Mike Dudar spoke on behalf of the Assiniboine Forest Committee in order to get the club more involved in future planning of one of the largest urban natural forests of its kind (700 acres in size – 500 acres south of Grant Avenue and 200 acres north of Grant) in North America. With 18 km of trails, this forest has >170,000 person visits per year.
Since 1990, the Charleswood Rotary Club has been involved with a number of initiatives at the forest, raising money + grants + providing over 1000 volunteer hours, totalling in excess of $600,000.
More recently, the city of Winnipeg has asked the club’s forest committee to undertake a long range planning study for the forest. This was conducted in two phases between 2016 and 2019 (visitor counts and user surveys). The surveys indicated that the community was interested in improving signage, having a new parking lot on the east side of the forest, having an interpretive centre, replacing a wood chip trail to hard surface to facilitate use by wheelchairs, adding cross-country ski and snowshoe trails, public washrooms and benches and control of horse and dog traffic. With these survey results in hand, the committee has provided a plan with a 15 year horizon. Community engagement and signage would be a 5 year initiative, building a parking lot on the east side of the forest and building new trails would be a 10 year initiative while construction of the interpretive centre would be a 15 year initiative. Both the interpretive centre and washrooms would be costs undertaken by the City of Winnipeg.
Community engagement would involve working with the schools in Charleswood, with Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (for outdoor education programs), Canadian Mennonite University, the province of Manitoba, the government of Canada, local and national businesses as well as local community organizations.
The estimated cost for carrying out the Rotary Club’s initiatives in the Assiniboine Forest Enhancement Implementation Plan is between $600,000 and $800,000. The plan is for the club to raise funds and grants totalling $800,000 over the next 15 years. The first step is for the club to decide whether or not to proceed with the implementation plan. The next step will be to approach City of Winnipeg departments to obtain approval of the implementation plan. Assuming approval at these two first steps, the committee will develop marketing and fundraising strategies to support the plan.
Following Mike’s presentation, there was a session for questions and comments. One observation was that if the club takes on this initiative, it will provide a significant boost to the club’s public image. There was also a concern expressed by longtime member Gord about the effect that improving trails and increased traffic will have on the plants and wildlife currently in the forest.
Given that a quorum was present at this meeting (i.e.. at least one-third of the club members), Jack made a motion, seconded by PDG Ed, that the club will support the proposed plan to work on enhancing Assiniboine Forest. The motion got unanimous approval from the participants. PDG Nancy expressed a big thank you to the committee for producing this plan. This decision will be shared with our MLA, councillor, and city parks before releasing the information to the local press.
