Hwmet'utsum (Mount Maxwell) Community Park

The campaign to create a community park on Salt Spring Island's iconic mount, called Hwmet’utsum in the Hul'qumi'num language (Mount Maxwell in English), raised $1.75 million CAD to save 75 acres of forested land from deforestation, preserving its carbon-sequestering potential in perpetuity. It is located on the ancestral and unceded traditional territory of the Coast Salish people, will feature multi-use public trails, and will support the protection of sensitive ecosystems. Moving this land from private to community ownership has created the largest contiguous tract of protected land in B.C.’s Southern Gulf Islands.

 

As we work with local First Nations, we hope that their ancestral methods of forest management and wild harvesting of food will once again be allowed on this public land, as an extension of the wetland restoration work they're currently doing in Xwaaqw'um (Burgoyne Bay).

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Below is our main video from the Community Park campaign. Check out other videos here.