On BC Rivers Day, the Education & Outreach team worked together with Squamish River Watershed Society, District of Squamish, and 13 amazing volunteers to carry out a weed pull at McNaughton Park in Valleycliffe, Squamish.
McNaughton Park is situated alongside the Little Stawamus river, an important spawning channel for salmon. Riparian (meaning situated on the banks of a watercourse) invasive species can decrease water quality by increasing stream sediment as a result of soil erosion. This is because invasive plants with shallow root systems can destabilize the soil. As the salmon season is upon us, it is important to provide a stable base for them to spawn.
We started the afternoon off by removing burdock, English ivy, cherry laurel, and Himalayan blackberry from along the riparian areas and trail. Our volunteers really got into removing the ivy in particular (no really, can you find our volunteers in the photo below?)
While cherry laurel has a spot on our priority species list, we don’t have much information about this plant’s distribution in the region, which makes it difficult to set a management goal for each Invasive Species Management Area (ISMA). So Clo, our Co-Executive Director, used the reporting tool on our website in order to keep track of its distribution in the region before we removed it. Way to go, Clo!
But we didn’t stop there… we also planted 80 native plants! We hope that this will help to support the riparian areas of the Little Stawamus river.
Take a look at the before and after:
First, we removed invasive species such as cherry laurel and burdock from the river bank…
…Then we planted native species such as slough sedge, sword fern and nootka rose in the clearing!
Thank you
A big thank you to the Squamish River Watershed Society and District of Squamish for their collaboration on the day, and Ground Up Climbing Centre for donating one of the prizes for our draw.
And lastly, a huge thanks to our volunteers for making such a positive impact to this park!
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