From David Minty of Friends of Haro Woods:
In keeping with our forest monitoring duties for the Haro Woods I have an update as of Saturday November 3.
A group of approximately 7 people – including Rebecca Mersereau and Shawn Newby – did a walk about today to check out the state of the forest with regards to the future of the park and the effect that BMX jump- and swale-building is having on the health of the forest.
Firstly (picture included) the construction crew has again started to rebuild a new jump utilizing Saanich’s new split rail fence:
Heavy rocks were placed as a foundation with rails to form the basis of a new very high jump. I will add that the fence and new jump are all on UVic property so I expect quick action to remove it.
Almost all of the park under restoration signs have been removed or destroyed but we managed to find a few. We walked by a large owl in our tour and also noticed that some jumps and swales in the upper section have been recently removed. I presume that some type of heavy equipment such as a backhoe must have been used to dismantle them.
We then stumbled onto a small encampment next Finnerty Road with a tent and other objects. We collected for safe disposable a syringe, rubber gloves and other garbage. Earlier in the day I had noticed 3 police cars with a youth close by who may have been camping there. That’s all for now.
