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Former gun range restored in Thetis Lake Regional Park

CRD remediation project complete after nearly four years
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The site of a former pistol shoot range at Thetis Lake Regional Park has been restored to natural park land. (File photo)

The restoration of a former gun range at Thetis Lake Regional Park has been completed.

“This former shooting range site was deemed contaminated under provincial legislation and required remediation due to metals from bullets and casings,” said View Royal Mayor David Screech, who also chairs the CRD parks committee. “The CRD has now addressed the contamination.”

Fore more than 100 years police forces, security companies and gun clubs used the site as a firing range. But the site was transferred from the City of Victoria to the CRD in 1994 as part of the Thetis Lake Regional Park. Range activities stopped in 1999 but the roughly two acre site was contaminated by the activity.

The CRD undertook a project to remediated and restore the former pistol range to naturalize park land. The project began in 2014 and surface soils were excavated and soil berms were dismantled. Restoration work from 2016 to 2017 improved surface water drainage and soil conditions.

The invasive species that spread from illegal disposal of garden waste were removed and continued to be monitored while native grasses, shrubs and more than 700 trees were planted.

In total, the project cost $736,000 and was funded through the CRD project reserve funds with a $75,000 grant.


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editor@goldstreamgazette.com