Part Two

Seven simple steps to restore a rare habitat

Posted onAugust 8, 2024byRosie Heffernan|Canada's New Noahs, News and Events, Rosie Heffernan

Since 1988, the Canada’s New Noah program has provided young conservation biologists in Canada the opportunity of a lifetime. Each year, WPC selects a dedicated biologist from applicants across Canada to undertake a 3-month course at the Durrell Conservation Academy in the U.K. followed by a 6-month internship on the islands of Mauritius and Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. This is an opportunity unlike any other for young Canadians to learn firsthand how the world’s most successful conservation recovery programs are managed and to bring this knowledge and experience back to improve Canada’s conservation capacity. Rosie Heffernan is WPC’s 33^rdCanada’s New Noah and reports on her experiences and how she will apply them on return to Canada. The Canada’s New Noah Program is generously supported by the Alan & Patricia Koval Foundation.

Did anyone else not know that SPF 85 existed? Just a few degrees north of the tropic of Capricorn, the Mauritian sun shines in a league of its own, and my surprise was quickly “eclipsed” by gratitude shortly after I was handed this alien substance. The intensity of the sun over this region once sustained lush, palm-rich forest across Mauritius’ lowlands and her offshore islets, which thrived from the seed dispersal of a reptile-dominated fauna community. However, most of this habitat (and thus its reptilian residents) were decimated by rabbits and goats introduced by colonists in the early 19^th century.

Invasive mammals were eradicated from Round Island in the 1980s in an attempt to preserve the world’s last remnant of palm-rich forest, creating a unique opportunity to restore the island’s ecosystem to the condition of its pre-colonial era. Since then, over 29,000 individuals of 52 flora species that were present prior to colonization have been planted! Round Island is internationally renowned for its success in island restoration, and it is used as a model for restoration projects across the world. I feel incredibly lucky to get to contribute in a small way to its ongoing story…

Step 1 – Seed Collecting and Sowing

Near the end of fruiting season, seeds are collected from around the island and sown in a plant nursery just above the field station. Soil is collected from troughs that catch eroded soil and tortoise dung (an excellent fertilizer) on the “big slab” – a rocky, sloped face of the island – and mixed with perlite and cocopeat transported from the mainland to make a fertile planting soil.

Left: Natural erosion trough. If you come at the right time of day after a heavy rain, you might be lucky enough to catch a tortoise enjoying a well-deserved spa day! (It’s hard work, eating, pooping, and being cute all day.) Right: Human-made erosion trough full of goodies waiting to be collected.

Step 2 – Baby Nursery

A newly sown seed’s journey begins in the baby nursery, where it is given a sprinkle of water every day and monitored meticulously to see whether it will germinate successfully. It is not unusual to see ornate day geckos and Bojer’s skinks speeding around the seedling trays, helping out with pest control.

This gecko (left) and skink (right) are paid for their services in all-you-can-eat insect bars.

Step 3 – Big Nursery

Once a seedling becomes a sapling, it is time to be repotted and relocated to the big nursery next door. Here, it will remain under human scrutiny for at least 6 months before the next rite of passage. These plants are given a daily shower (of which I am very envious, our daily personal washing allowance having just been reduced to 0.5 litres as we enter the dry season), always in the evening to reduce water waste through evaporation.

Left: Big nursery. Welcome to the big leagues, saplings! I hope you appreciate every drop of sweet life liquid, but please consider plugging your noses when I come by and lift up the watering can.

Right: A typical “shower” setup. In case anyone needs help visualizing 0.5L of water, it fills half the yogurt container on the right. If I’m feeling extra wild, I might embark on a wet wipe shower journey during the work week so I can save up enough water to wash my hair on the weekend!

Step 4 – Pest Inventory and Weeding

Any spare moment is typically spent doing weed and pest control in one of the nurseries – by hand, as herbicides are not used on the island. Once per month, a pest inventory is conducted, in which every single flowerpot and seedling tray is checked for the presence of mealy bug, powdery white mildew, white flies, spiders, and many more possible pests. This is not a task to be left to the end of the month; with multiple secondary and even tertiary plants sprouting from most of the pots (remember: our planting soil is mixed with tortoise dung, containing seeds from many delicious plants), our most recent pest inventory took six hours to complete, documenting 1,700 individuals of 23 plant species!

Passing through the digestive system of a giant tortoise helps several plant species germinate more successfully!

Step 5: Hardening

After six months in the big nursery, the plants are assessed, and if they are deemed strong enough, they are repotted once more for their final stage of parental supervision (that’s us!) before moving out and getting a place (plot of land) of their own. This stage is called hardening, a process that involves gradually exposing the plants to outdoor conditions, enabling them to withstand the harsh environment they will face when planted in the field.

As SPF 85 does not work on plants, both nurseries are fully enclosed by tightly woven mesh to protect their occupants from the sun. During hardening, plants are first moved to a partially sheltered bench nearby, so they are exposed to the sun for about half of the day, but continue receiving water daily. Once acclimated, they are moved to a slightly less protected bench, here receiving sun for two thirds of the day, and water every second day. And so, the acclimation process continues, until eventually, they are receiving full sun all day and water every fourth day.

Left: 100% sun and 50% sun hardening sites. Right: Plant hardening watering schedule.

Step 6: Plant in the Field

The following rainy season, successfully hardened plants are transplanted into one of six restored plant communities on the island, which continue to follow a weekly watering and weeding schedule for two years – an important part of my weekly responsibilities. Each plant is surrounded by a thin layer of mulch to help retain moisture and to cut off sunlight from the adjacent area, preventing weeds from popping up and competing for resources.

This aloe tormentorii is endemic to Mauritius, meaning it grows nowhere else in the entire world!

Step 7. Independence at Last!

Two years after being planted in the field, restored plant communities are considered naturalized, and left to the fate of the wild. It is assumed that, by this stage, the plants are strong enough to withstand the island’s intense environmental conditions, and this assumption is usually correct. For example, the larger a plant grows, the more established its root system becomes, and more capable of accessing water deep beneath the surface, even after the surface has dried out. In short, the longer a plant spends in harsh conditions, the more capable it becomes of withstanding these conditions, and the more likely it is to continue surviving!

Can you believe this tiny little Psiadia arguta (left) could one day become a fully functioning part of the ecosystem like this lush, fruiting planet on the right? You can do it, little one!

It is pretty amazing walking around the island and seeing fully grown trees and shrubs that were planted by conservationists many years ago, some standing taller than me, that started as small as the tiny little guys I am taking care of in the nurseries today. I can only hope that one day, many years from now, future conservationists will be able to share in a similar feeling and marvel at a rich and restored habitat, perhaps containing some of the plants I sowed as seeds, watered as saplings, or weeded in the field.

Rosie Heffernan

Canada’s New Noah

Rosie is WPC’s 33rd New Noah. She is building upon a wealth of conservation knowledge that she has gained working in conservation in Ontario and Costa Rica through this hands-on training program with some of the most endangered species in the world.

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Seven simple steps to restore a rare habitat

Step 1 – Seed Collecting and Sowing

Step 2 – Baby Nursery

Step 3 – Big Nursery

Step 4 – Pest Inventory and Weeding

Step 5: Hardening

Step 6: Plant in the Field

Step 7. Independence at Last!

Rosie Heffernan

Canada’s New Noah

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