User:Dhadams/Outerbridge Park

Outerbridge Park is a 3.78 ha municipal nature sanctuary at the north end of the Blenkinsop Valley of Saanich, British Columbia. It was created beginning in 1987 under the name Shangri-la Bird and Nature Sanctuary by horticulturist Jo-Ann Outerbridge as a retirement project. On the boggy wooded land, source of Lochside Creek, she constructed several large ponds as waterfowl habitat and planted many trees, including a large shelter belt and many select specimens. The largest pond near her house she surrounded with display beds for her collections of heathers, rhododendrons and alpines. She included any shrubs or flowers that would be of use to birds or bees as habitat or forage. She attached many nest boxes to trees and to tall metal poles. The southern half of the property she left wild. On weekends that she opened her 'garden' to the public, hundreds of people would come.

To ensure the continuation of Shangri-la beyond her years, in 2005 Mrs. Outerbridge sold the property to the District of Saanich at a very generous price, with covenants that it be kept as a nature sanctary, that it not be subdivided, and that no pesticides be used on it. The property was then given into the care of the Saanich Parks and Recreation Department and re-named in her honour.