Fort Shephard Ecological Restoration

The Fort Shephard Conservancy Area deck identifies ecosystem pressures, then discusses rough-and-loose access treatment, vegetation establishment, forest ingrowth and reintroducing low-intensity surface fire after biomass reduction.

5:57 · 31 slides · Historical presentation · No recorded narration

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Fort Shephard Ecological Restoration

About this presentation

Source: Segment Fort Shephard Ecological Restoration. Slides by David Polster; individual image and diagram credits remain in the presentation. This video includes the complete supplied deck. It is an archive slideshow, not a recording of the spoken conference session.

Dates, costs and examples reflect the original presentation. Treatment suitability depends on current site conditions and requirements.

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  1. Ecological Restoration in the Fort Shepherd Conservancy Area
    David Polster, M.Sc. R.P. Bio.
    Polster Environmental Services Ltd.

  2. “Ecological restoration is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged or destroyed.”
    Society for Ecological Restoration

  3. What are the filters that are preventing recovery of the Fort Shepherd ecosystems?

  4. What did the ecosystems look like in pre-impact days?

  5. First Nations people have influenced the ecology of Fort Shepherd for millennia.

  6. Cattle grazing, timber harvesting and other disturbances in the early post-contact years.

  7. What happened to this forest?
    Scattered old stumps

  8. Decades of fumigation

  9. Fire suppression for the past 100 years

  10. Dense stands of small trees

  11. Enhancement of one ecosystem component at the expense of others

  12. Excessive recreational pressures

  13. Causing erosion of steep slopes.

  14. So what can we do? Where do we start?

  15. Let’s start by eliminating current degrading elements

  16. Do signs work?

  17. What about signs and ditches?

  18. Signs and ditches will not be sufficient in most cases to assist recovery.

  19. Making roads and trails rough and loose will prevent access and provide suitable conditions for vegetation establishment.

  20. An excavator is used to make sites rough and loose.

  21. Rough and loose road surfaces prevent motorized access, control erosion, encourage infiltration, restore hydraulic integrity and create topographic heterogeneity that fosters invasion and leads to increased diversity.

  22. Seedlings establish quickly on rough and loose ground.

  23. Live staking results

  24. Rough and loose ground creates a diversity of moisture conditions that is reflected in a diversity of species establishment (note fence to address excessive herbivory).

  25. Fire control results in disasters – ask the folks in Kelowna.
    Steve Devries photo

  26. X
    X
    X
    Remove all conifers except the ones with the red Xs
    Dealing with forest ingrowth

  27. Before treatment

  28. After treatment

  29. Other trees are girdled to reduce the amount of biomass on the forest floor.

  30. Once the bulk of the biomass has been removed, re-establishment of low intensity surface fires is appropriate.

  31. There is a lot of work to return the Fort Shepherd area to ecological health, but by working methodically, this area can be returned to its pre-impact grandeur.

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