Riparian buffers are extremely important to the health of river and stream ecosystems

A well wooded buffer provides bank stability, a source of organic material and terrestrial invertebrates, regulate water temperature through shade, and is a source of in-stream complexity through course woody debris. Industrial log drives of yesteryear and the subsequent network of logging roads have taken their toll on riparian buffers in a number of areas. During the log drive ERA forests were cut all the way to the stream banks reducing bank stability and allowing channels to become over widened. Driving logs involved storing water and logs behind a series of dams and then releasing torrents of water in the spring so that the logs could be transported along with the flood of water to the mills at the coast. Any in-stream structures (i.e. boulders and log jams) were systematically removed each year to facilitate the drives. Eventually the log drives were replaced with a network of logging roads so that inland wood could be harvested and trucked to the mills. These road networks include numerous stream crossings, most of which involved placing culverts, that were often improperly sized and or improperly installed, at the stream road intersections. These sites often cause significant backwater areas upstream of the road. Now that these crossings are being replaced with properly sized open-bottom structures (bridges or arch culverts) there are many legacy backwater areas being drained across the landscape. This project aims to RE-vegetate these drained backwater areas to help jump-start the forest succession. We will also be replanting riparian buffers in areas that are consistently scoured by winter ICE flows and flood events caused by the lack of in-stream structure.