Group saves native plants from being bulldozed, gives them 2nd chance in Fish Creek Park

A Calgary group is starring the effort to reconstruct autochthonal plants to Fish Creek Provincial Park — by rescuing them from backstage improvement sites earlier they're bulldozed over. 

The Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park Society, successful concern with Alberta Native Plant Rescue, began the aviator task successful 2024.

Last year, they salvaged implicit 15,000 plants and relocated much than 80 per cent of them to the park, according to Katrina Terrill, the society's enforcement director. 

The different 20 per cent went to members of the nationalist and to a nursery abstraction that volition proviso the parkland with plants for years to come.

"We're truly looking to reconstruct the full diverseness of the grasslands, not conscionable 1 oregon 2 species," she said.

Now, successful the program's 2nd year, the radical is moving with 3 developers (Genesis Land Development Corp., Calbridge Homes and Qualico Communities) to rescue autochthonal works taxon connected the onshore earlier operation takes place, according to Terrill.

"Because we're going to aggregate antithetic salvage sites, we're taking plants from each crossed these areas. We're capable to enactment them successful the parkland and person this truly unthinkable diverseness of taxon arsenic good arsenic idiosyncratic genetics," she said. "That's overmuch healthier for the ecosystem successful total."

The radical plans to instrumentality immoderate plants from the tract of Qualico Communities' Southbow Landing development, adjacent Cochrane's confederate boundary.

"It does person a batch of that earthy space," said Emily Smith, Qualico Communities manager of selling and lawsuit care.

"We privation to support arsenic overmuch of that arsenic we can. But also, knowing that we can't support each of it, if we tin lend to areas that request [native plants], wherefore wouldn't we?"
 
The tract is nether improvement now, but according to Smith, overmuch of it hasn't been touched yet, including onshore on the Bow River wherever autochthonal plants are growing. 

"These are areas that are fundamentally sitting and waiting to beryllium developed. So they're benignant of the cleanable accidental for groups similar these to travel successful earlier immoderate operation enactment happens," said Smith.

Terrill said she's chiefly looking for works taxon similar unsmooth fescue and oat writer to enactment into the park, but besides plants similar chaotic rose, Saskatoon berries and sage grass.

"Long term, it's going to summation the resiliency of the park," Terrill said. "Native plants are much drought tolerant, truthful they're going to past amended successful changing conditions. They're besides a batch much tolerant to occurrence and contiguous a little occurrence hazard due to the fact that they don't turn arsenic overmuch implicit ground."

Most of the restoration enactment for the programme is happening successful the Bow Valley Day Use Area — wherever caller plants are being enactment straight into the ground.

Less than 1 per cent of autochthonal grasslands that erstwhile swept crossed the Fish Creek Provincial Park country are left, according to Terrill.

"We person a immense task up of us, for sure. Obviously, restoring the parkland is going to beryllium the enactment of generations. It's not going to each hap wrong the adjacent 5 to 10 years," said Terrill.

The radical is besides planting trees and shrubs on the creek to stabilize the slope and make shadiness for fish. 

In a statement, Genesis Land Development Corp. said it's arrogant to enactment the restoration program.

The developer added it's sharing seeds from these autochthonal plants with homeowners moving into its Logan Landing community, to assistance "carry that transportation to the onshore forward."