Inglewood Bird Sanctuary

Client The City of Calgary
Location Calgary | Alberta | Canada

The Inglewood Bird Sanctuary is a well-loved and ecologically significant natural area within the inner city of Calgary. Although in decline for some time, the need for restoration within the sanctuary was identified after the 2013 floods.

Working closely with The City of Calgary, O2 developed a restoration plan for the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary following the City’s Habitat Restoration Project Framework. The purpose of the restoration plan was to develop a documented, rigorous restoration approach for the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary that ties project performance to specific, measurable performance metrics to compare the restored habitat to a reference habitat.

O2 developed a restoration hypothesis and implementation plan for rehabilitating the ecologically valuable riparian areas of the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary. A portion of the implementation plan included the development of a monitoring program to measure the success of the project based on scientific performance measures.

The aim of this project was to improve the ecological quality of the degraded habitats in the sanctuary by minimizing or removing environmental stressors and assisting in the regeneration of the balsam poplar forest and shrubland communities. It was important to maintain the rich mosaic of habitats that are naturally present at the site; with a focus on restoring the riparian forest. Restoring dominant vegetation community species, managing for the unbalanced beaver population and minimizing competition from invasive plant species will improve the resiliency and ecological health of the riparian habitats.

Based on the large scale of the site, innovative restoration strategies were proposed to ensure the project stayed on budget while still meeting the overall goals of the restoration plan.