Riparian Restoration of ḰELSET Creek

Abstract

ḰELSET (Reay) Creek is an urban stream on the Saanich Peninsula of Vancouver Island with a long history of degradation. The focus of this report is a small section of the creek that was identified as a restoration priority by Peninsula Streams Society (PSS) due to eroding banks, sparse native vegetation cover, and dominance of invasive plants. These issues were targeted with objectives to manage invasive species, plant native species, install split rail fencing, and facilitate community engagement, with the overarching goal of stabilizing banks and enhancing riparian and stream habitat quality. Invasives management and native revegetation occurred on April 22, 2025, during a community planting event, and split rail fencing was installed soon after. New plantings were hand-watered monthly during the first dry season. Qualitative monitoring showed variable success in native plant survivorship and reasonably good success for invasives management. The presence of the split rail fence has not prevented people from accessing the restoration area. A key takeaway from this project is the importance of designing a monitoring program that will allow for quantitative evaluation of project success, which can then inform adaptive management. Future efforts at the project site could include installing educational signage, replacing plants that did not take, applying a groundcover seed mix, and continuing to manage invasives. Overall, this project achieved many elements of its objectives, but its monitoring program did not effectively answer whether the restoration actions successfully achieved the goal of enhancing the function of riparian and stream habitat.