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The Hemmington Forest on Cayman Brac could become the Cayman Islands’ first official national park. The 194-acre dry forest and shrubland, located in west central Cayman Brac, is Crown land and is protected under the National Conservation Act. The additional designation of national park will provide an extra layer of protection and management to the site. The National Conservation Council has launched a draft management plan for Hemmington Forest and is inviting the public to comment on the plan. The public consultation opens on Friday, 31 Oct. and will run through Friday, 28 Nov. A public meeting is planned at the University College of the Cayman Islands campus on Cayman Brac at 6pm, Thursday, 20 Nov. The draft management plan notes that, in addition to the existing site – which is bounded to the south by Songbird Drive and to the north by the edge of the Bluff – adjacent lands have been identified for purchase and protection “subject to ongoing inquiries and negotiations with the landowners.” Despite efforts more than two decades ago to designate Barkers peninsula in West Bay, Grand Cayman, as the Cayman Islands’ first national park, that has not happened. In 2003, Britain’s Prince Edward attended a national park designation ceremony at the site. The area is often referred to as ‘Barkers National Park’ and at one point had a sign bearing that name at its entrance, but it has never been officially designated as such, for a variety of reasons, including that much of the land is privately owned. The significance of Hemmington Forest One of the aims of the plan to make Hemmington Forest a national park is to encourage the public to discover and appreciate the unique flora and fauna at the site. There is already a pathway and right of way though the western part of the forest, known as Hemmington Road, but the plan includes improving this pedestrian path and creating a public walking trail network extending from it. The draft management plan notes that, according to unverified accounts collected so far, “Hemmington Road was most likely named after Hemmington Chesse Foster who would have originally established the pathway sometime in the latter half of the 1800s to access agricultural plots originally known as ‘Halfway Grounds’ and transport provisions across family-owned Bluff lands”. The trail has long been maintained by the Department of District Administration as a nature tourism and local recreational asset. Under the proposed plan, the forest would be managed by the Department of Environment, in collaboration with District Administration and local community groups. The National Conservation Council says the goal for the management of the Hemmington Forest National Park is to give the residents and visitors “an enjoyable and inspirational experience of the natural and human history of the land, while cherishing, restoring and protecting its natural biodiversity”. The plan for the site includes: Improving the Hemmington Road walking trail, with a new trail network extending from it; Building an open trailhead shelter with signage and information and a small restroom building which can be accessed from Songbird Drive; Adding a forest canopy-level observation tower; Employing a Sister Islands protected area officer to manage the park infrastructure. To fund the park’s infrastructure, the Department of Environment will request money be provided from the government’s Environmental Protection Fund, the draft management plan notes. The National Conservation Council, in the draft plan, points out that, of the three islands, each of which is floristically distinct, Cayman Brac has the least amount of protected areas. Among the unique flora and fauna that can be found in the Hemmington Forest is the red-legged thrush, the Sisters Islands rock iguana, the Cayman Brac parrot and the yellow mastic tree, as well as a wide range of migratory birds, the plan notes. Under the proposed plan, management of the park would also include control of invasive species found at the site, such as feral cats, green iguanas, chickens and rats. Click here to view the draft plan and other information about Hemmington Forest.
