SEAWA doing more than planting trees

By medicinehatnews on January 17, 2023.

The South East Watershed Alliance published It’s Not Just Planting Trees, an information sheet that has updates on the riparian restoration projects they have undertaken, along with outlining steps taken toward local knowledge development and community engagement.

SEAWA has been working at four restoration sites — Connaught Pond, Seven Persons Creek by Saratoga Park, Sauder reservoir, and Yeast site south of Seven Persons. Both the Yeast and Connaught are multi-year experiments to suppress noxious weeds and invasive plants using non-chemical methods.

The riparian restoration methodology used at these sites was developed by

SEAWA so that shrubs, trees and grasses that are appropriate for this ecoregion were used. An early attempt at live-staking sandbar willows, a technique used for riverbank erosion control globally, failed as it was not applicable to local conditions. Planting different species of native shrubs and trees has been more successful and now more than 1,000 of them are thriving between the four sites.

Propagation methods had to be developed for commercially unavailable native plant species and different methods were used as deterrents against rodents and deer, such as enclosures. Summer help is available during the high temperatures of July and August and this is when most of the planting is done.

The plants are watered by hand weekly and weeding is done every two weeks, both laborious and time consuming practices. It was determined a sprinkler system would cause soil erosion and promote weekly growth. A total of 11.5 km of riparian landscape has been restored in southeastern Alberta by SEAWA.

If you or someone you know would like to serve on the SEAWA board, they are looking for new members. Contact executive@seawa. ca if interested. The board meets the second Thursday of each month and most of the committee work is by email.

SEAWA hired three summer students last year and has now posted the positions for the summer of 2023 student jobs. Applications are due by Jan. 27 and the full job posting can be found on goodwork.ca.

They are also hiring a stewardship and communication coordinator. Again, the full job description is available on goodwork.ca and the application deadline is Feb. 6, 2023.

For more information about SEAWA, see their website at seawa.ca.