The weather was dreary but the chest waders worked their magic :) Did you know they have an inside pocket. Perfect size for apples!
Unfortunately the NCC has no say over what happens upstream of the Greenbelt, with storm water management being the greatest challenge.
We were focussing on restoring flow, we separated into groups and waded through the water looking for felled trees and fallen edges of the creek that would impede flow .
Fallen edges could be tacked up and held into place with metal rods, felled trees we had to decide to what extent they were removed. The felled trees provide important habitat for aquatic species so if we could, we left the tree (or most of it) and removed branches that were catching debris and creating dams instead.
Last week, the idea of restoration projects (no net loss, new gain) was introduced. These projects are important for managers charged to reverse damage. But just creating new habitat does not guarantee species restoration.
In a paper by Bond and Lake, 5 issues were found to affect success of species restoration (Bond & Lake, 2003):
- Barriers to colonization
- Temporal shifts in habitat use
- Introduced species
- Long-term and large scale processes
- Inappropriate scales of restoration
Eva from NCC came to speak with us about Greenbelt research and restoration. The Greenbelt covers 200,000 acres, 50% of which is natural area and is the largest federally owned greenbelt in the world.
Unfortunately the NCC has no say over what happens upstream of the Greenbelt, with storm water management being the greatest challenge.
As I mentioned, it was dreary. Soggy sandwiches for everyone!
But just being out of the classroom is such a treat!
And we all love to get our hands dirty.
Fallen edges could be tacked up and held into place with metal rods, felled trees we had to decide to what extent they were removed. The felled trees provide important habitat for aquatic species so if we could, we left the tree (or most of it) and removed branches that were catching debris and creating dams instead.
Confluence
Wood duck box!
Found wildflowers :) Left the invasive purple loosestrife alone.
Ecosystem engineer Caleigh!
Speaking of ecosystem engineers... an array of animals act as ecosystem engineers from salmon to beavers to hippos. Their significant impact on ecosystems and how easily affected they are by humans makes them an important topic of study (Moore, 2006).
Bond, N. R., & LAKE, P. S. (2003). Local habitat restoration in streams: constraints on the effectiveness of restoration for stream biota. Ecological Management & Restoration, 4(3), 193–198.
Moore, J. W. (2006). Animal Ecosystem Engineers in Streams. BioScience, 56(3), 237-246
Moore, J. W. (2006). Animal Ecosystem Engineers in Streams. BioScience, 56(3), 237-246
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