The MABR’s 10 Amazing Places and Brant Festival
At its core, the Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region (MABR) is about relationships—between people and place, conservation and community, learning and lived experience. Designated as a UNESCO biosphere reserve, the 1,200-square-kilometre region on central Vancouver Island serves as a working model for sustainable development, balancing environmental protection with social and economic well-being.
Rather than setting nature apart, the MABR connects people to nature through education, research partnerships and community-driven initiatives that support stewardship and local economies. Research partnerships through the MABR Research Institute, public speaker series, festivals and on-the-ground projects all contribute to a shared goal: creating a blueprint for a future where people and nature thrive together.
Two visible expressions of that philosophy are the Amazing Places Project and community celebrations such as the Brant Wildlife Festival.
The Amazing Places Project is a national initiative that uses outdoor discovery to link Canada’s UNESCO biosphere reserves. On Vancouver Island, the local project—developed in collaboration with Parksville Qualicum Beach Tourism—encourages people to explore nearby landscapes through interpretive signage, online tools and invitations to play, wander and observe.
These Ten Amazing Places range from old-growth forests and rivers to shoreline parks and rare ecosystems:
Top Bridge marks the confluence of parks and conservation land along Englishman River, where trails cross a suspension bridge and wind through canyon terrain. Heritage Forest, near Qualicum Beach, preserves old-growth trees and a salmon-bearing stream within an urban setting, balancing easy access with ecological sensitivity.
MacMillan Provincial Park—often called Cathedral Grove—draws visitors beneath towering Douglas firs more than 800 years old, while Parksville Community Park links shoreline paths with quiet observation of the intertidal zone along the Salish Sea. Little Qualicum Falls Provincial Park protects cascading waterfalls and forested river corridors, offering viewpoints and day-use access.
Milner Gardens & Woodland blends cultivated gardens with ancient forest, while Englishman River Falls Provincial Park features waterfalls, swimming holes and salmon runs framed by mixed forest. Cameron Lake provides cold, deep waters for swimming and paddling, along with habitat for otters and other wildlife.
Notch Hill rises above Nanoose Bay within a rare Garry oak ecosystem, offering sweeping views from the top. Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park, stretching nearly a kilometre at low tide and serves as a vital stopover for migrating birds.
That same spirit of connection comes to life each spring at the Brant Wildlife Festival, which celebrates its 35th anniversary in 2026.
The weekend-long, multi-location event welcomes more than 3,000 guests and is supported by over 150 volunteers hosting 30-plus activities across the region. Visitors gather to learn about conservation, explore local landscapes and witness the return of Pacific Black Brant geese to the Parksville Qualicum Beach Wildlife Management Area.
The festival remains the only event of its kind on Vancouver Island—an annual reminder that stewardship, education and community engagement are most powerful when experienced together, outdoors, where people and nature meet.