Sand Dune Restoration at Pacific Rim National Park, Tofino, BC

I recently returned from a week in Tofino, BC volunteering at the restoration of the sand dunes at Wickaninnish Beach in the Pacific Rim National Park (http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/bc/pacificrim/natcul/natcul4.aspx). The dune ecosystem is one of the rarest in BC - something less than a percent of it exists on the coast.

The dunes are being effected by European sand grass (Ammophila arenaria), an invasive species that traps the sand and prevents it from reaching the dunes.

Roots of the invasive grass can spread from beach to beach which is how it got from where it was introduced in California originally to stabilize the sand there. Without the changing and shifting dunes, plants like salal (Gaultheria shallon), kinnikinnick (Arcostaphylos uva-ursi) and other shrubs can spread, and eventually the forest encroaches, destroying the dunes. Several plant species only found in dunes are at risk including Pink Sand verbena (Abronia umbellata), thought to be extirpated in BC until a single plant was found and seedlings propagated from it (Pacific Rim National Park species website).

The restoration has been going on for about 3 years. It begins with mechanical removal of the invasive beach grass with a backhoe. The roots of the beach grass are sometimes over a metre long and the grass resprouts from the fragments left over from the backhoe removal (at a rate of about 30% regrowth).

The resprouted grass is removed by digging into the sand about 30 cm to find the root fragments and hand pulling it out. This technique results in only a 10% regrowth afterwards.

The Pacific Rim National Park is planning on planting Pink Sand verbena seedlings in the treatment area in an attempt to reintroduce this species to the dune ecosystem.

Along with volunteering I met up with some great people, learned a lot about the sand dune ecosystem, visited the Shorepine Bog ecosystem (pictured below) and rain forest walk, visited the recently renovated and upgraded Wickaninnish Interpretive Center, had a free campsite for the week at Green Point, and even did my first surfing lesson!

For info on upcoming grass pull opportunities at Pacific Rim National Park, check out their volunteers website: http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/bc/pacificrim/natcul/natcul4.aspx