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

Whitebark and Limber Pine Restoration in BC

The erratic distribution of whitebark and limber pine on the landscape can make locating seed trees and restoration sites a challenging process.  By integrating an ethnographic approach into ecological restoration methods, efficiencies may be realized in locating candidate sites, implementing restoration prescriptions, and conducting public outreach.

KES is presently implementing two restoration projects utilizing this approach; a whitebark pine restoration project in conjunction with the Lillooet Tribal Council, and a limber pine restoration project in conjunction with the East Kootenay Conservation Program and the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation of Canada.

With respect to the prior project there exists good local knowledge in the Lillooet area to support this project, and a willingness of local First Nations and naturalists to participate in the program.  Volunteers have agreed to not only identify sites, but to collect seed, conduct restorative plantings, and grow seedlings for future use.

However, with respect to the limber pine project in the East Kootenay region, there exists little knowledge of its distribution.  By conducting a series of extension programs with local naturalists and landowners in the region, additional locations of limber pine were found.  This information created better pictures of local limber pine stand composition to guide restoration efforts, as at present there exists little local data to support planting densities and habitat requirements.

The East Kootenay region of BC is the only area in the province where all three species of five-needled pines occur (whitebark, limber, and western white).  Unfortunately limber pine is the least known, and grows at intermediate elevations relative to the others, resulting in some misidentification of locations.  Limber pine appears to exist as an island population in the Rocky Mountain Trench of the East Kootenay and likely has little connectivity with other populations to the East, underscoring the importance of regional restoration work.  By educating the concerned public at the outset of these projects and directly involving the already enlightened, these projects not only maximize the amount of area restored but also maximize the extension and marketing of these species to the public.