Education and Birdsong Path Completion
Grant Program: Community Grants 2025
Funded by: Ian and Rosemary Mottershead Fund
About:
The Lighthouse Park Preservation Society (LPPS) is a membership-based non-profit organization formed in 1998 to:
– protect the natural integrity of Lighthouse Park
– promote public awareness of its natural features
– and support the development of biological zones near the Park boundaries.
Project:
This project included:
1. Sending a free bi-annual newsletter (fall and spring) listing volunteer opportunities and Society activities, with reader-friendly scientific articles on the natural world of the local forest and ocean and their inhabitants.
2. Held 2 talks and 3 walks given or led by experts. Free to all comers. Topics were Salish Sea and Bears, and Caulfeild rocks, Lighthouse Park’s ecology and the Park’s geology.
3. Completion of the entry way into Birdsong Path in Lighthouse Park to increase awareness and use of it, plus improved parking. The Birdsong Path entry: parking alignment improved, better disabled parking sign installed, yellow bollards replaced by large natural rocks . A concrete base for the new sign has been poured and a metal bracket added to hold the tall slab milled from a fallen tree. This slab has been cut, polished, inscribed with the name (Birdsong Path).
4. Construction of a sturdy bench in Salmonberry Meadow in Lighthouse Park for rest and for contemplation of bird life.
Community Benefits:
The Path is clearly a benefit to those with invisible disabilities as well as to those with crutches, walking sticks, walkers and wheelchairs. Parents with children in strollers also use the Path regularly. None of these visitors would be able easily to access the beauty, serenity and clean air of an old growth forest if it weren’t for this short, flat path with its wheelchair accessible table and 2 benches. The better wheelchair parking signage and greatly enhanced entrance will alert more visitors to its special nature – and will also make clear to the able bodied visitors and to the many dog walkers who use this path that this path is unique, dedicated to those with disabilities and needs to be treated with respect.
