Vantreight Park and Ferndale Forest

Walk to score: 13

Transit to score: 36

Parking:on Vantreight Dr.

Crushed gravel trails are wheelchair accessible

Dogs: permitted off leash (dogs mush be on-leash in the upper playground area)

Gordon Head is steeped in agricultural history, and parks such as Vantreight park are reminders of the many homesteading families that farmed the land in this part of the city in the early days of Victoria.

We spend a lot of time at Vantreight Park, as it is just down the hill from us and on the regular dog-walk route. It is also part of a set of interconnected greenspaces throughout Gordon Head, where one can walk partly through trails and partly through lower-traffic neigbourhoods, right from Arbutus Cove, through to Glencoe Cove, to Vantreight Park, to Margaret's Bay and on towards Mount Doug Park.

History 

In 1884, John Vantreight purchased a fair chunk of Gordon Head - a farm stretching inland from the bluff of Glencove Cove (also called Deadman's Cliff, or North Bay) - as far inland as Tyndall Road behind the large family home that still stands today.

Vantreight Farm at North Bay circa 1890, Saanich Archives

Through the years, this property has gone through a few bouts of development, and during the subdivision of what is now Leyns Road, this piece of parkland was deeded to the municipality.

Through the 1970's and 1980's it contained some playground equipment - swings, and teeter totters - and had baseball diamonds set up where a local baseball league practiced.  As the neighbourhood evolved, baseball was moved to Lambrick Park and Majestic Park, and the diamonds removed leaving the large level field on the lower level of the park.

Park highlights

Today, the park has new playground equipment installed at the upper level, and has a few strategically placed trees and a picnic table.  It remains a popular gathering spot for larger parties looking for a quiet picnic spot, or families looking for a space to kick the soccer ball around.

The lower field is a popular off-leash space for neighbourhood dog owners looking for a place for their pooches to stretch their legs and play.  During warm summer evenings, you can hear bats flitting about, and see swallows swooping and diving across the field, and occasionally see the eagles that nest further down the beach at Margaret's Bay.

Beyond the playground on the upper level of the park, there is a stretch of small forested area, containing Douglas Fir and other native species.  There have been a few fir seedlings planted in this area, to replace a few larger, older trees that have gone down in recent windstorms.  Across Vantreight Road, you step into the more heavily forested area known now as Ferndale Forest.

A few years ago, the municipality created a wheelchair-accessible pathway on one side of Vantreight Park, leading past the playground and onto Leyns Road at the other end. This has become a popular walking route in the neighbourhood year-round.

Kimiko loves to birdwatch in the forest

The Forest portion of this park is currently undergoing rehabilitation and re-wilding.  Volunteer crews working with Saanich Parks staff, are spending time pulling ivy and other invasive species in order to allow the native understory plants to re-establish themselves.  As you walk through the forest, despite the strangling influence of the ivy, you can still see thimbleberries, chokecherries, red huckleberries, wild rose, salmonberries, spirea, trailing blackberries, salal and the occasional saskatoon bush. Expect to see these burgeoning in the next 1-2 years as the volunteer crews work their way through this stretch.

Saanich Parks info on Vantreight Park
History of land ownership in Gordon Head, Saanich Archives http://www.saanich.ca/discover/artsheritagearc/heritage/pdf/ttwalkingtourweb.pdf


All images © 2014 Janice Mansfield

Bow Park

Walk-to score: 67

Transit-to score: 49

Parking on street

Wheelchair accessible trails in Bow Park area, steeper gravel trails towards Mackenzie Avenue

Dogs permitted: on leash

You might have driven down Mackenzie Avenue around Braefoot Park and idly wondered about that pedestrian overpass - wondering why anyone would put an overhead walkway to seemingly nowhere.

But the fact is, that overpass does lead somewhere! Right off the overpass, you find yourself on Ferndale Trail, heading up the hill towards to Bow Park, a superb example of how the hard work of volunteers working with the municipality can help preserve and restore natural ecosystems in suburban Victoria in a very short space of time!

Bow Park is also accessible off of Cedar Hill Road via Hopesmore Drive, and with Brodick Park is a habitat reclamation area smack-dab in the middle of a residential area that has rise up around it over the years. Its somewhat unique in that its Garry Oak groves sit in the midst of a boggier area, rather than the rocky, camass-covered outcroppings we typically see. There is small pond right in the middle of Bow Park (complete with ducks and frogs!), surrounded by Cottonwood, and the the understory of this Park is largely chokecherry, salmonberry and some Rosa Nutkana.

Park Highlights:

The stroll around the pond itself is a lovely walk, with benches placed strategically at a couple of spots.  If you go in late spring/early summer, you might be able to spy a nesting duck, or ducklings sunning themselves by the edge of the pond.  A number of residences back right onto the park by the pond, and then the trails make their way deeper into the forest, which is teeming with birds.

History:

Brodick and Bow Parks were first established around the time of the first round of subdivisions in the area.  One end of Bow Park opens up onto Brodick which is an open field area, with a small playground with an "old school" slide and swings.

More recently though, with its commitment to connected greenspaces, Saanich began more intensive work on the parks in this area, including Bow Park.

"In the spring of 2011 Saanich Parks began a project to reduce the grade of a connector trail that travels through Feltham Park and Bow Park to connect Mckenzie Avenue with Cedar Hill Road. Throughout the summer and early fall, Saanich Park staff along with Pulling Together volunteers, removed invasive species such as Himalayan Blackberry and English Ivy within a stand of Garry Oak, Bitter Cherry, Indian Plum, and Black Hawthorn trees. On Tree Appreciation Day Saanich staff and more than 50 community volunteers planted hundreds of native trees and shrubs along the portion of the trail from Livingstone Avenue to Bow Road. This area will be an ongoing restoration area and support from the community for maintenance is required." Our Backyard, a Newsletter on the Natural Environment in Saanich, Vol 11 Issue 4, 2011, pg 5

You can see signs throughout the park highlighting the areas where trees have been planted, and can see evidence of the invasive species removal crews at work.  It is amazing to see the effects that just 3 years of focussed work has had to move this area to a more naturally balanced mix of flora.  In the lower parts of the trail that connect to Mackenzie Avenue, you can see the return of horsetail, skunk cabbage and wetlands species in the understory of the cottonwoods and alder, and in the upper areas closer to the pond, the chokecherries and salmonberries are thriving.

Final note: If you take the time to stroll through the park on a warm evening, make sure you come armed with mosquito repellent!





Links:
Saanich Parks info on Bow Park
Our Backyard, A Newsletter on the Natural Environment in Saanich, Volume 11, Issue 4

All images © 2014 Janice Mansfield