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Blaauw donated $3 million in 2012, then chipped in the rest of the $5 million last summer for an additional six hectares to bring the total to 20 hectares. She also donated $125,000 for the building of new trails and a boardwalk.

A documentary on the forest recently premiered at TWU, tying the ribbon, as it were, on the project.

SELLING THE FARM

Ann and her husband, Thomas Blaauw, met near the Glen Valley forest in 1958 and married in 1960. They bought a chicken farm, then established one of the first cranberry farms in the township.

The nearby woods, then known as McLellan Park by locals, always beckoned to Thomas, Ann said.

“We drove by it many times,” she said. “Thomas liked the land, he liked the forest. At the time he was alive, it was never for sale. When he passed away (at 75 in 2012), it did come up for sale.

“It meant a lot to him. We’re retired farmers, we made our money in Langley, so we spend it in Langley.”

Ann sold farmland she owned to pay for the forest, which the township had acquired in the 1930s and left untouched. In late 2011, the township deemed the forest to be “excess to its needs” and decided to sell the land to raise money.

The land could have been sold to a developer for more money, but the township gave Blaauw a deal. The various players in saving the forest give kudos to Mayor Jack Froese for changing course.

“Well, we heard from the community fast that this land, this forest, was very important to the people who lived around here and to the greater Township of Langley community,” Froese has said.