hansard, we hope MoTI Minister Rob Fleming will ensure serious discussions finally start to happen.”
Skinner says protecting the 40 acres would be a small, but tangible, sign that the provincial government is serious about achieving its commitment to conserve 30 percent of BC’s land base by 2030.
As the petition wording requests, discussions between MoTI and the Snuneymuxw First Nation, the Regional District of Nanaimo, the Islands Trust, and Gabriola community members will be an important first step in the process.
GIMS and GaLTT are committed to continuing to work on this initiative by participating in those discussions and others as appropriate.
Gabriolans who haven’t signed the petition can still do so at Ground Up Cafe, Pages Marina, Natures Spirit Earth Market and North Road Sports.
GaLTT and GIMS would like to thank these four community-minded businesses for generously hosting the petition over the past few months.
To ensure they are included in the final tally, anyone who has a filled or partially filled petition should contact the petitioners at savehoneysucklewoods@gmail.com to arrange for pickup.
The GaLTT (galtt.ca/honeysuckle-woods) and GIMS (naturalburialgabriola.ca/honeysuckle-woods) websites have more information about the project.
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