Vegetation and Rare Plant Survey of Lois Hole Centennial Provincial Park

In December 2012 the Edmonton Community Foundation requested from several Edmonton area environmental groups, BLESS included, proposals for environmental projects for potential funding. The BLESS proposal was for a botanical survey of Lois Hole Centennial Provincial Park, as there is no baseline data available for Alberta's newest provincial park. The purpose was largely to establish what was present in the park and to set out transects and plots that can be used in the future to determine if changes in the vegetation of the park has changed. BLESS received funding for the proposal and began a search for a botanist to undertake the work. The contract went to Melanie Patchell of Taxon Metrics Biological Consulting.

Melanie started work in April with literature surveys and talking to biologists and folks who knew a lot about the park, and then developed a sampling scheme to characterize the main vegetation communities in the park and to identify rare or endangered species. She worked hard throughout the summer and produced an excellent report for BLESS and the ECF. It can be found in the BLESS Documents section.