It's Planting Season

Since Okanagan Similkameen Stewardship began in 2013, we have planted roughly 3,000 native trees and shrubs every year across the Okanagan and Similkameen. That means more than 40,000 native plants have gone into the ground through our habitat restoration work.

What does 40,000 plants actually mean on the ground?

Those plants become more than trees and shrubs. Over time, they become habitat.

They provide food, shelter and nesting places for birds, insects and other wildlife. Along streams, wetlands and shorelines, their roots help hold soil in place and reduce erosion. Vegetation provides shade, helps filter runoff before it reaches our waterways, and creates more complex, resilient natural areas. Native flowers provide food for pollinators, while healthy native plant communities can also help occupy space that might otherwise be taken over by invasive species.

What do restored habitats do for "us"?

Healthy natural areas help clean our water and air, store carbon, moderate temperatures and make our landscapes more resilient to drought, flooding and other extremes. They give us places to walk, explore, watch wildlife and enjoy the landscapes that make the Okanagan and Similkameen such special places to live.

We sometimes call these benefits ecosystem services, but really, they are simply the many things nature does for us, every day.

Successful restoration is about much more than putting plants in the ground.

Planting day is really just the beginning. Young plants face hot, dry Okanagan summers, competition from invasive plants, wildlife browsing and plenty of other challenges. The survival we see at our restoration sites wouldn't be possible without the work that happens after planting.

Every summer, our youth field crews return to restoration sites throughout the valley to water and care for young plants, manage invasive species, check protective materials and monitor how sites are changing. We revisit projects year after year, identify what is working- and what isn't- and adapt our work accordingly. That ongoing stewardship is what gives those small trees and shrubs the opportunity to establish and eventually become functioning habitat.

Restoration doesn't happen overnight. A one-gallon shrub planted by a volunteer may not look particularly impressive on planting day. But give it time, care and a chance to establish, and it becomes part of something much bigger. Thousands of individual plants become patches of habitat. Those patches strengthen and expand existing natural areas. And year after year, those projects add up.

More than 40,000 plants later, we're still planting AND still taking care of what we've planted.

This October, we'll be adding hundreds more native trees and shrubs to local wetland and riparian habitats. Come help us put the next ones in the ground!