Learn to stabilize slopes and add habitat diversity using live willow and dogwood whips/cuttings. We will be exploring the specific benefits of bio-engineering to the Fraser Valley’s ditches, but will also be learning about general techniques which can be applied on slopes across BC.

We will spend one day in the classroom learning about bio-engineering techniques, and then get to go out to the field to harvest, prepare, and place willow, cottonwood, and red osier dogwood cuttings into an agricultural ditch. These cuttings will grow quickly, and by next summer will have formed a dense, soil-stabilizing bank of green.

More about the instructor:

Dave Polster is a plant ecologist with over 30 years of experience in vegetation studies, reclamation and invasive species management.  He graduated from the University of Victoria with an Honours Bachelor of Science degree in 1975 and a Master of Science degree in 1977.  He has developed a wide variety of reclamation techniques for steep/unstable slopes as well as techniques for the re-establishment of riparian and aquatic habitats.  He is the past-president of the Canadian Land Reclamation Association.  He is the treasurer for the B.C. Chapter of the Society for Ecological Restoration and serves as the alternate mining representative on the board of the Invasive Plant Council of B.C.  For the past 19 years he has lived with his wife, Genevieve Singleton and four children in Duncan, BC.