The message that we have gained from this year is “Patience.” The Cowichan Lake Trail Blazers Society has been patiently awaiting a land-use agreement from our stakeholder partner, Mosaic Forest Management. We happy to report that we have received the second draft of an agreement specific to our project and the lands Mosaic have offered for the development of world class hiking and cycling trails.
Inch by inch, we are getting closer and our potential agreement has made it to the top of the pile to be finalized. Mosaic has been working with their legal team on renewing several agreements on Vancouver Island and we applaud the dedication of their group as they work with other societies to allow legal access to their lands for various recreational activities.
Over this past year, the Society has not been idle. We have had many Zoom meetings to keep the project moving forward. This project was born with the funding assistance of the Province as well as Island Coastal Economic Trust. Most notably, we have recently received our Trail Development Master Plan which was completed by Mark Woods of Trail Holistics. From this plan, we were able to identify the starting point of a trail network with some estimated costs so that we can go about raising funds to start building the network.
We were recently awarded a generous grant from Mid Island Co-op that enabled us to purchase and outfit a small cargo trailer to store and move our trail building tools around. We are truly grateful for their community support. See the accompanying story for more details.
As we move into 2021, our focus will now turn to raising funds through grants, sponsorships, donations and memberships. We are thankful to our membership and hope that many more visit our website and sign-up or donate. At a cost of $200 per metre, trail building is not an endeavour that comes at no cost.
