Research & Publications
PES technical library of papers, symposium proceedings, field guides, and project records. The source material behind the methods is free to read.
Published Papers and Reports
Published journal articles, conference papers, and government reports documenting bioengineering outcomes across Canada and beyond.
Field Guides and Method Notes
Freely downloadable illustrated guides covering installation techniques, species selection, and BC-specific site conditions.
Before and After Documentation
Dated field sequences document site-specific establishment, setbacks, and visible vegetation development across years of monitoring.
This collection brings together David Polster’s mine reclamation papers, conference proceedings, and technical references. Each paper below has a full summary page, and most include the original PDF.
Field evidence library
Start with the site problem
Follow each path from the ecological process, to a field method, to documented project work and the source material behind it.
Search these seven paths and monitoring lessons, not the whole site. Try a project, method or site condition.
Showing all 7 entries.
Disturbed slopes, landslides and mine sites
For compacted, eroding or nutrient-poor ground where conventional seeding does not address the cause of failure.
- Diagnose
- Filters to Recovery
- Methods
- Rough and Loose and Modified Brush Layers
- Projects
- Battle Lake, Brenda Mine and Johnson's Landing
- Photo record
- Juniper Place: 2016–2018
- Source
- Natural Processes for the Restoration of Drastically Disturbed Sites
Streams and riverbanks
For eroding banks where living cuttings can stabilize soil while rebuilding riparian cover and habitat.
Shorelines and coastal sites
For wave-exposed or armoured shorelines where vegetation, sediment and habitat need to function together.
- Method
- Modified Brush Layers
- Projects
- Bamberton, Cowichan Bay and Pender Island
- Evidence
- Multi-year field sequences
- Browse
- All documented projects
Archive, methods and field learning
For practitioners, students and land managers who want to move from the historical record to current field practice.
- Archive
- David Polster Research Legacy
- Methods
- Browse the method library
- Projects
- Browse the project library
- Training
- Start a field course
What monitoring added to the record
A field record is most useful when it includes constraints and management lessons, not only later vegetation. These observations are specific to each site.
Battle Lake: competition around cuttings
Early woody growth was accompanied by dense volunteer vegetation. The 2011 inspection treated sweet clover competition around planted stems as a management issue.
Read the Battle Lake recordBamberton: a hard interruption
Most of the natural-model shore remained stable, while localized erosion beside concrete boat ramps showed how a hard structure can redirect wave energy.
Read the Bamberton recordJohnson's Landing: browsing and uneven establishment
The 2014 assessment found strong growth in fenced live-staking areas, browse pressure outside them, and uneven alder establishment, supporting continued monitoring.
Read the Johnson's Landing recordHow the archive grows: Historic records are added when the project, date, treatment, source and public-use basis can be verified. Photo sequences are labelled carefully when viewpoints differ.
The Papers
Natural Processes for the Restoration of Drastically Disturbed Sites
Flagship paper
How ecological filters, rough and loose substrate, and pioneer species guide reclamation, with a historical site-specific cost comparison.
Let Nature Do the Work: Restoration Strategies
Technical paper
Natural systems have been restoring disturbed sites for millennia. The strategies that put those processes to work on your site.
Mine Reclamation Strategies in British Columbia
CLRA Halifax, 2007
A 40-year review of engineering, agricultural, and ecological approaches to mine reclamation in BC.
Soil Bioengineering Techniques for Riparian Restoration
Technical reference
Combining live plant cuttings with engineered structures to stabilize streambanks and restore riparian habitat.
Soil Bioengineering for Riparian Restoration
CLRA Ottawa, 2006
Two decades of field experience applying living-plant engineering to damaged streambanks and riparian slopes.
Natural Processes as the Basis for Mine Reclamation
BC Mine Reclamation Symposium, 2009
The filters-and-solutions framework: identifying barriers to recovery and the natural processes that can address them.
Revegetation Strategy at Island Copper Mine
BC Mine Reclamation Symposium, 2001
30-year reclamation outcomes at Island Copper on northern Vancouver Island, co-authored with B. Welchman and C. Hanks.
Restoration of Landslides and Unstable Slopes
BC Mine Reclamation Symposium, 1997
The technical foundation for applying soil bioengineering to failure-prone slopes: live pole drains, brush layers, wattle fences.
Invasive Plant Species in Mined Land Reclamation
BC Mine Reclamation Symposium, Kamloops 2003
Why mine sites are high-risk invasive establishment zones, and prevention strategies built into reclamation practice.
David Polster Research Legacy
Complete bibliography
Published papers, symposium proceedings, and technical reports, grouped by year.
Field Examples: Watch Sites Recover Over Time
Before & After: Soil Bioengineering Over Time →A visual gallery of multi-year field sequences: wattle fences, gravel bar staking, pocket planting and natural succession, each site followed for years to decades.West Portal: Natural Succession at the Mount Macdonald Tunnel →A 1989–2006 photo record of rough-and-loose tunnel muck recovering from bare rock (1989) to a closing conifer canopy (2006), documenting natural succession given the right start.Plant Species for Soil Bioengineering
The living material behind every technique: which native species to use, where, and how. A growing plant palette for British Columbia bioengineering, grounded in published course material and PES field practice.
- Willows for Soil Bioengineering in British Columbia. The core genus: six key BC willow species, how to match them to a site, and cutting standards.
- Cottonwood, Dogwood & Alder. The companion species: cottonwood poles, dogwood for shade, and alder as a nitrogen-fixing pioneer.
Want These Methods on Your Site?
Every paper here came out of real project work. If your slope, streambank, or mine site has the same problems these papers solve, start with a site assessment.
Field Notes & Explainers
Shorter pieces that put David’s frameworks to work on specific sites and questions.
- Why Grass Seeding Fails in Mine Reclamation: why grass monocultures undermine long-term site recovery and what to plant instead.
- The Role of Seeding in Reclamation of Disturbed Sites - why agronomic seed mixes can hold reclamation sites in the wrong successional stage.
- Succession, Safe Sites, and Pioneering Species: how ecological succession proceeds on harshly disturbed land.
- Natural Successional Processes: A Yukon Vegetation-Management Example - using natural plant succession to reduce repeated roadside clearing and wildlife hazards.
- West Portal: Natural Succession at the Mount Macdonald Tunnel: a 1989–2006 photo sequence showing rough-and-loose tunnel muck developing from bare substrate to alder and conifer cover.
- Filters to Recovery on Disturbed Sites: identifying the environmental filters that block plant establishment, and removing them.
- Rough and Loose: Biodiversity at the Brenda Mine: applying rough and loose surface treatment at a copper-molybdenum mine site.
- Highway Bioengineering Examples: live soil bioengineering techniques applied to highway cut slopes and embankments.