Resident Geese Overgraze
Marsh Platform – a mass of soils held in place by plant roots. This is what the geese are destroying.
These resident geese overgraze the vegetation and grub the roots of the ‘marsh platform’ – a thick accumulation of nutrient-dense soils from land, freshwater aquatic and marine sources bound together by vegetation.
One plant, Carex lyngbyei or Lyngbye’s Sedge, has taken the biggest hit. This sedge can grow to 1.5 metres tall and overhangs the channels. It provides critical shelter and shade, and hosts invertebrate food sources that young salmon need before they head off to sea.
Estuaries and intertidal habitat are critical habitat for migrating Pacific salmon and in particular juvenile salmon. The Pacific Salmon Foundation fully supports the work of the Guardians of Mid-Island Estuaries Society and the K’ómoks First Nation’s Guardian Watchmen who are working together to restore this vital habitat on the Hollyhock Flats in the K’ómoks Estuary.