If you are a waterfront property owner, Kim Fulton would like to talk to you.
Fulton, a retired teacher and educational co-ordinator on the Shuswap Watershed Project, says he is planning to get some School District #83 students out to plant native willows, cottonwoods and conifers in riparian areas – at no cost to landowners.
Funds will come from an RBC grant made to the school district last summer under their Blue Water Project Community Action Grant program while the Kalamalka Forestry Research Centre will be contributing expertise and planting material.
“We’re looking for land on rivers, lakes and ponds,” says Fulton, noting planting will be done in the latter part of April, following Earth Day.
“Riparian planting can prevent erosion; act as a living wall to prevent and utilize livestock wastes entering the river or lake; improve air quality; help slow down the release of melt water, improve habitat for aquatic, terrestrial, and avian organisms; improve ascetics; and provide detritus for the base of the food pyramid,” he says. “The planting would be done by students and any liability issues would be covered by the School District policies.”
An avid environmentalist, Fulton is also known as Dr. Fish, a name he acquired years ago.
“Prior to the Internet, SFU had a big server and students would write in and ask questions about salmon, before the worldwide web exploded in the early ’90s,” he says, noting other experts were available in the same program to answer questions on a variety of subjects, also earning the moniker “doctor” in their area of expertise.
As a water stewardship co-ordinator on contract with Ministry of the Environment, Fulton developed an educational handbook that he used in workshops throughout the province.
In this new riparian planting venture, interested citizens and landowners are invited to contact Kim Fulton at 250-546-3644 or by email at kfultondr_fish@yahoo.ca.