CLBWORKS-1: Kinbasket Reservoir revegetation program: year 8

Author: V.C. Hawkes

To assess the potential impacts of these parameters on the integrity of the mounds and windrows, BC Hydro drafted the following objectives for CLBWORKS-1 in 2015: 1. Identify potential sites for assessing the application of windrows and mounds for enhancing vegetation and wildlife habitat in Kinbasket Reservoir; 2. Prepare site-specific construction specifications and restoration prescriptions for each pilot area; 3. Implement the restoration prescriptions at each site as per the site-specific construction specifications; 4. Specify pre- and post-treatment monitoring requirements (to be carried out under CLBMON-9 and CLBMON-11A) that will assess the efficacy of constructed debris mounds and windrows for establishing self-sustaining riparian vegetation communities. This will include an assessment of the: a. structural integrity of constructed wood debris and soil mounds and windrows in full reservoir pool conditions with the active natural processes on the reservoir (e.g., wave erosion); and b. the methods to establish vegetation on constructed wood debris and soil mounds/ windrows; 5. inform BC Hydro on how reservoir operations affect the structural integrity of wood debris and soil mounds/ windrows and determine if mitigation strategies can be developed to reduce these impacts; 6. Test methods to establish vegetation on constructed wood debris and soil mounds/ windrows; 7. Inform BC Hydro on to what extent constructed wood debris and soil mounds/ windrows exclude floating woody debris from the parts of the drawdown zone shoreward of the constructed islands and windrows; 8. Establish vegetation on the constructed mounds/ windrows and integration with the Kinbasket Debris Removal Program (CLBWORKS-16); and 9. Assess the effectiveness of the CLBWORKS-1 program including the effects of treatment methods and site-specific attributes using a cataloguing approach.

The 2015 pilot project to construct mounds and wind rows and clean ponds of wood debris in the drawdown zone of Kinbasket Reservoir resulted in the construction of seven mounds in two locations, the cleaning of three previously wood-choked ponds in one location, and the removal of 6,957 m2 of wood from all areas. An additional 763.3 m2 of uncleared land was incorporated into the physical works features created at the Bush Arm Causeway.
The removal of wood debris from the drawdown zone and wetland habitat as a habitat enhancement technique appears to have great potential. Not only can the wood debris be used to construct mounds in the drawdown zone, thereby increasing topographic heterogeneity, but the removal of the wood from the drawdown zone promotes the natural establishment of vegetation (Figure 3-7). Revegetating of the mounds involved the use of live stakes as a means to expedite the revegetation process, but as with the areas cleared of wood debris, native vegetation also began to establish on the mounds (Figure 3-7). This emphasizes the utility of wood removal and mound creation as a tool to increase the cover of vegetation in the drawdown zone of Kinbasket Reservoir. Despite these early signs of success, additional data are required before the widespread removal and mounding of wood is considered for Kinbasket Reservoir. The mounds and cleared areas need to be inundated by Kinbasket Reservoir so that the integrity of the mounds can be assessed following inundation and to determine if additional wood will deposit on sites previously cleared (as occurred at Packsaddle Creek in Canoe Reach, Figure 6-1).
Clearing wood from wetlands also increases the suitability of those wetlands for wildlife by removing wood that prevented access to the water and by improving water quality (Figure 6-2). Aquatic macrophytes and pond-breeding amphibians were documented from the wetlands in 2016, and although fish were stranded in one of the wetlands, early indications are that the habitat suitability of the wetlands has improved. As stated previously, additional data are required to assess the longer-term benefits of wood removal from wetlands and to determine if inundation will cause the mounds surrounding the wetlands to break apart (and deposit wood on the wetlands). The addition of new wood on to the areas cleared is unlikely as a log boom was installed around the physical works locations at the Bush Causeway North site in June 2016 (Figure 3-2). Log booms have proven effective at preventing wood from depositing on areas cleared of wood debris elsewhere in Kinbasket Reservoir (e.g., Valemount Peatland; Hawkes 2015a).

The 2015 pilot project to construct mounds and wind rows and clean ponds of wood debris in the drawdown zone of Kinbasket Reservoir resulted in the construction of seven mounds in two locations, the cleaning of three previously wood-choked ponds in one location, and the removal of 6,957 m2 of wood from all areas. An additional 763.3 m2 of uncleared land was incorporated into the physical works features created at the Bush Arm Causeway.
The removal of wood debris from the drawdown zone and wetland habitat as a habitat enhancement technique appears to have great potential. Not only can the wood debris be used to construct mounds in the drawdown zone, thereby increasing topographic heterogeneity, but the removal of the wood from the drawdown zone promotes the natural establishment of vegetation (Figure 3-7). Revegetating of the mounds involved the use of live stakes as a means to expedite the revegetation process, but as with the areas cleared of wood debris, native vegetation also began to establish on the mounds (Figure 3-7). This emphasizes the utility of wood removal and mound creation as a tool to increase the cover of vegetation in the drawdown zone of Kinbasket Reservoir. Despite these early signs of success, additional data are required before the widespread removal and mounding of wood is considered for Kinbasket Reservoir. The mounds and cleared areas need to be inundated by Kinbasket Reservoir so that the integrity of the mounds can be assessed following inundation and to determine if additional wood will deposit on sites previously cleared (as occurred at Packsaddle Creek in Canoe Reach, Figure 6-1).
Clearing wood from wetlands also increases the suitability of those wetlands for wildlife by removing wood that prevented access to the water and by improving water quality (Figure 6-2). Aquatic macrophytes and pond-breeding amphibians were documented from the wetlands in 2016, and although fish were stranded in one of the wetlands, early indications are that the habitat suitability of the wetlands has improved. As stated previously, additional data are required to assess the longer-term benefits of wood removal from wetlands and to determine if inundation will cause the mounds surrounding the wetlands to break apart (and deposit wood on the wetlands). The addition of new wood on to the areas cleared is unlikely as a log boom was installed around the physical works locations at the Bush Causeway North site in June 2016 (Figure 3-2). Log booms have proven effective at preventing wood from depositing on areas cleared of wood debris elsewhere in Kinbasket Reservoir (e.g., Valemount Peatland; Hawkes 2015a).