Selkirk College
IN-3: Innovation 3

Students from the Integrated Environmental Planning program (IEP) are working with the Selkirk College Geospatial Research Centre (SGRC), Columbia Power Corporation, Seepanee Ecological Consulting and Treebear Consulting on a project which involves landscape restoration and remediation of a wetland close to Hugh Keenleyside Dam in Castlegar. The students from the SGRC are monitoring of the project using drones. This is the first drone project for the SGRC. The drone has taken pre-treatment images of the pond area. The students in the IEP program have completed the restoration work for this year. Planting a variety of vegetation, managing drainage and creating habitat structures. The plan is to use the drone to produce imagery of the site to monitor progress and success of the project.

Prior to the wetland restoration. The SGRC conducted pre-treatment remote sensing and has produced over 600 images. Post processing involved adding a GPS location to each image by cross referencing the time on the image to that on the GPS flight log on the drone. Images were then stitched together, to form an orthomosaic of the scene as well as a 3D digital surface model. The end product was very impressive with the orthmosiac image having a pixel size of 1cm compared to traditional imagery such as Google Earth with a pixel size of around 1m. In April, 17 IEP students gathered in a 50-hectare wetland area just up the lake from the Hugh Keenleyside Dam. In partnership with Columbia Power Corporation, students spent a week planting trees and making enhancements to a restoration area that has become a vital habitat for a variety of species. Selkirk College students planted four different species of trees—upland and wetland willows, cottonwood and red-osier dogwood—and created barriers to keep the new additions safe from hungry ungulates. The restoration project is being monitored and irrigated this spring. Post treatment drone surveys will be conducted over the coming years. Drone surveys together with ecological restoration work is an exciting new direction for the College and innovative in the field of environmental restoration.