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

Spalding’s Campion Inventory and Habitat Assessment

Spalding’s campion (Silene spaldingii S. Wats) is a long lived perennial herb that grows from a single or branched stem, and commonly grows up to 60 cm in height.  Perhaps the most outstanding characteristic is that the plant is covered in glandular hairs leading to one of its other common names, Spalding’s catchfly.  It is a member of Caryophyllaceae (the Pink Family) that is endemic to parts of British Columbia, Montana, Idaho and Oregon (Douglas et al 1998).  Spalding’s campion is listed with the Committee on Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) as endangered and by the BC Conservation Data Centre as a red listed species.  In BC Spalding’s campion is only currently known on and adjacent to the Tobacco Plains Indian Reserve in the East Kootenay. 

Within the BC population it is believed that invasive plants and the invasion of conifers into grasslands pose the two most significant challenges to Spalding’s campion (Miller and Keefer 2008) and Spalding’s campion is especially threatened by introduced weeds, contributing to the reasons for its endangered designation (COSEWIC 2010).  Within the project area, the following Provincially designated Noxious weed species have been found: spotted knapweed (Centauria biebersteinii), sulphur cinquefoil (Potentilla recta), leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula), and hound’s-tongue (Cynoglossum offinale).  These species have all been previously recorded growing adjacent to Spalding’s campion (Keefer 2009).  St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum), a regionally designated weed species, was also prevalent on Spalding’s sites. 

Conifer ingrowth and the encroachment of conifers into grasslands is also believed to pose a serious long term threat to the viability of Spalding’s campion (SIRPRIG 2008) as well as other grassland dependent plant species (Bond et al 2006).  On Tobacco Plains Reserve there are many sites known to the Elders that were bunchgrass prairies since time immemorial that are now heavily invaded with ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) (Elizabeth Gravelle pers. comm. 1998).

A further threat to the Spalding’s campion is the general shortage of fodder for wild and domestic ungulates and feral horses.  Within the Rocky Mountain Trench it has been found that forage consumption is over 60 percent, well above the 50 percent rule of thumb for consumption (Bond et al 2006).  Within Tobacco Plains, range use is compromised by a herd of feral horses believed to be over 100 animals.  Through the winter and spring one frequently encounters herds of elk of over 200 individuals.  Survey work over the last few years has found sizable areas of ground that have been heavily overgrazed to the point that the former fescue grasslands have been converted to annual brome grasses and Canada bluegrass.  Invasive plants establish quite quickly on overgrazed and bare land, and are for the majority unpalatable to grazing animals.  These competitive advantages allow invasive species to spread very quickly, reducing the available habitat for native plant communities.  Over the last decade, efforts have been made by the Band to open up more habitat through logging and thinning projects.  However, it appears that so many sites are moving towards forest that more efforts must be made to keep up, let alone overcome the loss of forest.  Also, the benefits of thinning projects are frequently being offset by invasive plant invasion.

Data collected as part of this project helps to determine the health, distribution, reproductive status and threats to Spalding’s campion populations on Tobacco Plains Reserve.  The data may also be used to build predictive maps of the plants habitat and in the design and implementation of habitat restoration prescriptions.