Cranbrook Creek Restoration and Flood Preparedness

                       Stewart Wilson

Back in the fall of 2007 the Columbia Mountain Institute http://www.cmiae.org  as well as the BC Society for Ecolological Restoration(chapter.ser.org/britishcolumbia/) held a joint conference in Cranbrook. 

Their purpose is to improve ecological management by increasing and sharing knowledge about the ecosystems of the Columbia Mountains and nearby regions.

One of their demonstration projects involved replanting the vegetation on a piece of ground left bare after a new storm drain outlet had been installed in Kinsmen Park by Joseph Creek.

They used live stakes consisting of cottonwood and native willow under the direction of Michael Keefer, and Dave Polster, both restoration ecologists and board members of SERBC.

As the pictures show, the results have been spectacular in re-introducing native plants, as well as stabilizing the bank along this particular stretch of the creek, which is often subjected to a sudden rise in water levels due to extreme weather events especially during the spring and summer. 

Native plants are ideally suited for the restoration of degraded environments.

More information on techniques may be found on the
web, including keefereco.com, tipimountain.com and

http://www.fs.fed.us/publications/soil-bio-guide/guide/chapter5.pdf.