The Boundary Habitat Stewards are helping restore and enhance black cottonwood riparian forests. As Project Coordinator Jenny Coleshill explains, the Stewards are an informal partnership of professionals and groups that work across the Boundary.
She says these black cottonwood riparian forests are a red-listed ecosystem across the Province:
“The actual assemblage of trees and shrubs and plants are endangered, and they’re one of the rarest ecosystems in the province. In the context of our dryer grassland, open pondorosa pine ecosystems, it’s a super important refugium for so much wildlife….”
She says this stewardship approach to restoration that is being carried out helps fill the gaps in legislature:
“Across the whole province of BC there are riparian area regulations, it’s mostly associated with where salmon are so here in the Boundary we don’t have that provincial regulation. People are allowed to do what they want in their private land to the high-water mark, and underneath the high-water mark is provincial land and you can’t touch it unless you get a permit to do so….”
Coleshill adds that these forests can help mitigate the impact of flooding, drought, and benefit water storage and different species of fish and wildlife. She says the Lewis’ Woodpecker is another provincially threatened species, and they depend on mature and dying cottonwoods to live, making it a good umbrella species to target during restoration work. The RDKB recently allocated $10,000 to the Granby Wilderness Society, the umbrella society in partnership with the Boundary Habitat Stewards. Coleshill says the Habitat Conservation Trust Fund awarded them $50,000 for this project, and has supported them for three years now. She also says they aim to continue this work moving forwards and potentially develop a program in the future to help support local land managers.