Riley Park is an urban space located in the centre of Vancouver that experiences high flooding risk due to its compacted soil and impenetrable surface surrounding the area. It is an important gathering place currently stewarded by Little Mountain Neighbourhood House, who we are working together with for this project. Currently, the site is dominated by invasive species and one of the goals for this project is to enhance the biodiversity by adding more species that can healthily compete with each other while ensuring the site still functions as a rain garden by filtering runoff and preventing flooding. We have created a planting plan consisting of both native and introduced species as well as a management plan to help achieve this. The selected plants were chosen after collecting field measurements, collating plants that suit the site's conditions, as well as consulting Indigenous people, frequent park users, and botanists who are experts in wetland ecology. All of the chosen plants are of importance to the Musqueam people and their traditional names and uses will be displayed in signages across the rain garden to serve as an educational tool. These components altogether will help create a functional, accessible, and educational rain garden in Riley Park.
Alloway et al. (Thu,) studied this question.