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Assiniboine Park Riparian Forest Project:
Restoring the Riverbank.
by Jaimée Dupont, Assiniboine Park Riparian Forest Technical Assistant
The seasons are changing with nights getting colder and the days getting
shorter. The riparian forest in Assiniboine Park has also gone through
considerable change over the course of the 2007 field season. The Assiniboine
Park Riparian Forest Project is a partnership between the Manitoba Naturalist
Society and the City of Winnipeg Naturalist Services Branch.
The goals of this endeavour are to help the riparian forest bounce back from
heavy recreational use, flooding, and competition from invasive species. The
group also wants to enhance the overall recreational trail experience for all
users-groups, and help to ensure that future generations are able to enjoy the
forest. By restoring and enhancing tracts of native riparian forest we are
helping to increase native biodiversity, and educate the general public on the
importance of these ecosystems.
Click on photos for full size version
Trail Winding Through Assiniboine Park
Riparian Forest – Jaimee Dupont
What’s so special about riparian forests? Riparian forests are the wooded zones
bordering streams, rivers, lakes and wetlands. They perform important ecological
functions including: trapping and storing sediment, stabilizing banks and
shorelines, filtering nutrients and contaminants, storing nutrients and
contaminants, regulating water temperature, and providing wildlife habitat and
corridors. The riparian forest was identified as a threatened habitat type
within the City of Winnipeg, and Assiniboine Park contains one of the largest
riparian areas in Winnipeg. Many people frequent the park which makes it ideal
for demonstrating its importance and informing the public about riparian areas.
What have we been doing? This year’s focus was on the area east of the
footbridge, on the south side of the Assiniboine River. The project team this
year was composed of a three member Green Team, the Assiniboine Park Riparian
Forest Technical Assistant and the support and guidance of Helen Fabbri of the
City of Winnipeg Naturalist Services Branch. Along with several different
volunteer groups we planted over 2100 native trees and shrubs in the forest
including Manitoba maple, Red-osier dogwood, Pin cherry and Green ash. We have
also distributed 200 yards of natural wood mulch along a 0.85 kilometre defined
trail.
The team combated invasive species such as Purple loosestrife, Canada thistle,
Common burdock by removing them through hand pulling and digging. Over 100
European buckthorn trees were cut down and removed from the forest, as well as
hundreds of small seedlings pulled by hand to try to keep the number of future
buckthorn trees down in the future. Buckthorn berries were also removed from
trees to limit further spread.
Students from Gordon Bell High School
- Helen Fabbri |
The Scouts and their leaders
doing their
part on Arbour Day – Jaimee Dupont. |
Why wood chips and mulch on the trails? There are several reasons why natural
woodchips were chosen as surface material for the trail. The majority of damage
to the forest floor and trails occurs in spring due to the wet conditions
created by melting snow, receding flood waters, and spring precipitation. These
wet spring conditions, in conjunction with trail-use, creates deep ruts and pits
along the trails. As users go around to avoid them, trails get wider and
vegetation subsequently gets damaged. Woodchips provide a dry, usable surface to
walk, jog, or cycle on during wet spring conditions and minimizes the impacts of
these activities on the trail and surrounding vegetation. This spring we were
very pleased with how dry and usable the woodchip trail was so early on in the
spring as opposed to the extremely wet sticky conditions of the mud trails.
Because the trail is in a public park, it is frequented by many user groups
comprised not only of cyclists but by those who also enjoy walking, hiking,
jogging, dog-walking, and bird-watching.
Community involvement was successful this year. We had several volunteer groups
come to aid in the restoration process. On Sunday, June 3rd we had a successful
Arbour Day planting with great weather. A dedicated group of 15 volunteers from
the Boy Scouts of Canada planted 300 native trees and shrubs in the riparian
forest. There were also several other volunteers from the community who dropped
in to plant that day. On June 13th, a group of ten students from Gordon Bell
High School planted 100 Green ash trees along the woodchip trail to close off
old trails and fill in gaps in the understory. Deloitte’s yearly Impact Day saw
60 volunteers join us at Assiniboine Park to plant over 362 containerized trees
in the riparian forest and another 150 in an established no mow zone, spread 100
yards of woodchip to touch up worn areas of the trail, do a thorough riverbank
clean up, and remove large quantities of European buckthorn. Around 20
volunteers joined us for the evening of October 2nd to plant trees just over 100
trees in the riparian forest. Our last (but certainly not least) event of the
fall is a dedicated group of MNS members will join us on October 13th to remove
European buckthorn from an area north of the zoo parking lot.
Riverbank stabilization and erosion control was also a concern this summer, and
an extension of the fence by the foot bridge, and two smaller fences to block
heavily eroded entrances to the forest. Additional trees and shrubs will be
planted in hopes of further saving the bank. No-mow or naturalization zones
between the riparian forest and the asphalt path were also created this summer.
Extending the edge of the forest will help to stabilize the bank and allow
native species to grow back. A large no mow zone has also been established in an
oak forest west of our site and was reforested with 150 oak seedlings.
Permanent signs are set to be installed by the end of October in the forest to
assist with educating and informing the public about the project and the forest.
These interpretive signs explain the important functions of a riparian forest,
some common native riparian tree and shrub species, a site map and project
information.
It has been a successful summer overall, with the forest looking better than
ever. However it would not have had such great success without the network
support and volunteers who contributed to the project. The project wants to
extend a big thank-you to Susan and the MNS staff for all of their
administrative help and support, and to the members who came out to remove
buckthorn in Assiniboine Park in October. We also want to thank volunteers from
the Boy Scouts of Canada, Gordon Bell High School, Deloitte and all those from
our October 2nd event. The City of Winnipeg also deserves a big thank you for
their in-kind support of materials and equipment, native vegetation, technical
support and project guidance. We are looking forward to even more success and
improvement in the future. For additional information, please contact Jaimée
Dupont at 986-7234 or jdupont@winnipeg.ca
or Helen Fabbri at hfabbri@winnipeg.ca
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