Management Plan implementation

Management Plans identify the long-term strategic direction and vision for sites and provide a framework for how they will be managed, consistent with Parks Canada’s mandate, vision and strategic outcomes. Management Plans are guiding documents for decision-making and planning.

The following updates serve as a progress report to partners, interest-holders, and the public.

Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse National Historic Sites preserve and present distinctive examples of Canada’s military and maritime heritage. These designations are simply one layer of many on this culturally and naturally complex landscape, as these lands hold significant value as traditional lands of the Coast Salish peoples, and are home to a significant number of species at risk.

2025

• Completed seismic upgrades to shelving in the collections building to better protect the historic object collection.
• Installed new interpretive signage in Lower Battery, replacing the old signage which dated to the 1980s.
• Supported numerous activities with Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations, including providing the location for Tribal Journeys in July 2025, hosting multiple Lekwungen language camps and youth/elder learning opportunities on Fort Rodd Hill lands, and supporting harvest opportunities for native food and medicine species.
• Unveiled the new Whale Trail Lekwungen Interpretive node in March 2025.  It includes a sculpture, artwork, cultural interpretation, and an audiobox, all featuring Lekwungen language, history, and storytelling.
• Implemented the Canada Strong Pass (June 20-September 2, 2025), which granted free admission to all Parks Canada places, and resulted in Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse seeing an overall visitation increase of 42.3% over 2024 for that period.  
• Held daily interpretive programs over the summer season, and special programs periodically during the rest of the year, including historic weapons demonstrations related to the site’s military past, a WWII rationing program featuring local ice cream, a WWI medical history program, Forts for the Fishes, Lighthouse Chores, and others, for a total of 18,880 visitor participants between May 1 and September 30, 2025.

2024

• Facilitated Indigenous harvest of q̓əx̌min (Barestem Desert-parsley) on the hillside of Upper Battery, in an area re-seeded with native plant species following the 2022 brushfire. 
• Supported Lekwungen language and other youth-centered programs and activities at the site, such as the harvest of traditional medicine and food in the Garry Oak Learning Meadow (https://parks.canada.ca/lhn-nhs/bc/fortroddhill/nature/garry/ecosysteme-ecosystem)
• Continued to engage with local First Nations artists, knowledge keepers, and youth to improve existing interpretive signs and programs, and install compelling art and information at the Whale Trail Node (https://parks.canada.ca/lhn-nhs/bc/fortroddhill/nature/erds-srkw)
• Completed the installation of the new interpretive signage in Upper Battery and began the renewal of signage in Lower Battery.
• Launched a new school group program based on WWI medical history and reintroduced historic weapons programs for the public.
• Hosted a cultural heritage management and monitoring workshop on site, attended by cultural monitors from local First Nations. 
• Continued to engage with the Greater Victoria Military Museums Working Group and the City of Colwood about shared events and interests. 
• Completed infrastructure work, including ongoing repairs to the causeway, the painting of railings, and powder coating of fenceposts to make them last longer.

2023

• Work underway to review and improve visitor programs and outreach strategies. Review and implementation of accessibility feedback also underway.
• Renewal of interpretive panels in the Upper Battery completed and guided by the site’s interpretation plan.
• Worked with Songhees Nation members and the Habitat Acquisition Trust to salvage, care for, and replant camas on reserve lands. Camas harvested in the Garry Oak Learning Meadow for pit cooks by Songhees and Tsartlip Nations.
• Species at risk restoration continued with another cohort of Deltoid Balsamroot seed planted. A cohort of year-old plants provided to a restoration project led by BC Parks in Goldstream Provincial park.

2022

• Engaged with local First Nations through discussions, workshops, and projects that contribute to the stabilisation and rehabilitation of native plant populations as part of Parks Canada’s Species at Risk program.
• Partnered with Arts & Culture Colwood Society to co-host the In Sight Festival that invites visitors to embrace diversity and connect with arts and culture in one of Colwood’s beautiful natural settings.
• Updated visitor experience programming, with a focus on expanding in-person school programs and on-site interpretation activities.
• Reviewed website content to highlight accessibility information and improve trip planning for visitors.
• Completed development of the 2022 Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse National Historic Sites Management Plan, which was tabled in Parliament in December 2022.

2021

• Returned to full visitor access and services, with COVID-19 pandemic precautions in place during the operational season. Day-use visitation returned to 2019 numbers, and oTENTik bookings exceeded previous years.
• Developed and delivered virtual school programming in both French and English, reaching youth from as far away as Ontario.
• Increased in-person school program reach to youth from the Greater Victoria Area and other parts of southern B.C.
• Doubled interpretive program attendance over 2018 numbers, as a direct result of programming investment (increased staff training, investing in program supplies, and developing new delivery methods).
• Focused efforts on the removal of the invasive species Carpet Burweed (Soliva sessilis) throughout the sites.
• Resumed Management Planning process: partner and stakeholder consultations were concluded, the draft management plan was finalized, and preparations were made for public consultation to take place in 2022.

2020

• Planned and implemented health and safety measures related to COVID-19, to help protect visitors, employees and all Canadians.
• Re-opened on June 1, 2020, with limited access to visitor services and facilities focusing on self-guided visits. Implemented promotional campaigns to help visitors envision an experience to the sites in a different way.
• Visitor program planning, research and development, combined with a suite of employee training (virtual), prepared the team for the 2021 season.
• Tested different techniques and approaches to remove invasive species to help the many plants and animals that depend on the unique habitat at the site to grow.
• While management planning work was underway at the beginning of 2020, in March, Parks Canada suspended all public consultations and formal engagement on management plans.