KNPS 2000 AGM
Report from the Executive
The year 2000 has been a banner year for
the Nature Park Society. Support for the Park has continued to grow throughout
the community and the energy of our active members has allowed us to move
forward on a number of fronts.
We began the year with a membership
drive. Brand new lapel pins, new membership cards, 3 widely distributed
newsletters, displays at the public library and the Mark Creek mall and the
hustle of volunteers on our membership committee resulted in a doubling of
memberships from the last AGM to today. As of a few weeks ago we had 151
memberships representing 303 individuals.
Guided walks in the Park were a big hit
this year with turnouts averaging about 20 individuals. Once again the
Volksmarch Club held some of their events in the area and for the first time a
mountain bike race, sponsored by the Alpine Resort, used a number of our trails.
In June, Kimberley City Council declared
the week prior to Father's Day, as official Kimberley Nature Park Week, and it
was then that we unveiled our brand new full-colour trail guide conceived,
designed and produced by many volunteers with the much appreciated assistance of
the City of Kimberley's Engineering department, Eaglevision Geomatics and
Desktop Graphics publishing. Filled with a wealth of background information
about the Park and a detailed topographical trail map, the new guide was an
instant hit. With a cover price of $2, compared to our old map's 50 cents we
weren't sure initially if we could find sympathetic merchants to sell them for
us and interested customers to buy them. We could no longer rely on the honour
system of having people drop quarters in a box, now we needed the active
involvement of local business owners.
Well, we needn't have worried. Techno
Sport, the Owl and Teapot, Bavarian Sports and Hardware, Happy Hans Campground,
the Townsite Market and CJ Finishes sold maps and collected money all summer.
The Kimberley Travel Info Centre, Loon Lake Cappuccino Bar, the Snowdrift Cafe,
the Alpine Resort and the Kimberley Book Company sold them all summer and will
continue to sell them all winter. Thanks to these groups and businesses and a
number of volunteers, we have sold over 700 trail guides since June.
The Park's trail network came through
last winter's snows and spring rains without any serious impacts and we were
able to complete the work on the new Skid Road early in the spring. Comments
from hikers and bikers on the layout and construction of this new trail have
been extremely positive, and if we ever get some snow we'll find out how it skis
as well. \par \tab With the move of the Happy Hans Campground to its new
location on the St. Mary's Lake road, Nature Park volunteers constructed a new
link trail from there to Jimmy Russell Road making access to the Park by campers
much more straightforward. As well a number of new trail signs were routered,
painted and installed on the south side of the Park.
The entrance to the Park at the new
campground also became a site for one of our new information kiosks. Five of
these handsome new structures have been designed, fabricated and erected by
dozens of volunteers with thousands of dollars of financial support from the
B.C. 2000 Community Spirit fund, Peter Keiwit and Sons, and Cominco Ltd. The
kiosks hold a large version of the trail guide with a "you are here"
arrow as well as a bulletin board for notices, trail advisory's and other
information. You can find the kiosks at the new campground, at Higgins Street in
lower Blarchmont, at the south end of the Ponderosa Trail, at Myrtle Junction
(or Four Corners) and at the far end of the Nordic Ski trails at the start of
the trail to Dipper Lake. We have a number of pictures of the kiosks and some of
the volunteers that helped build them on our display board here tonight.
Perhaps one of our most significant
accomplishments this year is a major step we have taken in our effort to legally
protect the Park. For over a year now, members of our liaison committee have
been working with Larry Haber at City Hall to prepare an application on behalf
of the City for a license of occupation for the land within the Nature Park
boundary. After extensive consultations with a number of government ministries,
numerous committee meetings and 16 drafts of the document, we were finally able
to present the application to City Council just last week. I am happy to report
that they unanimously approved it and will be sending it off the appropriate
provincial agency.
While a license of occupation is not a
final solution to the problem of how to legally protect the Park, it does give
the City, and we hope, the Nature Park Society an elevated status in decision
making over that land. That, in combination with all of the work our volunteers
are doing, and the support that the community is showing for the area will
hopefully, someday lead to full protection.
2000 has been a productive and rewarding
year for our Society and the Park. But when I look ahead to 2001 it gets even
better.
If the City's License of Occupation is
accepted by the Province, a process to involve the entire community in the
creation of a 5 year plan for the Park will then begin. The Nature Park Society
will play a major role in that process and there will be opportunities for many
people to get involved.
In addition, our trails committee has
already prepared an extensive list of ongoing maintenance tasks that need to be
carried out to keep our current trail network in tip top shape. Our membership
committee has made a number of recommendations that include making Nature Park
Week an annual event, producing t-shirts and coffee mugs, and generally raising
the profile of the group in town. Members of the executive have started
discussing expanding our educational efforts and involving more school kids in
Park activities as well as exploring opportunities to fund research in the Park.
In a few minutes we are going to elect a
new board of directors and executive for the Nature Park Society. Later on in
the evening during the wine and cheese, everyone in the room will have an
opportunity to sign up for a Nature Park committee and get involved in the
coming year's activities. I urge you all to seriously consider playing an active
role in this organization, for the good of the Park, for the good of the
community, and because really, its quite a lot of fun.
Thank you.
Kent Goodwin
President
For the KNPS Executive
2000 Kimberley Nature
Park Society Directors
President - Kent Goodwin
Vice-President - Struan Robertson
Secretary - Susan Bond
Treasurer - Lorne Hope
Director - John Dunbar
Director - Katie McCay
Director - Ruth Martens
Director - Peter McConnachie
Director - Peter Moody
Director - Louise Nadeau
