View of existing riparian area
The Teedyuskung Creek Restoration Project
Riparian
Restoration
Phase 1 - Live Staking
Phase 2 - Shrub Planting
Phase 3 - Wildflower Seeding
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Phase 1 : Live Staking |
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Some areas along the upper portion of the Teedyuskung Creek were found to be low, sunny, and without much riparian buffer vegetation. Due to the golf course and associated development, many trees and shrubs had been cleared from the stream bank. Riparian buffers enhance water quality by removing pollutants such as nitrate, phosphate, pesticides, and sediment. Buffer also improve streamside shading, fish habitat, flood control, local aesthetics. |
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To restore the riparian buffer, the project partners developed a three-phase approach. The first phase was to improve stream side shading through an aggressive live staking effort. F. X. Browne Inc. and the other project partners decided to recruit local volunteers to help in live staking. The day the live staking was scheduled, the live willow and dogwood stakes were delivered to the creek
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The volunteers arrived early in the morning to be trained and given equipment.
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| The volunteers were shown the problem areas along the creek. They quickly teamed up and began driving willow and dogwood stakes into the streambanks |
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The stakes are short branches from willow and dogwood trees that are driven into the ground where they will take root and grow. |
| Two volunteers, Reg and Susan, came out to help for the day. Some of the benefits of choosing a bioengineering approach to streambank restoration, as opposed to structural, are that it is inexpensive, it has increased strength over time, it allows natural processes to occur, and it provides opportunities for volunteer involvement. |  |
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Even a young
bioengineering hopeful was onsite at Teedyuskung. |
| A few months later the first sprouts of willow branches are seen. |
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