Oak Restoration Interview with Max Mitchell
June 9 2023
Spoorthy Raman, a journalist with with Mongabay news portal, interviewed Max Mitchell this past month. They discussed HAT’s role in Oak restoration in the Greater Victoria area.
1. What are the areas where HAT is restoring Garry Oak ecosystems?
Habitat Acquisition Trust (HAT) works to protect and restore habitat on protected lands across Southern Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. Our organization is located on the traditional territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən People (the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations) and the W̱SÁNEĆ First Nations (Tsartlip, Tseycum and Tsawout First Nations). The areas where we focus our restoration efforts are primarily on protected lands where HAT, or a partner organization such as the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) or The Land Conservancy of British Columbia (TLC), holds a conservation covenant. Focusing our restoration work on these areas helps to ensure that there will be long-term stewardship and active ecosystem management, as the covenants provide legal protections safeguarding against the development of these lands. The areas that HAT works to protect have been identified as being potential critical habitats for species-at-risk (for example Sharp-tailed snakes, Blue-grey Taildropper Slugs, or Purple Sanicle).
Much of our work focuses on Garry oak ecosystems, also known as Prairie-Oak Ecosystems because they provide habitat for such a wide array of biodiversity. They are also some of the most threatened ecosystems on Vancouver Island, with less than 5% of their original Canadian extent still remaining, the rest having been lost to development, agricultural conversion, and urbanization. It is crucially important that we do everything that we can to work to protect these unique ecosystems, from both an ecological and cultural perspective.
2. What are some techniques used in these restoration projects?
With respect to practical techniques our restoration work is primarily carried out manually, focusing on the management of invasive plant species while also supporting native biodiversity. Even with legal protections in place in the form of conservation covenants, the ecosystems contained within protected lands are often subjected to some degree of degradation. The past 150-plus years have seen the widespread introduction of invasive, non-native species that can aggressively out-compete the plants that previously called these territories home. Because some of these more invasive non-native plants did not evolve as a part of this region's ecosystems there are no natural checks and balances, and they are able to grow and spread rapidly without facing any barriers. As a result, many native plant species are crowded out, often leaving a monoculture of invasive shrubs like English Ivy, Scotch Broom, Gorse, or Himalayan Blackberry.
As a first step in the restoration process, we need to open up these areas to be viable habitats once again, so this means going in and manually removing the invasive species. At HAT this work is carried out by our Habitat Restoration Field Crew and a dedicated community of volunteer stewards. How and when the removal is carried out will differ on a site-by-site basis, dictated by site conditions, what species are present, time of year, weather, cultural features of the site, among other factors. Once the invasives are cleared out we monitor to see what native species begin to return, since there may be a native seedbank that is still viable in the soil. Then we can determine a strategy for seeding or planting native species to help bolster native biodiversity on a site by increasing native plant cover.
3. Has HAT involved any First Nations in the region and sought their traditional knowledge in the restoration efforts? If so, which nations are involved?
Working in collaborative partnerships with First Nations communities is a central focus of the work we do at HAT today. We have worked in collaborative partnerships with community members from W̱SĺḴEM (Tseycum), W̱JOȽEȽP (Tsartlip), Tsawout (SȾÁUTW̱), Songhees, Esquimalt, and Scia'new First Nations. These partnerships take the form of HAT working to support Indigenous-led restoration projects, at the community level where self-organizing individuals are working to restore lands on their territories, providing support to increase their capacity, while also creating opportunities for education and outreach; letting people know that engaging in this kind of on-the-land stewardship is a possibility.
An important facet of meaningfully engaging in ecosystem restoration work is the way in which it runs parallel to the work of reconciliation. When done in a good way, restoration acts as a process of decolonizing the land as you physically remove invasive species from these native ecosystems. At the same time, it also involves shifting your own relationship to the land to one of reciprocity and care. Prairie-Oak ecosystems are eco-cultural food systems, that are the way that they are as a result of thousands of years of Indigenous peoples living as a part of these landscapes. Practices such as controlled burns helped to prevent the takeover of coniferous trees, allowing hearty Oak trees to become the dominant landscape feature, while the seasonal cultivation of Camas crops helped to encourage an abundance of meadow wildflowers, something that can still be seen today in our regions healthier, more cared for Prairie-Oak areas during the spring.
4. What are some tangible benefits observed after restoration?
While restoration can often be extremely difficult work, with the amount needing to be done appearing to be endless, it is really amazing when you see the impact that your work can have. Just this past spring I have been returning to sites where we carried out invasive species removal last year to find that a rocky out that was completely covered in a dense mat of English Ivy was now full of Small-flowered blue-eyed Mary and Camas, or a shaded woodland that had been completely taken over by Daphne Laurel was now full of gorgeous Fawn Lilies. Seeing the return of native plant species to areas that had been taken over by invasives is extremely gratifying. With ongoing stewardship, it is possible to restore these areas to a place where native biodiversity can flourish, and while it might not look exactly the way that it did before the introduction of non-native species, it is possible to dramatically enhance the health of these ecosystems, which is particularly important when it comes to protecting species-at-risk.
Another tangible benefit of this work is the impact that it has on the people doing it. In an increasingly online world, people don't get to spend nearly as much time on the land as they once did, and many people express that they feel isolate and out of touch with the landscape. When we host community volunteer restoration events, we often see people from all kinds of different backgrounds come out to join in the work. Almost unanimously people express a feeling of groundedness, calm, and gratitude for having the opportunity to "give back" to the land in a way. I have seen people be profoundly moved by shifting their own relationship to the landscape of the area that they live in to one where they are really paying attention and engaging with the land in a healing way. At these events you also see people coming together and spending time with one another who might not otherwise, united by a shared concerned for actively caring for the natural world. In these moments you really can feel a sense of real-time community building.
5. What is the role of the community in restoration efforts by HAT?
Community and relationship building really is the heart of this kind of work. For a long time, all of the restoration work at HAT was carried out by volunteers, some of whom who have been volunteering their time for years and years. These are people who tirelessly dedicated their time to doing this work, and in a very real it is the community who makes the success that HAT has possible. Restoration isn't necessarily work that has a finish line, or a point where everything is done and we can walk away from it. The idea that our landscapes exist out there independent of us is a myth, but today it can be easy to forget the role that humans have in playing a positive role in promoting and stewarding healthy ecosystems. The key is to provide opportunities for people where they are able to learn a new way of engaging with the land, or to create space where they are able to engage with the land in a healing way. The idea isn't to "fix a problem and walk away", rather to allow people to have a relationship with the land where care and stewardship is ongoing. In order for this work to be sustained into the future, we will need a community of people who are living in relationship with the land and with each other.
