The City of Delta is hoping to raise the water table in an area of Burns Bog.
A request for bids was recently issued for a qualified consultant experienced in wetland hydrology and ecological restoration to prepare a conceptual restoration plan for a section located in the southeast corner of the ecological conservancy area, west of 96 Street.
The area includes an agricultural drainage ditch, which the city notes has lowered the water table over decades, resulting in a change from the natural bog plant community to a birch forest with a salal understory.
The water table is now substantially lower compared to undrained areas in the bog, so the goal is to raise the water table in the birch forest area, restore bog plant communities, as well as restart the peat-forming processes while also providing the appropriate conditions for the bog to develop a transitional lagg plant community and accompanying hydrological functions.
The preparation of a conceptual restoration plan is to include cost estimates.
The city, however, notes, “The plan should take fiscal constraints into consideration, rather than embracing an unbounded or overly idealistic perspective.”
In 2004, four partners - federal, provincial, regional and municipal government - jointly purchased 2,042 hectares (5,045 acres) of Burns Bog to be protected as an ecological conservancy area.
The partners, wanting to make sure the site was maintained using the best science available, agreed to come up with an overall management strategy.
Metro Vancouver’s Burns Bog Scientific Advisory Panel was established in 2005 to provide scientific and technical advice on hydrology and bog ecology to a management team, while an Ecological Conservancy Area Management Plan was completed in 2007.
Delta, specifically responsible for the bog’s hydrology and wildfire management, has undertaken a series of projects, including internal ditch dams to ensure the environmentally sensitive wetland doesn’t dry up.
