Keifer Ecological Services

• Kinbasket Reservoir Revegetation Program
• Arrow Lakes Reservoir Revegetation Program
• Silviculture, Wildfire and Forest Stand Effects on Huckleberries
• Spalding’s Campion Inventory and Habitat Assessment
• MOE Elder Creek Prescribed Burn
• Spatial and Quality Attributes of Culturally Important Plants
• Rare Plant Propagation and Restoration, Waneta Expansion Project
• Whitebark and Limber Pine Restoration in BC
• Impact of Accelerated Timber Harvesting on NTFPs
• Aberfeldie Channel and Revegetation Program
• Effects of Mountain Pine Beetle on NTFRs
• Revegetation of Disturbed Wetlands in Westpath Expansion Area
• Managing Saskatoon and other Traditionally Important Plants
• Invasive Plant Inventories at Provincial Parks
• Profile of NTFRs in the Cascade Forest District
• Invasive Species Mitigation Practices after Forest Management Activities
• Ethnobotanical Inventory, Invermere
• Reconnaissance Level Wetland Testing on TaTa/Skookumchuck Range
• Revegetation Monitoring - Kootenay 230 kV System Transmission Line
• Cultural Plants of the Creston Wetlands
• Morels in the East Kootenay, BC

Kinbasket Reservoir Revegetation Program

The Kinbasket Reservoir Revegetation Program is a major project that focuses on revegetating key sites within the drawdown zone (between 741m and 754m [full pool]) of the Kinbasket Reservoir managed by BC Hydro.  This reservoir covers a vast area of land (216 km in length) and is located primarily in the Rocky Mountain Trench, north of Golden and south of Valmount.

Revegetation of the drawdown zone of hydroelectric reservoirs is an emerging art and science that draws on a number of specialties within the field of ecological restoration, including plant science, soil science, geomorphology and horticulture.  Unlike unregulated waters, British Columbia’s (BC’s) reservoirs typically are drawn down during the winter in preparation for the spring freshet, and are then filled by summer, a pattern that Kinbasket Reservoir generally follows.  This regime poses unique challenges to plant establishment, growth and survival, because most riparian plant species are adapted to spring flooding and summer low water.  In addition to the water table related stresses, significant erosion and deposition can occur throughout the drawdown zone as the water rises and falls.  Heavy shoreline erosion, which can be detrimental to plant survival, is particularly noticeable when the water remains at one elevation for an extended period of time.

To develop successful revegetation treatments within the drawdown zone, a variety of different techniques, using a broad range of plant species that are known to survive in reservoir environments, must be tried.  Persistence is also critical, because failed prescriptions in one year may be successful the following year, and vice versa. Revegetation can improve shoreline stability and ecological functionality by slowing erosion and deposition.  However, revegetation should not be viewed as a cure-all for areas within the reservoir, as some sites may prove too difficult to revegetate without using hard engineering¹ to first stabilize the site.  This project takes a highly creative and pragmatic approach towards revegetation, but is firmly based on science.  Its aim is to develop a variety of revegetation treatments that lead to the establishment of viable, self supporting, predominantly native plant communities that can thrive in the challenging environment of the reservoir.

Activities in this multi-dimensional project have included: the surveying of 26 sites with the collection of vegetation, soil and other data; the collection of wild native seeds, most notably lenticular sedge (Carex lenticularis); the initiation of germination trials; the propagation of plants; and the mapping of suitable revegetation sites.

¹In civil engineering of shorelines, hard engineering is generally defined as controlled disruption of natural processes by using man-made structures.