The Regional District of Nanaimo is one step closer to adding another sizable chunk of land to its parks system, announcing this week that it had secured the funding to acquire the Hamilton Marsh. 

The Hamilton Marsh is a 360-hectare parcel of land, located along Highway 4, just north of Nanaimo, B.C., near the Town of Qualicum Beach. The wetlands are a major part of the French Creek watershed and is home to over 120 species of birds. 

Owned by Island Timberlands and managed by Mosaic Forest Management, the regional district struck a conditional agreement to purchase the full marsh site in September 2025. It included a requirement to secure $7.5 million of external funding by the end of January 2026 — which RDN Chair Stuart McLean says they’ve done. 

Last-minute funding brought the goal within reach, through partnerships with the Province of B.C.’s Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, the Government of Canada, The Nature Trust of B.C. (NTBC) and The Sitka Foundation — putting together $1.25 million towards the purchase. 

The RDN Board approved to borrow $21.2 million, with chair Stuart McLean saying the purchase took a lot of political will to get done. 

“This board has been united on the importance of this parcel, and it has been an acquisition priority of the RDN for quite a number of years,” he said. 

Now, McLean says the district has to “cross the t’s and dot some i’s” on some final paper work, with the deal set to close on March 31. 

“That will be the point that we really celebrate,” said McLean.

Paul Chapman is with the Nanaimo and Area Land Trust — best known for similar efforts back in the early 2000s that led to the creation of the Mount Benson Regional Park. NALT was responsible for fundraising $250,000 of the benchmark — more than doubling that amount, contributing $550,000.

He says, it was the third attempt at securing the lands in the last 20 years, and to see it finally come to this point is emotional. 

“I’m still kind of over the moon about it,” he said. 

“To see it completed, and to see the sort of coalition of people and organizations that came together to make it so, has been really rewarding to be part of.” 

Chapman says that having Mosaic as a willing partner was a help. Just a few weeks ago, Mosaic had agreed to lower the overall price of the acquisition by $2 million, bringing the final cost down to $28 million. 

Big win for conservation

According to the regional district, the Hamilton Marsh is a valuable ecosystem to the West Coast region, including mature forest and ecologically significant wetland, located within the Coastal Douglas-fir moist maritime subzone.

The forest is projected to be re-classified as old growth within 150 years and is a rare opportunity to develop old-growth forests in B.C.

Ceri Peacey of the Hamilton Wetlands Preservation Society has been advocating for the preservation of the marsh for over 20 years. 

She told the CBC in January, to see the project over the finish line would be quite emotion. 

“I used to think that birds were just there, I used to think water just came out of a tap, and I never, ever understood the ecosystems that we all depend on,” she said. 

“It will be a very emotional moment when we do it. And [after] 20 years of giving presentations, I’d like to see that draw to a close.”

Once the sale goes through at the end of March, the Hamilton Marsh is set to become the RDN’s 13th public park, similar in size to Vancouver’s Stanley Park.