Ottawa gives $700,000 to fix park: Pacific Rim was badly damaged by winter storms; funding means West Coast Trail to open on time

Jeff Bell, Times Colonist

Vancouver Island’s Pacific Rim National Park, home to the famed West Coast Trail, is getting $700,000 in federal funds for recovery efforts stemming from December’s devastating windstorms.

The winds brought down more than 2,000 trees, triggered a mudslide, and toppled two cable cars and a suspension bridge on the well-travelled 75-kilometre hiking trail. Cleanup work has already begun.

“Pacific Rim National Park Reserve is one of the jewels of the West Coast,” Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn said yesterday as he announced the funding at Parks Canada’s Sidney Operation Centre.

Lunn’s words echoed those of federal Environment Minister John Baird, who in January called storm-damaged Stanley Park “a national treasure.” At that time, Baird gave $2 million in federal funds to help repair the urban Vancouver park, which suffered about $9 million in damage.

Of the funds announced yesterday, $500,000 will go toward general restoration work, said Lunn, MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands. The remaining $200,000 is part of a deal between Parks Canada and the Ucluelet-based Central Westcoast Forest Society to restore Sandhill and Lostshoe creeks and improve their salmon-spawning capacity.

Pacific Rim National Park Reserve encompasses about 50,000 hectares along the Island’s west coast divided into three areas: the Long Beach Unit, the Broken Group Islands and the West Coast Trail. Established in 1970, the park attracts millions of visitors from around the world, including about 5,000 a year who hike the West Coast Trail. Read full story