Fraser Valley; Habitat Restoration Performance Evaluation and Project Legacy

The purpose and scope of this project is to evaluate the current function of existing habitat restoration projects,
in the Fraser Valley, that have been constructed by provincial and federal agencies, and local watershed
stewardship groups. The project will simultaneously catalogue all restoration projects deemed of high value and
priority to representatives of the BC Ministry of Natural Resource Operations (NRO), and Fisheries and Oceans
Canada (FOC) who are well versed with the projects.

Restoration programs such as the provincial Forest Renewal BC (FRBC) and federal Resource Restoration Division
(RRD) were integral at responding to impacted watersheds in the Fraser Valley. Since the mid 1990’s, greater
than 50 habitat restoration projects of varying aspects have been funded and implemented through nongovernment
organizations, First Nations, and government agencies. The cost of these projects has been
estimated to be greater than $2 million dollars. During the years of implementation, effectiveness evaluation
and project monitoring was of low priority. The situation is changing, and project evaluation and monitoring is
now a fundamental component of restoration projects. Identifying modification or maintenance needs on
existing restoration projects has a significant cost benefit over commencing new restoration projects.
Furthermore, it is likely that the past habitat projects resulted in the greatest level of restoration success.
Unfortunately, the ongoing success of these valuable projects may be hampered as a result of human neglect.
This project saw the inspecting of a select habitat restoration projects and document the “challenges” and
“opportunities” that exist at each. From that point, each of the restoration projects was placed into the ranking
system developed through partnership with NRO and FOC. The ranking system was developed into a simple
chart format, with project name, location, year built, amount of habitat created, and functionality ranking. The
objective of the spreadsheets were to develop and shared the knowledge gained during the project with local
community and stewardship groups, so they could possibly aid in the future maintenance of past restoration
projects.