Brian Gustafson

Brian Gustafson is active in wildlife ecology and conservation in the Golden area and serves as Executive Director of the Golden District Rod & Gun Club. One of the current conservation-related projects of the Rod & Gun Club is a 5-year habitat enhancement project for elk winter range east of Golden which is a legacy project of the Club that was originally carried out in the 1980’s. This time around they are focusing on a forest thinning approach to restoration.

“We are trying to promote the growth of some of the younger healthier trees so that they can get to the point of providing good snow interception. The goal is to provide a balance of cover and open grazing habitats. We are monitoring the effectiveness of our work, by comparing elk pellet distributions in the habitats that we have mechanically treated versus where there is habitat growing back after a large wildfire.”

Another project of the Rod & Gun Club is monitoring and restoring habitat of the Kicking Horse bighorn sheep herd which began in 2019 in anticipation of the Kicking Horse canyon highway expansion. Members were very concerned about impacts the construction would have on the herd, including habitat changes that could incur post construction. The Club partnered with the Ktunaxa Nation Council (KNC) on the project, which involves monitoring movement and behaviour of the herd by placing collars on up to four sheep. In addition, every two weeks a Club member teams up with the Ktunaxa Guardianship Program to monitor the camera traps that are set up throughout the canyon in the herds’ traditional range.

“It’s become pretty apparent that highway collisions are the biggest limiting factor for this herd,” Brian explains. “The herd has really settled into the highway corridor, so we’ve been working closely with Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure folks as well as the KNC and we’ve proposed ideas around habitat enhancement and modifications to the current and future fencing in the highway corridor to try and prevent the continued loss of sheep along the highway. Unfortunately, in the early stages of the fencing, they planted a lot of alfalfa right off the side of the highway on the fill slopes. The sheep have figured out any and every possible way of getting around the fences and to get in and feed on that alfalfa. It’s some of the best grazing opportunities in their traditional winter range habitat and the predators aren’t there, but they tend to walk down the middle of the highway once they’re in that habitat zone.”

The Club has proposed habitat enhancement to encourage better feed growing away from the edge of the highway as well as promote sight line improvements to make it safer for the sheep to detect predators. They’re also looking at future solutions, such as opening up more habitat through prescribed burning, to try and influence the sheep to migrate to habitats that they traditionally used, such as alpine habitats.

Enhancing habitat for this bighorn sheep herd has also included invasive species work, targeting burdock. Brian explains that when they see the sheep in their winter range, they’re often covered in burdock burrs. This not only spreads burdock, but it also reduces the thermal and insulative qualities of the sheep’s fur. “Since we started pulling burdock and removing all the seed heads, it has had a noticeable difference to the coat of the sheep, who are now wandering around with very few burrs on them. The Wildsight Youth Conservation Corps came up and learned about the bighorn sheep and helped the Club with some of this work.”

The Golden Rod & Gun Club is also involved in a partnership with the Province on a major restoration project at the confluence of the Blaeberry River and the Columbia. The old gravel pit site had been public land prior to the establishment of the Wildlife Management Area. The project is now in the monitoring and management phase of trying to keep the invasive species at bay long enough for the site to recover.

Brian explains the restoration process: “We were able to collaborate with a developer close to the site who was clearing some land, which worked out well in that we were able to bring in a lot of woody debris and topsoil from a couple kms away. This was effective in moving some native shrub communities to the confluence. We also did live staking of many cottonwoods and willows along the stream banks, so it’s great to go back and see the progress over the last few years. We’re in the phase now of managing those invasives and making space for the land to heal and start doing its thing on its own.”

When not working with the Golden Rod and Gun Club, Brian also works with the Columbia Wetlands Stewardship Partners (CWSP), sits on the East Kootenay Wildlife Habitat Advisory Committee, and advises on the Columbia River Treaty. Supporting CWSP through Kootenay Connect Priority Places, Brian focuses on landscape level habitat connectivity and preserving cottonwood trees in the Columbia Wetlands by identifying high value cottonwoods and trying to prevent beaver herbivory on these wildlife trees.

Brian’s work in wildlife ecology and conservation is simply a part of who he is. Wild places and outdoor recreation have been significant in his life since he was a kid growing up in the East Kootenay. “I try to be involved, not only locally, but in more of the regional context too. Conserving wild spaces is naturally a part of who I am.”

After completing the Recreation, Fish & Wildlife Program at Selkirk College in Castlegar, he worked with BC Parks and soon discovered that he had a real passion for botany and forest ecology. He then worked in the forest industry for ten years before beginning environmental monitoring work, when he was inspired by a keen birder who was able to recognize a diversity of bird species from their songs. Brian eventually went back to school to do his Masters through Royal Roads University on improving protocols for locating active bird nests.

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