Rebuilding riparian habitat, one stick at a time

Añadido: 2026-05-18

[00:00:01]Why are we throwing colorful sticks on the water? These are live cutings from willow, cottonwood, and red oer dogwood.

[00:00:07]They're native plants found along rivers throughout the interior of BC. What makes them unique is that they don't need flowers and seeds to reproduce.

[00:00:14]Each individual can literally create a clone of itself from a branch cutting.

[00:00:18]Here in the Nicola, these three riparian species play a critical role in stabilizing banks, providing shade, and are a new source of wood inputs into the stream. They're also food for beavers, which build dams that store water and provide rearing habitat for juvenile salmon. By planting these species at degraded sites, we are kickstarting natural reestablishment of a healthy riparian plant community. We're following an approach called low tech process-based restoration. Low tech meaning we only use hand tools to get the job done. And process-based meaning our goal is to reestablish natural processes that create good salmon habitat. We're addressing the root cause of degradation, not just the symptom.

[00:00:55]Here's how it works. We take cutings from healthy plants throughout the waterershed and soak them overnight.

[00:01:00]This helps you increase rooting success.

[00:01:02]The next day, we plant them. There's a lot of different ways to plant live cutings, like staking, vertical bundles, and brush mattresses. Each method is selected based on the terrain and the goals we want to achieve for the specific site. We plant in the spring while the plants are still dormant, and by summer, we hope to see new growth.

[00:01:19]This process is low cost, doesn't require lots of equipment, and uses natural materials. Stay tuned for an update on how the cutings are doing.