Establishing Shrubs in Protective Fenced Areas to Facilitate Forest Restoration on Sidney Island

Many decades of high-intensity browsing by deer on Sidney Island has greatly reduced the abundance and diversity of plants in the forest understory. The result of this pressure is that the forest on Sidney Island has lost much of the species diversity and structural diversity it once had: fewer tree species are able to grow into saplings to replace older trees as they die, and the understorey has nearly disappeared. The forest will continue on this trajectory unless effective restoration work is done. Therefore, the objective of this project is to establish pockets of native shrubs in the Park Reserve that would rejuvenate the forest understorey, both where they are planted and also throughout the forest by producing seeds. To accomplish this objective, we propose building ten small, fenced areas (10-meter by 10-meter) that prevent deer browsing and planting native shrubs within them. Fencing will not be permanent: the fenced areas will be constructed to last several years (3 – 10) to give the shrubs time to become well established, after which time the fences will be removed. The work will occur seasonally during 2021-2023. This project will be assessed with a basic impact assessment.


Latest update

April 27, 2021 - The assessment decision statement has been issued to the proponent.

Participate

Contacts

Gulf Islands National Park Reserve
2220 Harbour Road
Sidney, British Columbia V8L 2P6
Telephone: 250-654-4000 or 1-866-944-1744
Fax: 250-654-4014
Email: gulfinfo@pc.gc.ca


  • Location

    • Gulf Islands National Park Reserve (British Columbia)
  • Nature of Activity

    • Maintenance activities (fences, walls)
    • Remediation and conservation
  • Assessment Status

    Completed
  • Start Date

    2020-09-25
  • Proponent

    Parks Canada
  • Authorities

    • Parks Canada Agency
  • Assessment Type

    Project on federal lands
  • Reference Number

    81014
Disclaimer

This map is for illustrative purposes. The markers represent the approximate locations based on available data. More than one marker may be identified for a given assessment.

 

Nearby assessments

...within 200 kilometres
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