Disturbed Land Revegetation - Waterton Lakes - Conservation and Restoration Project (Fescue)

Only 2.1% of the Foothills Parkland ecoregion is protected within any federal or provincial park in Canada. Waterton Lakes National Park (WLNP) is the only national park where this scenic and biologically diverse ecoregion is protected. The scarcity of fire and lack of bison grazing have contributed to encroachment of aspen forest and homogenization of the fescue grassland. This area also has the highest occurrence of non-native invasive plants and supports the highest level of visitation (> 95%) in the Park. WLNP aims to re-vegetate four disturbed sites (abandoned gravel pits) to return them to a native state over time as part of the Conservation and Restoration (CORE) project (Rescue the Fescue). To determine success of the re-vegetation program in establishing the key functional elements of the fescue grassland system, a composite summary of multiple variables including bare ground, litter, species composition, density native species, and density non-native species is calculated as an overall Restoration Score. Measured values are a percent cover of each variable within the plot.