Powell River Regional District’s two new parks are significant recreational assets located on the waterfront at opposite ends of the district.
Boot Point Regional Park on Lasqueti Island and Diver’s Rock Regional Park near Finn Cove north of Lund will provide opportunities for those who enjoy nature in proximity to the ocean.
Merrick Anderson, Electoral Area E director, said the Boot Point Park site has been very well used this past summer. It did get used intermittently and sort of carelessly, previously, he said.
“Now that it’s a park, people are taking better care of it, which is gratifying,” he said.
Historically, the new park has been a vacant lot. Anderson said it was a popular spot with a few people who knew about it, but dedicating a park at the site has created awareness island-wide.
“It’s a lovely view spot,” Anderson said. “It has inspired us to see how we can improve it in the future. We just did a little bit of machine work and handwork this year. It’s actually a fair-sized lot. It’s bush at the moment but we’ll see if we can tidy it up.”
A large picnic table has been built at the site this year to make the park more accommodating.
Anderson said the genesis of the park was the plan of an islander to hold a rock music festival on the island.
“He wanted to get permits and the ministry of highways wouldn’t allow it,” Anderson said. “I started moving the ducks along to get them all in a row and try to create a park. It took a couple of years.”
Anderson said the park is a work in progress and the islanders will poke along at improving it. There is no budget for the park so islanders will make improvements as opportunities present themselves.
In the northern reaches of the regional district, Patrick Brabazon, Electoral Area A director, said the community has just become aware that the Diver’s Rock site is becoming a park. It is actually undeveloped right now.
“The response I’ve had out in Lund is favourable,” he said. “They are always looking for more public access. Diver’s Rock is not a beach access. It’s well named. The last step would be a dilly. But other than that, it’s a great viewpoint. You get to look out over the Ragged Islands, or the Copeland Islands as they are called on the map.”
Diver’s Rock is located on the outer side of Finn Cove north of Lund, across the land on the Thulin Passage side, Brabazon said. He said the new park will be a community asset.
The park is a half-hectare parcel of waterfront property that was donated to the regional district for park use in perpetuity. The request from the donors was that it be named Diver’s Rock Regional Park.
It has been a destination for recreational diving, swimming and picnicking for decades. The regional district does not plan to develop the parkland, but rather, preserve it.
