Blackie Spit Park: Wildlife Habitat Enhancement Plan - City of Surrey

Management Unit 16: Coastal Beach
1.0 Existing Conditions
Management Unit 16 (Drawing 12) is a small, roughly mowed area (Figure 45). The current
vegetation consists of grass species, yarrow, plantain, hairy cat’s ear, dandelion, cinquefoil, sweet
clover, beach rye and other species. The soil is sand with an organic veneer.
2.0 Goals and Objectives
This unit would be managed as a continuation of the existing adjacent beach and the MU 15 intertidal
area.
Species Management Goal
Coastal beach vegetation and associated birds and invertebrates.
Habitat Management Objectives
• Place a mixture of gravelly and sandy substrates (with high shell content) over entire area to
enable duplication of natural open coastal beach vegetation;
• Plant appropriate native plants (e.g. dunegrass, beach pea (Lathyrus japonicus), large-headed
sedge, and beach morning-glory (Convolutus soldanella) (not to be confused with the weedy
species of morning glory growing elsewhere in the park);
• Maintain spit access trail along south side.
3.0 Management Prescriptions
This unit will duplicate the sand/gravel/shell pocket beaches found along the coast, likely also
occurring at one time in the vicinity of Crescent Beach-White Rock.
3.1 Initial Enhancement Requirements
• Skim off the existing vegetation and organic veneer, although leave the dunegrass in place.
Because the soil contains seeds of the species currently growing there, it will not be reused on
site.
• Place about 50 cm of sandy and gravelly substrate (about 650 m 3 ), if possible using screened
material (with fine and coarse material removed) from MU 15. If a source of fragmented shells
can be found, mixing this into the surface layers, especially on the leading (seaward) edge, will
duplicate the shell content appearance of beaches in many areas (such as occurs on the outside
of Cannery Spit).
• Convert the “corner” of the parking area between MU 15 and MU 16 (Drawing 12) to become
part of MU 16 by removing the hard-packed gravel surface to a depth of about 0.5 m and
replacing with sand/gravel.
• Place driftwood (preferably not commercially cut for aesthetic reasons) along the upper edge.
• Plant the following species. If commercial sources of plant material cannot be found, it may be
possible to collect seeds or plants locally.
Blackie Spit Park: Wildlife Habitat Enhancement Plan – Management Unit 16 73