Past
Songhees land
For many years, the land of the Summit Park area was nurtured by the Indigenous North American Coast Salish people: Songhees or Lekwungen people. They worked the grassland for centuries and harvested the sweet camas bulbs. Every year they would travel to the sites of the camas flowers and would dance and harvest the bulbs. The bulbs were then steamed and could be used to sweeten other food. The low number of Death camas (cream in color) in Summit Park today is an indicator that it was also a harvest site.
Smith Hill Reservoir
Next to Summit Park sits the Smith Hill reservoir, built in 1908/09.
This reservoir holds 58.7 million liters of water; however, it was only used for about forty years before being retired to backup status.
In 1973 the name of the park was changed from Smith Hill to Summit park.
In 2011 The City of Victoria considered updating the reservoir to be used again.
These days, Smith Hill reservoir is just a great place to go see some ducks.
If you plan to go see the ducks- they gather at night in the reservoir but are gone by morning.
Image Credit (CoV1909 )
TELUS Tower
In 1974 some of the park land was sold to TELUS, and this tower was erected along with a viewpoint.
Birth of Summit Park
Summit Park was designated as parkland in 1972 by the City of Victoria, and is currently owned by the CRD.
A Information board is maintained at one of the entrances.
Future
This park is protected by the City of Victoria.
Their goal is to improve the park in ways that will aid in protecting this precious ecosystem and reduce the current impacts of visitors on the natural habitat. (CoV 2011)
This park is well-maintained, and often free of trash.
(oddly, I have seen a couch ditched here of all places)
Guests are asked to respect the recovering areas by staying on the trails and minimizing impact.
No camping or biking is aloud in this park.
A complete bio-inventory of this park has not been done. A more detailed management plan could be made with more information of the species that inhabit this park.
Some habitat studies have be done and there are some restoration in progress.
At-Risk Species
The park has restoration areas for at-risk species. Summit Park is thought to have over 100 species at risk, 23 globally endangered or threatened species, and 21 species listed as endangered in Canada. There are protected species in the park, such as the yellow montane violet. (CoV 2011)
Some of the most invasive species of plants in the park:
Periwinkle
Himalayan blackberry
English Ivy
Garlic Mustard (CoV 2011)