Natural Processes: Restoration of Drastically Disturbed Sites
Atlantic Reclamation Conference Workshop by David F. Polster
The Atlantic Chapter of the Canadian Land Reclamation Association (CLRA) and the New Brunswick Community College (NBCC) joined forces again and co-hosted an ARC2019 workshop regarding the Natural Process for the Restoration of Drastically Disturbed Sites, instructed by David Polster; R.P. Bio. It was a two-day event starting with an “in-class” presentation at the NBCC campus in Moncton, NB outlining the techniques used in live staking and the benefits of Natural Process Restoration. Day two consisted of harvesting, trimming, and staking willows onsite at the Saint Marie Community Pasture in Bouctouche, NB. There was a good turn-out with 35 people including students, industry and government representation.
During his presentation, David provided examples of several techniques used on a wide variety of landscapes and environments. He emphasized the long term benefits of the longer timeline required for live staking over more other methods. A 126 page manual was provided unique ecosystem considerations, different techniques and instruction for implementation, common filters to recovery and solutions to these filters, as well as additional considerations regarding social, operational and monitoring aspects of natural process restoration.
The group was welcomed at the Bouctouche Aubergine Inn the evening of day one so they would be close to the site bright and early for day 2. Many from the group enjoyed dinner at La Sagouine in Boctouche, who also provided sandwiches for lunch at the in-field portion of the course.
Quite often field work must be completed rain or shine and sometimes you can expect to get stuck in the mud once or twice! Our group got a taste of what it’s like when the conditions are less than ideal with rain forecasted all day long. Outfitted in as much rain gear as one could wear, teams were sent out into the bush to cut limbs of an ideal thickness and trimmed them down to long “stakes”, these were brought to the road where they could be bundled into manageable bunches and lined up to be loaded into a truck and driven further down the property to the pasture.
The Saint Marie Community Pasture is located in Bouctouche, New Brunswick 50 km north of Moncton. As of 2003 there were 6 community pastures in NB averaging 832 acres where community members can pasture their cattle for around $43 per season. These pastures help reduce the acreage required for each farmer to have for at-home pasture and may be considered more environmentally friendly. (1)
There are several streams that run through the Saint Marie Community Pasture and the one we were working on had visible signs of erosion along the banks on either side of a culvert that went under a rough road that ran perpendicular to the stream. Willows were harvested from the wooded area along the road leading to the pasture, cut down to sections approximately 2 feet in length, and pounded/planted ¾ the way into the ground with existing growth direction in mind ensuring the section harvested closer to the bottom of the tree was planted down.
Heavy rain (4.8 mm) and cold temperatures (5.3 degrees C) meant everyone was working fast and we had all the stakes in the ground by around 3 pm. No one was in the mood to celebrate a successful day and proceeded to head home from the site for a nice hot shower and dry clothes.
Additional planting bars would have been useful but we made the best of what we had; shovels, pickaxes, hammers, etc, to drive the stakes into the ground. The rain may have been a blessing by softening up the banks we were trying to secure. On return to the pasture to review progress it was observed that many of the stakes planted did have growth. Growth was observed at points that had been trimmed on top, along the stakes, or near the bottom where the stake met the ground.
(1) Source: Role of Community Pastures in Atlantic Canada