Dianne Sanford, coordinator with the Seagrass Conservation Working Group (SCWG), is working with local schools to restore the habitat in the riparian zones of Trail Bay and at Flume Beach in Roberts Creek.
“Terrestrial plants along the shoreline are super important for providing food for various fishes – including salmon – that are traversing along the shoreline,” Sanford said.
Children from grades 2 and 3 at Kinnikinnick Elementary planted Nootka roses and dune grass along the rock wall outside the Watermark building in Sechelt on March 2, with volunteer help from the Sechelt Garden Club (SGC).
“Gradually a whole ecosystem builds up around the roots and then the salmon come back,” Penny Lyle, director of community development for the SGC, said. “That’s the long-term goal here. We thought it was an exciting program.”
“The rock wall creates a hard [habitat] – almost like a monoculture,” Sanford said. “There’s nothing there but rocks. The idea was to soften it by putting plants in, which are going to do numerous things, like increase the biodiversity there.”
Children in grades 3 to 5 from the nature program at Davis Bay Elementary School finished planting on the Trail Bay seawall on March 9. Sanford said she hopes to have the entire project finished – including the picnic area at Flume Beach – by the end of the month.
“Hopefully what will happen over time is that the roses’ roots will spread and they’ll form pockets of areas that are softer with shade and shelter and spray from the ocean,” Sanford said. “The dune grasses do the same – they’re smaller, of course – but they do the stabilizing and holding. Just to lessen the impact from the ocean hitting that shoreline and creating diversity for other things to live there.”
Recreational Fisheries Conservation Partnerships Program and the Pacific Salmon Foundation provided funding for this project.
