Sept 13, 2005. Waldo North field tour: Grasslands Restoration in Action

"Grasslands Restoration
in Action"

Members of the public have a chance to see grasslands restoration in action when the Rocky Mountain Trench Natural Resources Society hosts a day-long field tour on Saturday, Sept. 24.

Range agrologist Tim Ross and Trench Society Coordinator Maurice Hansen will lead the tour of the Society’s Waldo North restoration project on the northeast side of Lake Koocanusa. Ross and Hansen have more than 40 years’ combined experience with the environmental problems and social conflicts arising from loss of grasslands and open forests in the East Kootenay.

On Sept. 24 tour participants will walk typical sites in need of restoration. A second field trip to the same sites will be held next spring after initial restoration treatments have been applied.

Participants will learn about fire-maintained ecosystems, observe at firsthand how these ecosystems have been altered by fire suppression, and understand how logging, thinning and prescribed burning can restore them.      

The tour leaves from Cranbrook at 9 am on Sept. 24. A $10 fee covers return transportation, lunch and take-home materials. As space is limited, pre-registration is required. Call 427-2275 or email info@trenchsociety.com. 

The Trench Society is a coalition of nine environmental, ranching and wildlife groups and a founding member of the Rocky Mountain Trench Ecosystem Restoration Steering Committee. The Steering Committee, a group of government, industry and public stakeholders, is responsible for a 30-year program aimed at restoring 135,000 hectares of Crown range and open forest between Radium Hot Springs and the US border.

The restoration program has been underway for about eight years, but Trench Society members want to see it improved. The Society is sponsoring the Waldo North demonstration project to determine how enhanced restoration results can be achieved.

The project, the biggest in the region to date, has the potential to be significantly more effective because the Rocky Mountain Forest District and Galloway Lumber are making it possible for the Society to log the site under a temporary timber harvesting licence. The licence is the key to reducing forest cover sufficiently to produce optimum ecosystem recovery.

Waldo North is funded in part by Columbia Basin Trust and Beef Cattle Industry Development Fund grants. Revenue from timber sales will also help cover costs.

The Trench Society is dedicated to restoring grassland ecosystems for the ecological, social and economic well-being of the southern Rocky Mountain Trench. Members are the Cranbrook Archery Club, East Kootenay Wildlife Association, Kootenay Livestock Association, Rocky Mountain Naturalists, Southern Guides & Outfitters Association, The Land Conservancy of BC, Waldo Stockbreeders Association, Wildsight and Windermere District Farmers Institute.