Thursday, March 28, 2024

Former pistol range at Thetis Lake converted back to park

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A project to restore a former pistol range at Thetis Lake Regional Park to naturalized park land has been completed, the CRD announced Friday.

The site was deemed contaminated under provincial legislation and required remediation due to metals from bullets and casings, CRD Parks Committee Chair David Screech said.

The contaminated site’s surface soils were excavated in 2014, while restoration work to improve the surface water drainage and soil conditions took place from 2016–2017.

A photo of the pistol range and soil berm before remediation and restoration began. Photo via crd.bc.ca
A photo of the new park post-restoration in 2018. Photo via crd.bc.ca

Pistol range was in use for 100 years

Police forces, security companies, and gun clubs all made use of the pistol range for nearly a century.

The site was transferred from the City of Victoria to the CRD in 1994 as part of Thetis Lake Regional Park. In 1999, it was no longer used for firing activities, but 0.75 hectares of land were contaminated by its use.

The cost of the project totalled $736,000. 700 trees were planted by volunteers for the newly restored site.

 

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Myles Sauer
Former staff editor and writer at Victoria Buzz.

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