Riparian areas along Cochrane’s Big Hill Creek and Airdrie’s Nose Hill Creek, along with some smaller tributaries to the streams, will be receiving a bit of a facelift in 2016 thanks to the efforts of the Bow Valley Riparian Recovery and Enhancement Program. The program is a project of Bow Valley Habitat Development, an organization which uses partnerships to complete local, grassroots fish and riparian habitat enhancement projects.
“Presently, those streams are kind of void of willows and trees,” said Guy Woods, director of Bow Valley Habitat Development. “What we are attempting to do is to bring the stream back to historic conditions.”
“I collect cuttings from local watersheds, in different areas of the creeks that have native patches of willows and trees,” Woods said. “The cuttings are then grown in a controlled environment until they have roots and tops on them, before they are transplanted to the stream banks. This way, we are ensured of having native plants in each area.”
According to Woods, riparian zones along the banks of a stream are an important ecosystem that provides a habitat both above the stream channel and within the stream channel. A healthy riparian ecosystem, he said, provides a number of valuable benefits to the area including slope stability, reduced erosion and improved water quality and temperature.
The organization partners with groups like Alberta Conservation Association, Evergreen Canada and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada to receive support to cover the cost of the plants but, according to Woods, all of the actual planting work is done by volunteers.
“I’ve got a great group of volunteers who work with me to help restore these riparian zones,” he said. “Last year, we had 183 individual volunteers who contributed 688.5 hours to the project. Based on an eight-hour work day, that’s 86 days of volunteer help.”
This year, Woods said he hopes to work with Scout troupes in Cochrane and Airdrie to expand the project and get more groups involved. With the commitment he has received from partners so far, Woods said he already has nearly 6,000 plants to distribute along the streams.
“I will have a better idea of where I’m at in May, but it’s very encouraging to know at this point in time that there will be a program this upcoming season, and with that commitment I know I have enough to make a sizeable impact,” he said.
In 2015, the program planted almost 15,000 willow and trees along more than 14 kilometres of stream bank, and while Woods said he doesn’t like to put goals in place, he is hoping to have a comparable program size in 2016.
For more information about Bow Valley Habitat Development, visit streamtender.com
