Many hands make light work

Ecological restoration is no small feat. Often overlooked is the sheer volume of human hours it takes to achieve long-term restoration goals. The people powering these restoration projects are not only staff, but also volunteers from the local community who lend their hands and time to improve the natural environment around them.

Raincoast’s two co–owned properties, KELÁ_EKE Kingfisher Forest and S,DÁYES Flycatcher Forest, have been stewarded in part by local S,DÁYES (Pender Islands) community members. Our partner in land protection, the Pender Islands Conservancy, has championed the involvement of local volunteers in moving our restoration projects forward.

Volunteers have worked to remove invasive species, such as daphne and reed canary grass, and plant native trees, shrubs, grasses, and herbs in active restoration areas. In turn, community volunteers have gained hands-on experience and learned how to steward their own properties.

Local protected areas are community assets, providing notable health and well-being benefits to the surrounding residents. When the community becomes involved in stewarding these local protected areas, the value of these assets is amplified.

A hard day’s work in the Coastal Douglas-fir forest

Recently, we celebrated International Day of Forests in the best way by working together with the Pender Islands Conservancy and a group of volunteers to plant native species and pull invasive daphne at S,DÁYES Flycatcher Forest.

We started the day by planting native trees, shrubs, and understory species in a nearly 20 x 20 m area that had originally been overrun by invasive daphne. It has been the dedication of a consistent group of volunteers who worked with Pender Islands Conservancy staff to clear this large area entirely of the invasive species. Planting native species will prevent the return of invasive daphne and facilitate an increase in native biodiversity in the active restoration area. Importantly, this area has been fenced entirely to prevent browsing from overabundant deer populations, which degrade understorey forest habitats by browsing on tender plant species.

We hit the ground running, and in just about an hour, over a hundred different plants were successfully in the ground. What was once a dense monoculture of invasive daphne is now on its way to becoming a structurally and biologically diverse patch that will have cascading ecological effects on the surrounding forest.

Two volunteers are seen digging into the ground with tall trees in the background behind them and a blue sky. — After a week of torrential downpours, the sun came out to cheer us on as we restored the forest. Photo by Priya Puri.

Multiple wire flags stick out of the ground with bright red markings to indicate where a new planting has been placed. — Flags in the ground indicate where there is a new planting. Photo by Priya Puri.

A close up of sword fern with a flag marking in the earth next to it. — As deciduous tree species take off and start to fill in the canopy, shade-tolerant understorey species, such as sword fern, will fill in the understorey. Photo by Priya Puri.

A wide shot of the forest floor with volunteers kneeling next to freshly planted native plants and the empty nursing pots they arrived in. — Empty nursery pots steadily accumulated as more plants went into the ground. These pots will go back to Pender Native Plants, the local native plant nursery, where a majority of the planting material was sourced from. Photo by Sarah Labadie.

After a quick lunch break and fueled by the goodies donated by local bakers and the volunteers, we made our way up to the Garry oak meadow in S,DÁYES Flycatcher Forest. The meadow is home to a variety of flowering Garry oak herbs and grasses, and it is also protected by fencing to prevent deer browsing.

This meadow is one of the best examples of community stewardship as it is monitored and maintained by a local plant enthusiast, who just happens to also live a stone’s throw away from the meadow. It’s always a joy to open my inbox and find a meadow update from our dedicated meadow keeper.

Invasive Scotch broom and non-native grass species have been finding their way into the meadow, but are consistently thwarted by the hands of our meadow keeper. While removal is effective, increasing the cover of native species in the meadow will help push back against the invasion of non-native species.

Once again making light work of it, we planted over two dozen different native herbaceous and ground cover species in the meadow. Planting early in the spring will give these new plants time to establish their roots and prepare for the growing season ahead. The final count of the day was 157 native plants in the ground at S,DÁYES Flycatcher Forest, largely in part by the hands of volunteers.

Priya Puri, Raincoast's Forest Conservation Program Coordinator, kneels in the grass to plant native stonecrop. — Planting native stonecrop on a rockier, more sloped section of the meadow. Photo by Sarah Labadie.

A group of volunteers crouch and kneel in a grassy area of the forest floor, working away. — Previously a compacted grassy patch, this area is slowly but surely filling in with native meadow species, many of which bloom vibrantly in the spring and attract native pollinators. Photo by Priya Puri.

Ending the day strong, we made our way to a sloped forest patch overlooking the forest wetland. This patch has also been plagued by rampant daphne, despite sustained removal efforts. Working together to pull larger, more established daphne out of the ground and gathering handfuls of juvenile plants, we successfully finished clearing this patch. As we make more progress on removal, we will start filling in the cleared area with native plant species, hopefully, with the helping hands of our steadfast volunteers.

A woman wearing a high visibility vest and blue jacket kneels to tend to the plants growing from the dirt. — While it may not look like much above ground, daphne is a good invader because it grows a strong, thick, and long taproot upon establishment. Photo by Priya Puri.

A pile of daphne that has been removed, stacked on bare soil. A hand wearing a gardening glove holds a handful of removed invasive species. — The ever-growing pile of removed daphne. Photo by Priya Puri.

A successfully cleared patch of daphne. Photo by Priya Puri.

Our deepest gratitude and utmost admiration goes out to all of the volunteers, far and wide, who show up for nature. Your time commitment and energy put into stewarding your local ecosystems have outsized benefits for now and for future generations to come.

Join us in celebrating this year’s National Volunteer Week and Earth Day with community volunteer activities happening April 21st and 22nd on Pender Island.