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

Revegetation Monitoring - Kootenay 230 kV System Transmission Line

This final report describes the results of monitoring conducted in summer 2007 during the third and final year of a post-construction revegetation monitoring program for FortisBC Inc.’s Kootenay 230 kV Transmission System Development project.  Data from the three years of monitoring were compared with performance standards established in the Monitoring Plan in order to evaluate the success of the revegetation program in achieving the following objectives:

• control of erosion in areas subject to soil disturbance;
• prevention of weed establishment and spread;
• improvement of visual aesthetics; control of tall-growing vegetation that may threaten the integrity of the transmission system; and
• rapid re-establishment of plant cover to minimize impacts in ungulate winter range, riparian areas and other sensitive areas.

One of the most successful aspects of the revegetation program involved the seeding of areas of exposed mineral soil with native grasses.  Based on the results of the monitoring, it appears that the majority of the native shrub plugs installed during the project have become established and will continue to grow and contribute to the biodiversity and ecological functionality of the plant community.  Noxious weed cover has progressively increased in the post-construction period on and adjacent to portions of the 230 kV transmission line right-of-way.  We recommend that an inventory of noxious weeds and tall-growing species along the right-of-way be completed and, on that basis, develop a project-specific long-term adaptive management program.  This program should be designed to address biodiversity values and ecological functionality, as well as right-of-way vegetation maintenance issues.