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Cob bench project underway along Heron’s Wood trail

More neighbourhood improvement projects are planned
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Once complete, there’ll be a nice place to sit and take in the beauty of the Heron’s Wood walking trail. (Kevin Rothbauer/Citizen)

A cob bench is on the horizon across from the food forest along North Cowichan’s Heron’s Wood neighbourhood walking trail.

Heron’s Wood Community Association spokesperson Petronella van Oyen confirmed progress is indeed being made.

“We’re at the stage right now where we’re going to put up the big posts that are joined with brace bars and cross bars and then we’ve got some aluminum for the roof and we want to be a demonstration green roof,” she said. “The frame for the bench, the whole idea is to get the kids at Drinkwater [Elementary] and [École] Mt. Prevost to walk over and do the cobbing so they can learn hands-on cobbing.”

That of course wouldn’t happen until school is back in session but planning is well underway.

“We’re at the point now where we’d like to start to get more of the community involved in that,” van Oyen noted.

It’s not the only project going on in the neighbourhood. Van Oyen is anticipating a makeover for the big retaining wall at the end of Heron’s Way.

“We’d love to make that a green wall,” she said. “The idea is to have a gravity-fed drip line along that wall and have stuff growing down and up.”

Van Oyen said having foliage on the wall would be safer as kids often walk along the top of the wall, which reaches heights of about 12 feet in places.

“If there’s anything growing on it, it’s going to be less pleasant to tromp along the top of it,” she noted.



Sarah Simpson

About the Author: Sarah Simpson

I started my time with Black Press Media as an intern, before joining the Citizen in the summer of 2004.
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