Bear Hill Farm, viewed from above in 2025, is a pilot project in partnership with the Capital Regional District to develop and maintain an agriculture focus activating under utilized lands for food production. (CRD report) Read more at: https://vicnews.com/2026/02/03/saanichs-bear-hill-gets-ready-for-5-year-crd-farm-pilot-program/
A regional park is almost ready to raise farmers on a recently revamped tree nursery in Saanich. A plot in Bear Hill Regional Park serves as a pilot project for the Capital Regional District, under its new Foodlands Access Service established in February 2025. Fallow nearly a decade, with only a small portion used as by the Garry Oak Meadow Preservation Society as a seedling nursery, and previously used as a City of Victoria nursery, CRD staff are now seeking final board approval to use the land for a five-year farm pilot.
Dubbed a farmer-incubator site, the district already allocated a partnership of Haliburton Community Organic Farm Society and LifeCycles Project Society to operate the site, the regional parks committee heard during its Jan. 28 meeting.
Haliburton has two decades of experience in farm incubation and agricultural land management, with a focus on supporting certified organic and regenerative farming practices. LifeCycles is a regional leader in food literacy and security.
Preliminary preparation started in November, according to an information report shared with the committee. That work included clearing brush, invasive plants, trees and stumps alongside soil sampling and testing. Building a base is anticipated to continue the first half of 2026, with a focus on building out farm infrastructure, remediation and policy development including refinement of the farmer application process, land agreements and tenancy responsibilities. The Farmland Access Service aims to use the existing house, with some investment for safety upgrades, to support farm operations. The plan includes removal of a dilapidated barn on the property. The plan is to have farmers selected and accessing the land at 5920 Patricia Bay Hwy by August.
The dominant species in this area is Garry oak, and casual observations confirm that dozens of other species that co-evolved with this tree species are also present.
People stand atop Mt. Tolmie beside a large Garry oak tree. ADRIAN LAM, TIMES COLONIST
A commentary by a Saanich resident.
Buried on page 135 of Saanich’s Quadra-McKenzie Plan are clues of what is in store for present and future residents of Saanich.
Two words that can better connect our imaginations to this place, quicker than just about any other term in the plan, have been relegated to the Quadra-McKenzie Plan’s glossary: Garry oak.
If you’ve ever navigated the Quadra and McKenzie area, you’ll know you can wander in any direction and encounter truly unique woodlands and individual Garry oak trees blended into the built environment.
The dominant species in this area is Garry oak, and casual observations confirm that dozens of other species that co-evolved with this tree species are also present.
The critically endangered remnants of the kwetlal or Garry oak ecosystem exist in the Quadra and McKenzie area today in large part because of lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ stewardship.
In the 2010s, as pressure to bypass development practices that preserve trees and ecosystems intensified, Saanich residents could count on the consistent public support of Dean Murdock, then councillor, for the Garry oak ecosystem.
When Murdock was challenged in 2015 by residents pointing to flaws in Saanich’s bylaws associated with sensitive ecosystems, he shared, “I’m supportive of the intent [of the Environmental Development Permit Area].”
He provided further comments, noting, “It’s really designed to be a protective tool, so that in the event of a change in land use, redevelopment or rezoning, we’re protecting those areas.”
As Murdock, now the mayor, nears the end of his term, his philosophy on Garry oak ecosystems appears to have inverted.
The flawed maps implemented as the evidence-based instrument for implementing the EDPA bylaw still echo across the province today as a cautionary tale of environmental policy failure.
The scandal that emerged frustratingly exacerbated perceptions that ecosystems and urban development are oppositional forces. What followed the collapse of the EDPA was five years of technical review panels and multiple environmental consulting contracts.
After it was proposed by Coun. Zac de Vries, council endorsed the 3-30-300 urban forestry principle, which mandates that every citizen sees at least three trees from their home, that there is 30 per cent urban forest canopy in every land-use designation area and every home is no more than 300 metres from a high-quality green space.
In 2022, there was a last-minute tree-planting election campaign promise by Murdock. His comments in the Times Colonist that November committed to planting “100,000 trees by 2032 on public lands, boulevards and private properties.”
Saanich Parks, which has no authority to plant trees on private land and has received no funding to support increased public tree-planting capacity, is on track to achieve this goal 30 years late.
Murdock’s progress on this particular objective is similarly vexing as council’s meddling with its own 3-30-300 commitments.
After receiving widespread praise for its early adoption of the principle, the Urban Forest Strategy will strive to achieve the 30 per cent canopy threshold in 2064, with one caveat: Saanich Core has been removed from the primary growth land use designation area.
Whether 3-30-300 champion de Vries takes issue with this creative canopy-commitment workaround is ultimately moot. Saanich has no pathway to achieving canopy targets if they continue to defer funding and delay implementing the biodiversity and urban forest strategy recommendations.
Saanich is developing a new tree protection bylaw using urban forest canopy analysis that is nearly seven years old. This is a feature of council opting out of Urban Forest Strategy recommendations to update canopy analysis “at least every five years,” and prevents the ability for comparison with the 2019 canopy baseline.
This is important information to inform how current policies around land use development, climate change and the effectiveness of management approaches are working.
Upgraded canopy analysis would improve decision makers’ understanding of how the Quadra-McKenzie Plan is likely to alter existing canopy, and what management and policy interventions are necessary for urban forestry stewardship.
The voting majority of council, choosing to defer strategic plan recommendations, including updating the canopy analysis, and rushing to implement the Quadra McKenzie Plan, is not taking its responsibility as the steward of this critically endangered ecosystem seriously.
Accountability can be restored, but replacing the kwetlal food system/Garry oak ecosystem after it is removed, council and senior staff cannot.
A $13,000 grant from the Victoria Foundation to help preserve the trees in the group’s nursery is a major boost
Acorns collected by the public are being planted to produce more Garry oaks as proponents work to strengthen the depleted tree species.
Arborist and society president of the Garry Oak Meadow Preservation Society Ryan Senechal said a $13,000 grant from the Victoria Foundation to help preserve the trees in the group’s nursery is a major boost.
The nursery is on Capital Regional District-owned land off the Pat Bay Highway just north of Sayward Road, and it has now been able to purchase a shelter where volunteers can work on the plants, Senechal said.
The site used to be the location of the City of Victoria’s tree nursery, he said, so the group entered into a partnership with the city to take over the use of the property.
Getting enough acorns to plant is “a community participatory project” that sees the society reaching out via its website, local media and social media for acorn donations, Senechal said.
He said the society has been “overwhelmed” with the amount of acorns gathered this year, so no more are needed for now.
The trees that can grow are from acorns that were “100 per cent” provided by community members, Senechal said.
That fits with the society’s focus on producing the “local ecotype” of Garry oaks to distribute around the region, he said, and added the society is “interested in stewarding the local population.”
The annual request for acorn donations comes in early September.
Guidelines for the public include testing the acorns to see if they float, since acorns that float can’t be used.
Also unsuitable are acorns with caps, which indicate that they aren’t ripe.
Senechal said many of the acorns received have already started root growth, and some will emerge at the potting stage, while some will not.
Once planted, the successful acorns take root and establish a small stem and leaves.
He pointed to a 2006 study on Garry oak ecosystems that looked at their historical range on Vancouver Island and beyond, with the conclusion being that less than five per cent of the original range remained in Canada.
That number refers to areas that are “relatively intact,” and it falls to three per cent for areas in prime condition, he said — making Canada’s Garry oak ecosystems “critically endangered.”
Senchal said the Garry Oak Meadow Preservation Society was formed in 1992, a time when there was little in the way of tree-protection bylaws to manage urban forests.
Its society members spent considerable time advocating for the sort of protections we see more of today.
He said the “latest dilemma” for the society is the continuing fragmentation of remaining Garry oak ecosystems, and trees that are vulnerable due to the push for added space for housing in the region.
This leaves them having to “constantly evolve as an advocacy organization.”
