Between land and water
Date
2025
Authors
Hawkes, Sylvie
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Abstract
Over the past five years, the Galiano Conservancy Association (GCA) has implemented extensive ecological restoration activities within the Chrystal Creek watershed on Galiano Island, restoring approximately five hectares of degraded wetland. These efforts have focused on recreating the hydrological and ecological dynamics of beaver-modified landscapes. The restoration project was originally conceived to counteract more than a century of degradation stemming from small-scale agriculture and logging, which had disrupted the natural hydrology, soil structure, and vegetation communities of the area. This report synthesizes the goals, context, methodologies, and preliminary outcomes of a collaborative research initiative that supported GCA’s broader restoration program as a sustainability scholar.
The wetland restoration project’s primary goals, originally outlined in a 2020 EcoAction application, included restoring natural hydrology and soil microtopography within a 4.5-hectare area of the Chrystal Creek watershed. Restoration activities aimed to re-establish a range of freshwater wetland types—both seasonal and permanent—while enhancing climate resilience and habitat conditions for sensitive species. Efforts were made to reinforce native vegetation, including western redcedar ecosystems that once dominated the area. A parallel objective was to remove old roads, refuse, and structural remnants, while retaining access routes to facilitate stewardship and research. Community involvement, particularly the engagement of youth, university students, and volunteers, formed a core element of the project through hands-on participation in restoration design and implementation. As part of the sustainability scholars’ program, a multi-site research study was developed to contribute to the monitoring and adaptive management phase of this restoration program. A key aim was to investigate how active restoration techniques— particularly the replication of beaver pool wetlands affect ecological outcomes such as biomass and biodiversity across wetland habitats. While restoration of wetlands, especially projects inspired by beaver habitat, is gaining traction in British Columbia, there remains a limited understanding of how such interventions influence carbon dynamics, vegetative structure, and species diversity in the long term. This study contributes to that knowledge gap by assessing a gradient of sites with varying histories of degradation and restoration. Four wetlands on Galiano Island were selected for this study, each representing a distinct stage of disturbance or recovery.
Description
2025 UVic Sustainability Scholars Program Final Report Summary
Keywords
ecological restoration, watershed, wetland, ecological dynamics, beaver-modified landscape, Sustainability Scholars Program