Since 1994, we have led the effort to restore thousands of hectares of riparian ecosystems across British Colombia.

What We Do...

We undertake the restoration of degrated riparian zones on watersheds within first nation traditional territories. 

Restoration Philosophy

Riparian restoration is required where the ecological components of forest stands needed for long-term sustainability of fish and wildlife habitat, water quality, and channel stability have been lost due to logging or urbanization or both. The only effective means to achieve sustainability is to speed the recovery of riparian forests so they can once again function as they did prior to logging. Streams need large wood, trees with strong root systems, shade, and clean water to produce habitat for healthy fish populations. When riparian areas were logged or removed for development in urban areas in the past , the root cause of habitat degradation leading to today’s serious decline in habitat capability was set in motion. Logging or development removed the trees that once held watersheds together and replaced them with young saplings incapable of maintaining and creating the kind of habitats most needed by fish. Natural forests take a long time to recover, so long that recovery has to be measured in hundreds of years. This does not have to be the case. It is possible to significantly speed up the growth and development of riparian trees by thinning, spacing, fertilizing and planting. Trees that are removed from stands to set the stage for proper functioning condition can also be used to achieve a wide range of ecosystem objectives including augmenting instream woody debris and creating forest structure needed by wildlife such as birds, bats and small mammals. These animals are important to fish. They help to build forest soils, provide a source of nutrients to instream organisms, disperse seeds, and create debris by inducing dead and dying trees. Successful restoration of today’s fish habitat problems must deal with the imbalance created when old forests were converted to young forests by logging or urban pressures. Until recently most people have not looked beyond conventional instream restoration techniques to restore fish habitat when in fact these approaches while effective and necessary do not heal the problem of habitat sustainability. The only effective means to achieve sustainability is to speed the recovery of riparian forests so that they once again function as they did prior to logging or urban development.