Shifting Focus at Kus-kus-sum
Newly planted estuary sedges at Kus-kus-sum ~ L. Stewart
The Kus-kus-sum project is not exempt from its set of challenges. Presently, the most significant hurdle revolves around soil. In 2023, soil legislation was changed bringing about a new obstacle: the soil we have excavated contains a higher-than-acceptable level of chloride, stemming from naturally occurring sea salt. Unfortunately, the cost of transporting and disposing of this soil is now exorbitant as it is classified as contaminated. Since we cannot move the soil offsite, the space for ongoing site recontouring has been exhausted; there is no more room for the excavators to work on this task. As a result, we’ve decided to temporarily suspend recontouring efforts until we formulate a comprehensive strategy to deal with the soils piled onsite. While it wasn’t part of our original plan, we’re using this challenge to explore the potential for creating new marsh habitat in the estuary as part of our 2024 project works under the Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Fund. While we negotiate this challenge, our focus will shift to engaging in various onsite activities, including habitat enrichment, site maintenance and planting initiatives.
Our team is currently undertaking the fun and challenging task of increasing habitat complexity to cater to the needs of different species that we would like to see using the site; see Kus-kus-sum Progression for more information on this process. We are also looking for volunteers to help with site maintenance throughout September and are gearing up for planting in October. Maintenance activities include weeding out invasive species such as Scotch broom and mulching the plants that are already in place. Check out our current volunteer opportunity for the times and dates of these activities. We will announce planting opportunities mid to late September for work in October.
For those wishing to commemorate a loved one, the opportunity to plant a tree in their memory is also available at this site or one of our other restoration sites. Please reach out to us at info@projectwatershed.ca for further details.
