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Nicholson Road is an ongoing photo project aimed at sharing and celebrating the different communities in Metro Vancouver. Each week Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» will be featuring an image from the previous week, shot in one of the many 'hoods around town in order to draw your attention a little bit outside of the hyper-focus that we usually have on the City of Vancouver. |
What do you think you're looking at? Take a guess. Yeah it's water, good job. Maybe a pond or a lake of some kind?
What if I told you it was a naturally reclaimed gravel pit? Awesome, hey?
Many years ago, this site in Brookswood out in Langley (the Township, not the City) served as a gravel pit until the supply was exhausted and the company moved on. Rather than quickly being reclaimed to further develop the blossoming suburb or filling the deepest points to prevent flooding, the land near 204th and 32nd ave was left for mother nature to look after. And she did a pretty marvellous job.
The local community thought so too, and grew to enjoy having this little bit of natural paradise in their backyard even if it meant creating gaps in the fence built to keep the public out, and protect the Township against any liabilities. But really, who wants to enjoy such a gem from the other side of a chain-link fence?
Imagine then, when I tell you that in 2007 a couple proposals came forth to fill most of the site and build a bunch of homes, or a couple soccer fields on as an expansion of the Noel Booth Community Park located just to the north. That's when the community got involved, and the Township listened.
Over the next couple of years plans to 'build' a park out of the existing land developed into more of an 'enjoy what we already have' approach, by adding a few trails, signage, seating areas here and there, and maybe a bridge or two. Why bother shaping a new lake and surrounding parkland when nature had already done a pretty fantastic job on her own?
If you're curious to learn more about Brookswood Pond, including updates on the gradual enhancement of the park, check out
Archives of the Nicholson Road project can be found .
