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Wednesday, January 2, 2013
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The NOW COQUITLAM, PORT COQUITLAM, PORT MOODY, ANMORE AND BELCARRA
Former logger helps preserve Widgeon Marsh
Submitted photo courtesy Metro Vancouver
Widgeon Marsh is a tidal freshwater wetland influenced by Pitt Lake. tares) but smaller than Pacific Keeping an area of Regional Park (763 hectares). Coquitlam as wild as posNearby Minnekhada Regional sible and free from residential Park in Coquitlam is 200 development has motivated a hectares. former logger to hand over a Edward has lived on the large parcel of land to Metro marsh since 1988, a year Vancouver to expand an ecoafter he bought the land. He logically sensitive marsh area. said several thousand Canada Bob Edward has sold 9.6 geese flew into the marsh on hectares of land to Metro Boxing Day. Vancouver “Right now, to expand the Widgeon “I want this never to I can look out and not see Marsh be residential or another house Regional Park Reserve commercial. I want it or another light,” he to 614 hecto be wild.” said Thursday tares. Ducks from his Unlimited home. “It is Canada helped Bob Edward one of the in the purLandowner most beautiful chase of the places you’ll freshwater ever see. Totally wild.” tidal marshes and uplands for From his home on the $935,000. Edward donated the balance of the property’s value reserve, he said he can drive into Vancouver and be in of $400,000, for which he’ll Kitsilano to visit a friend in an receive a federal ecological hour. He’s renting the home gift tax receipt. he’s living in on the marsh Widgeon Reserve is larger from Metro Vancouver, and than Stanley Park (405 hec-
is building another home on a nearby parcel he owns. Eventually, he plans to make sure it, too, ends up as part of the reserve. “I don’t want it sold to private individuals because they will subdivide it and build homes and condominiums,” he said. As a park reserve, Widgeon has restricted access and isn’t open to the public, according to Metro Vancouver. A number of rare and endangered species call the area home, such as the green heron, Western screech and shorteared owls, red-legged frog, and the painted turtle. Brad Arner, manager of provincial operations for Ducks Unlimited Canada in B.C., could not be reached for comment. But he said earlier in a news release that the land acquired by the region is one of the largest remaining unprotected wetlands in the area. It builds upon other nearby wetlands already
protected in the Pitt Unit of the Pitt-Addington Wildlife Management Area. “Widgeon Marsh is unique because it is a tidal freshwater wetland and is influenced by Pitt Lake, the largest freshwater tidal lake in North America,” he said in the release. “The wetlands are intensively used by birds, especially shorebirds and waterfowl, with counts as high as 1,000 and 2,000 in a day.” Edward said in a phone interview that the sale was completed in July. “If you see the area, you’d know why I’m doing what I’m doing. As far as I’m concerned, it will never be opened to the public as a drive-in place because if you do that, you have a big road and parking lot and garbage. It’s not a nature reserve anymore. It’s taken over by people. It’ll be a go-by-boat place.” He said the marsh is an excellent area for kayaking. Edward sees his donation of land as fitting into a bigger picture. The Widgeon Marsh Reserve is surrounded by Pinecone-Burke Provincial Park, which abuts Garibaldi Provincial Park to the north, which in turn also links with Golden Ears Provincial Park to the south, creating a ring around an area that includes Pitt Lake.
Edward, 79, has lived in the area all his life, and fondly recalls spending time with his mother in the marsh. “She was a real nature person,” he said. “She spent so much time in the marsh. She died the year I bought the property. It’s my little bit to save this area. I want this never to be residential or commercial. I want it to be wild.”
Since 1992, Metro Vancouver and Nature Trust of B.C. have partnered to purchase 580 hectares of land to establish the Widgeon Marsh Reserve. The recent purchase of Edward’s land has meant getting control of a section of private road that provides the only access by land to the park. — Kevin Griffin Vancouver Sun
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