The Cumberland Forest is the informal name of the natural areas south of the Village. It includes the Cumberland Community Forest Park, a Village of Cumberland municipal park purchased with funds raised by the Cumberland Community Forest Society. The Park is protected by a conservation covenant held by the Comox Valley Land Trust.

Though the forest spans a great deal larger, this Strategy will focus on approximately 400 hectares of land adjacent to the Village. In addition to the Park, this includes land recently purchased and owned by the Cumberland Community Forest Society (Middle Earth), a future potential CCFS acquisition (Raven’s Ridge), and other adjacent parcels of land of mutual interest to the partners for multiple values. This includes trail access and egress locations in other municipal parks, and private managed forest lands where the United Riders of Cumberland (UROC) manage and maintain trails through formal agreement with private forestry companies.

As part of the Cumberland Forest Land Strategy planning process, the Village is also working with the CCFS, UROC and CVLT to respond to damages and impacts of the January 2026 Perseverance Creek flood on trails, creeks and riparian areas in the Cumberland Community Forest Park and adjacent Coal Creek Historic Park.

This works includes:

• constructing a seasonal trail crossing (ford) of a channel of Perseverance creek in May 2026 to enable dry season trail access and minimize trampling and trail braiding in environmentally sensitive areas;
• Removal of the debris jam and damaged trail bridge (October 2026)
• Completion of a Risk Assessment to guide future planning related to the protection of critical infrastructure; hydrologic and ecological function of the creek, wetlands and floodplain environment; and recreational trails and the disc golf course (September 2026)

The Village will continue to monitor the creek in winter 2026-2027, with additional planning and engagement work to follow.