Ecosystem Restoration. Ecosystem restoration involves repairing and restoring degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems to regain their ecological functionality and provide goods and services for human well-being. • Key Aspects:
Ecosystem Restoration. For the most part our crew was able to complete the 2020 Restoration Work Plan as stated above. Some changes included doing more invasive species removal in the form of line trimming on the ecotone site (7C, 8A, 8B) in June rather than August, and we did a sweep of line trimming across site 6, 7 & 13 in July as well as May and June, and again in October. We had increased rainfall in the spring compared to previous years, which accelerated the plant growth on the sites and so the extra line trimming helped keep the invasive cover manageable. This increased rainfall also meant we did not need to water much in June, although we did set up a watering plan for July to mid- September for watering three times a week. We were also unable to mulch, either with decomposed bark mulch in the spring or leaf mulch in the autumn. Usually the task of mulching all the plants across our restoration sites is greatly supported by the larger work groups we host throughout the year. With only our crew this year, we did not have capacity to take on mulching. In November we did our annual plantings and flagged all new plant in red and blue flagging for a watering focus in 2021. SṈIDȻEȽ Plantings November 2020 site plantings 6b pollinator bed: KEXMIN desert parsley, S₭EX̱ nodding onion, red columbine, seed mix 6c 1 ĆEU,NEȽP cottonwood (large) ĆEU,NEȽP cottonwood (mixed pots) 8 ȾŦÁ,EȽĆ maple (1 gal) 2 JSÁY xxxxxxx fir (1 gal) 10 SX̱ELEIȽĆ willow (1 gal & 4”) 4 NEȻIM SX̱ELEIȽĆ red xxxxx dogwood (1 gal) 7a 8 ȾŦÁ,EȽĆ maple (1 gal) 5 SX̱ELEIȽĆ willow (1 gal & 4”) SḰEMÁYḴS grand fir (mixed pots) ĆEU,NEȽP cottonwood (mixed pots) ȾŦÁ,EȽĆ maple (mixed pots) 1 ELILEIȽĆ salmonberry (5 gal) 7b 8 ȾŦÁ,EȽĆ maple (1 gal) 5 SḰOLṈEȽĆ alder (1 gal) 5 SX̱ELEIȽĆ willow (1 gal & 4”) 2 KÁȾEȽĆ oceanspray (1 gal) 7c bank: 4 PEPKIYOS snowberry (1 gal) 3 W̱ILW̱QIȽĆ red flowering currant (1 gal) 1 DEḴEṈIȽĆ thimbleberry (1 gal) 8b pollinator bed: KEXMIN desert parsley, S₭EX̱ nodding onion, red columbine, seed mix 13 9 SḰOLṈEȽĆ alder (1 gal) 4 PEPKIYOS snowberry (1 gal) 4 ȾŦÁ,EȽĆ maple (1 gal) 1 SX̱ELEIȽĆ willow (1 gal) 4 NEȻIM SX̱ELEIȽĆ red xxxxx dogwood (1 gal) 2 KÁȾEȽĆ oceanspray (1 gal) 1 SENI,IȽĆ oregon grape (1 gal)
Ecosystem Restoration. INVASIVE REMOVAL From February to May/June and September to November, invasive removal will generally consist of digging out invasive plants with the objective of removing as much of the whole plant (including roots) as possible. Each site will receive comprehensive ‘sweeps’ where the most aggressive invasive plants and patches are removed first, with an emphasis on clearing invasives away from the planted species. This process is greatly accelerated by volunteer groups and classes as well as concentrated crew hours. During the summer months (June/July to August), the main objective is to prevent invasive species from flowering and protect planted species from being overtaken by invasive plants. Often the soil becomes too dry to effectively remove roots in summer, therefore every attempt will be made to simply remove as much of the invasive plant as possible and generally clear each site of vigorous invasive growth. MULCHING
Ecosystem Restoration. We were able to follow our work plan fairly closely this year, especially with the added support of student and volunteer groups since summertime. We didn’t do any fruit tree pruning as we were still fairly short staffed in the late winter/early spring during the pruning season. Starting line trimming earlier in the year was greatly beneficial to keeping invasive cover manageable during the warmer months of typically vigorous growth. We also didn’t do mulching until autumn as we were waiting for results from the experimental soil plots as to best treatment options for the lower sites, which are the focus of our mulching efforts due to the site being exposed and exhibiting some poor soil characteristics in general (for example, much of the soil on 7B appears to be fill or at least have very little organic topsoil). Our mulching approach will be further explained in section 3.2 of this report on Soil Remediation. Our new watering system, developed in 2020, worked very well this year. During the “heat dome” in late June and throughout the long hot dry spell of summer, we maintained a good watering schedule for our recently planted species. Sadly we did see a few losses (approximately 10 plants across various sites, mostly alder), probably due to the extreme heat, however for the most part our planted species did quite well. Our autumn plantings were concentrated in the beach area and our pollinator beds, supported by the construction of new split rail fencing. We added leaf mulch donated by Xxxxx Xxxxxx from the Horticulture Centre of the Pacific at the time of planting the pollinator beds, and some grand fir mulch to the beach plantings brought by our friend Xxxxxx Xxxx at Fort Xxxx Xxxx who also donated many of the KEXMIN transplants and seeds. SṈIDȻEȽ Plantings November 2021 site plantings 6b pollinator bed seed: Red Columbine Aquiliegia formosa, Large Leaved Lupine Lupinus polyphyllus ssp. pallidipes, Seablush Plectritis congesta, KEXMIN Lomatium nudicaule transplants: Xxxxxxx’ aster Symphyotrichum subspicatum, California aster Symphyotrichum chilense, Fireweed Chamerion angustifolium ssp angustifolium, Pearly Everlasting Anaphalis margaritacea, Woolly sunflower Eriophyllum lanatum, Self Heal Prunella vulgaris ssp lanceolata 8b pollinator bed seed: Farewell to Spring Clarkia amoena, Xxxxx leaved shootingstar Primula hendersonii, Red Columbine Aquilegia Formosa, Xxxxx’x lettuce Claytonia perfoliata, Xxxxx xxxx lily Erythronium oregonum, Yellow monkey flowe...
