Elk River Alliance has wrapped up a successful season of its cottonwood tree restoration program, in time for the first snowfall.
Leading up to mid-November, a team of 60 Alliance restoration technicians and volunteers, collected 4,000 cottonwood livestakes, surpassing their original goal.
Volunteers contributed 263 hours in all manner of weather conditions, cutting livestakes from cottonwood groves and bundling them for use in future planting in spring. Livestakes are cut from trees and shrubs, and then planted into a river or stream bank to take root and grow.
2,000 stakes were planted north of Sparwood, while the remaining bounty will be stored through the winter until spring.
The alliance also installed five grazer-exclusion fences on a one kilometre stretch of land across three restoration sites, to protect new cottonwoods from being grazed and trampled by elk.
The program aims to restore streamside habitats by planting 30,000 native trees and shrubs across 48 hectares by 2027. To date, the Alliance has planted over 8,000 trees.
A study by Keefer Ecological found that 50 per cent of floodplain cottonwood forests have vanished in the Elk Valley, vegetation that is necessary for reducing streamside erosion and risk of flooding, and allowing aquatic ecosystems to thrive by cooling streams by three to five degrees Celsius.
Over in deforested areas like pasture fields, shallow-rooted vegetation erodes quickly into rivers increasing sediment in the waterways.
Efforts are supported by Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program, Columbia Basin Trust, and Environment and Climate Change Canada’s EcoAction Grant.
The Alliance has put out a call for volunteers to join the team in the spring. To inquire about volunteer opportunities e-mail info@elkriveralliance.ca.
