Karissa Gall, Haida Gwaii Observer, Aug 6, 2020

A B.C. real estate entrepreneur has sold 320 acres of land on Haida Gwaii to BC Parks.

NIHO Land and Cattle Company Ltd. founder Rudy Nielsen, the former owner of the two, 160-acre recreational properties located within Naikoon Provincial Park, recently confirmed he had sold to the provincial parks system.

“I decided that they should be for parks and they should never be developed,” Nielsen said, speaking to the Observer by phone from his New Westminster office. “That’s why I never developed them.”

Nielsen used to own about 450 properties throughout the province, including more than 1,000 acres at Rennell Sound as well as residential subdivision developments on the north end of the island, referred to as the Naikoon and Dixon estates on the NIHO website. However, after the sale of the two recreational properties in Naikoon, he didn’t think he had any local lots left.

Across the province, he said he is down to about 20 properties total.

“I’m getting to be too old for all that,” he said, adding that he bought his first property in 1972.

As for the sale price, Nielsen said he gave the parks system “a real good deal.”

The asking price for the two properties, as well as 200 acres in Cape Scott Provincial Park, located at the northwestern tip of Vancouver Island, was $1.55 million, but Nielsen ultimately sold all for just under $1 million.

Mum was the word for the Ministry of Environment when asked about plans for the newly-acquired land.

“The ministry is not yet able to make announcements on land acquisitions at this time,” a spokesperson said. “However, we will provide details and information in the coming months.”

Of the two, 160-acre Naikoon properties listed as sold on the NIHO website, one is crossed by the Sangan River, about 11 kilometres east of Masset, and the other is located approximately 45 kilometres east of Masset and 10.5 kilometres south of the Rose Spit Ecological Reserve.