CWFS is dedicated to sustaining ecological integrity and regional stewardship in the Clayoquot Biosphere Region through research. The Soceity has been the main proponent of many local wildlife and ecological research projects; as well as taking part in extensive partnerships with other agencies.
Current Research Projects
- Project Name:WildCoast Project
- Project Partners: Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, Clayoquot Biosphere Trust
The WildCoast Project is a research and monitoring initiative that was started because of concern about the potential for conflict between humans and predators, namely cougars and wolves, in our central west-coast region. A key element of the research is to understand the movement patterns and hunting behaviours of wolves an
d cougars in the region. This information, paired with documented patterns of human activity, help to identify areas of potential carnivore-human interactions and conflict. Carnivore scats, when collected, show where carnivores have been and when analyzed, show which prey species are being targeted.
CWFS is working to complete the diet analysis of the carnivore scat samples, to update the existing diet 
analysis database and to provide reports on prey patterns observed in the samples.
Project Name: Invasive Species Project-
Project Partners: Clayoquot Biosphere Trust, Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, Raincoast Education Society, Tofino Botanical Gardens
Read about this project in The Westerly News, August 4, 2011.
An invasive species is a non-native organism that has negative effects on our economy, our environment, or our health. Invasive plants and animals are the second greatest threat to biodiversity after habitat loss. In coastal British Columbia many fragile, rare or engendered ec
osystems are threatened by invasive species. Species such as Japanese Knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum) can inundate moist river and stream banks, out-competing native vegetations and disrupting the natural species processes and functions within an ecosystem. Invasive species, such as Japanese Knotweed, affect ecosystems by crowding out native vegetation and limiting plant and animal species diversity.
The goal of the Central Westcoast Forest Society Invasive Species Project is to enhance local capacity for early detection and response to invasive species.
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I. Targeting primary pathways and new invaders,
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II. Establishing a method of tracking early detections and responses,
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III. Providing educational materials (regional specific information packages) and,
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IV. Establishing monitoring & community mapping program
Past Research Projects
Project Name: Assessing Landscape Connectivity in the Kennedy Flats
The Kennedy Flats Landscape Model was developed to assess the connectivity between late seral forest patches and between wetlands in the Kennedy Flats area of west central Vancouver Island. There are two main components of the model (i) a dynamic landscape model to capture strategic aspects of management to project plausible future forest conditions; and (ii) a set of landscape pattern analysis methods to assess connectivity of habitat patches. The management sub-model was designed to capture the current regime under the Interim watershed plan (2001), which implements recommendations from the Clayoquot Sound Scientific Panel (1995), and likely management under a pre-scientific panel regime based on the Forest Practices Code. We used this model to estimate landscape conditions under the two management plans in 50 and 100 years. We were also interested in how logging patterns and subsequent re-growth of plantations affected a low mobility species like amphibians, in this case, the Red-legged frog (Rana aurora aurora). We found that CSSP recommendations created an increasingly greater amount of connectivity over time.
Project Name: Natural and logging disturbances in the temperate rain forests of the Central Coa
st, British Columbia by Audrey F. Pearson
Natural disturbances frame the spatial and temporal processes of ecosystems and are the foundation for ecosystem management. Stand-replacing disturbances over the past 140 years were investigated for the Central Coast (1.5 million ha) at regional and local scales using a combination of aerial photograph interpretation and forest management GIS databases
Project Name: Riparian and Biodiversity Restoration in Coastal British Columbia Forests: Case Study from 12 River Valleys
The 12 projects focused on thinning overstocked conifer stands, releasing conifers suppressed by overstorey alder, and replanting with preferred (for the site) coniferous riparian tree species. The creation of stands of larger, well-spaced conifer trees was the primary objective of the treatments. This will ensure a future source of large woody debris to the adjacent streams in the shortest possible time. However, it became apparent it was possible to achieve other equally important ecological objectives by integrating terrestrial forest restoration objectives into the thinning treatments, with the creative use of surplus trees and the creation of biodiversity features.
Project Name: Road deactivation for hillslope restoration: lessons learned on the Escalante Watershed Restoration Project
Permanent deactivation is often carried out using hillslope restoration for roads on moderate to steep hillslopes. In the Escalante River area, many potentially unstable roads were deactivated in the late 1990’s with roadfill pullback due to stability concerns, and the remainder of the roads were crossditched with some light pullback. In January 1996, intense rainfall caused numerous landslides on these deactivated roads. Funded by Forest Renewal British Columbia, the Escalante Watershed Restoration Project was initiated to assess the roads in the watershed and carry out deactivation work where needed for long term road stability. Assessment of the existing deactivation work storm provided valuable information on its effectiveness in preventing landslides. Due to the existing roadfill pullback and landslide sites, it was necessary to assess the roads in terms of the expected difficulties and cost to re-establish access, and whether it was feasible to improve the existing deactivation. During the deactivation work, several techniques were developed to improve the standard of deactivation.