02/26/2026
Great news this morning from Hamilton Marsh and Regional District of Nanaimo! Thank-you to all the tourism & hospitality businesses and residents across the region who matched PQB Tourism's $10,000 pledge to help secure Hamilton Marsh!
HAMILTON WETLANDS AND FOREST SECURED!
Many thanks to the local community for stepping up too!
From the RDN:
Additional Funding Partners Help Secure Hamilton Marsh Forest and Wetlands
The Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN) is pleased to announce that funding to acquire the 360 hectares (ha) of land known as Hamilton Marsh has been secured through additional partnerships with the Province of B.C.’s Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship (the Province), the Government of Canada, the Nature Trust of BC (NTBC) and the Sitka Foundation.
In January 2026, Mosaic Forest Management agreed to revise the purchase terms to $28 million in their efforts to help the RDN preserve the site. To fund the purchase, the RDN Board approved long-term borrowing of $21.2 million and has committed over $4 million of capital reserve funds. Support from the community has been overwhelming, with almost $550,000 raised by the Nanaimo & Area Land Trust (NALT), Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region, Hamilton Wetlands and Forests Preservation Society and Ducks Unlimited Canada - Oceanside Chapter. The remaining funding has now been secured through contribution agreements with The Province (in partnership with the Government of Canada), the NTBC and the Sitka Foundation.
The Province, in partnership with Environment and Climate Change Canada and Parks Canada, has recognized the ecological significance of Hamilton Marsh and the important role it plays in preserving biodiversity and ecosystem health and has made a funding commitment of $1,250,000.
This project is supported by Government of Canada funding under the Tripartite Framework Agreement on Nature Conservation and supports Canada’s commitment to protecting places and ecosystems that are important to Canadians and that support the wellbeing of Canadian communities.
The NTBC is a Canadian recipient of funds under the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA), which provides grants to conserve wetland habitats for migratory birds and other wetland wildlife in the United States, Mexico and Canada. To support the RDN’s vision to protect the important ecological values at Hamilton Marsh, the NTBC has committed $841,832 in NAWCA funding.
The Sitka Foundation is a family foundation that focuses on conservation of nature and protecting biodiversity. The Foundation has generously pledged $100,000 through the NTBC.
The sale is anticipated to be completed by March 31, 2026, and will make Hamilton Marsh the RDN’s thirteenth regional park and conservation area and add to the over 2,814 ha of land already held within the other 12 regional and 216 community parks in the RDN. The RDN also has 78 km of trails in 10 regional trail systems.
