Creating a Native Willow Nursery for Habitat Restoration on the Kenai Peninsula

This project will create a native willow nursery for sustainable generation and long-term harvest of live stakes for use in restoration projects. Often moose browse heavily on willows, leaving little material to collect for restoration; by creating an enclosed willow nursery, this project will ensure viability of harvestable cuttings. During year one of this project, nursery willows will be salvaged from sites scheduled for development and/or harvested from lands where collection is allowed with proper permitting. Once transplanted and well-established, these willows will be coppiced— i.e., pruned to encourage growth of multiple shoots from the central stem—to maximize production of cuttings.

Willow cuttings are an essential component of salmon habitat restoration as they are used in a variety of revegetation techniques. Native willows provide essential ecosystem services such as bank stabilization and erosion control to reduce sediment transport into streams, stream shading to moderate water temperatures, and habitat for native wildlife and invertebrates. They also outcompete terrestrial invasive plants and generally improve ecological functionality of riparian buffers. Once established, this nursery crop is projected to provide 25,000+ willow stakes per year for at least ten years. Depending on the technique used, these 25,000+ willow stakes could revegetate 25 acres or more of salmon habitat.