Landing Restoration at Laughlin Lake
During the fall of 2001 the Restoration of the landing site at Laughlin Lake was undertaken. The problem here was a site that had been heavily disturbed in the past by gravel extaction operations. In 2001 the landing site was used as a parking lot for visitors to the lake. It was necessary for vehicles to drive through water running out from Laughlin Lake to get to the landing and park. To compound the problem Galiano's North end fire department used the landing to access water from the lake on a fairly regular basis.
The decision was made to install a stand pipe near the road to enable easy access to water for the fire department without the trucks having to drive through the creek. This allowed us to carry out the restoration of the landing site and restoration of the old road bed and creek crossing. In the case of the landing we replaced a parking lot with a clearcut which was a basis for a more ecologically complex riparian habitat. A foot bridge and trail were placed for recreational access to the lakes peninsula. Native plants were planted at the site following the restoration. The restored site was hand seeded with hard fescue to aid in the stabilization of the soil and reduce competition with invasive grasses. Red alder, western red cedar, Douglas-fir, ocean spray, big leaf maple and cottonwoods were also planted at the site.
Lessons
Over the first few years, the native shrubs suffered stress from beaver, deer, tent caterpillars and Canada geese. We were soon prompted to use metal fencing around the plantings to protect them from browse and cutting. The plants responded very nicely to the protection.
The hard fescue was very slow growing. It was also heavily browsed by the Canada geese during the first spring. Although somewhat established now, it did little in the way of competing with the more aggressive exotic grass species. In future a mixed native grass seed would be more appropriate to use on similar sites.
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| Landing before restoration work, large pile of CWD has been dumped on site for installation. |
Immediately after restoration work. from parking lot to clearcut, this is one step up thinking ecologically. |
The site one year later with native plants installed and maple leaf mulch distributed. |
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| A photo of the site in 2007 |
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