Brant County in southwestern Ontario has something to boast about: areas of tall grass prairie and oak savannah woodland habitat. Rural landowners are working together to revitalize and reconnect these globally rare ecosystem pockets.
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| Reconnecting isolated pockets of habitat benefits species such as the Cerulean Warbler - Photo: Brian Small |
On hand to assist is a resource stewardship network of conservation organizations. They help rural landowners – many on adjoining properties – create grassed waterways, fence rows, windbreaks, and other natural or man-made features. These link up and protect separate habitat areas and provide natural vegetative “corridors” or habitat “highways” for wildlife. The landowners are also improving water quality and reducing soil erosion by slowing down surface water runoff.
Stewardship crews and landowners will complete projects on five tributaries of the Grand River: Big, East Fairchild, Beaver, and Landon’s and Blue Lake creeks. They will plant trees, shrubs and other vegetation to stabilize eroded areas and create fencerows and grassed waterways. A number of neighbour-to-neighbour workshops have been held in the Jones and Beaver creek watersheds.
Other activities include:
- Installing 900 metres of riverbank fencing, removing 10 hectares of invasive plant species, creating 12 hectares of habitat and planting 3,000 native tree species.
- Removing the Five Oaks dam, a significant barrier to fish movement and a contributor to erosion.
- Supporting a professional geomorphic (landscape processes) report on Whiteman’s Creek, a highly dynamic and controversial ecosystem.
- Installing a berm and revitalizing an existing grassed waterway to create an area for agricultural run-off to settle before it enters the Beaver Creek system; water level controls installed on the berm allow the landowner to keep water in the settling area, creating a seasonal wetland for wildlife.
Visit Brant Resource Stewardship Network for more information about the prairie and savannah revitalization and reconnection project.
Click here to view a map of the project area
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About Connecting Habitats in Brant County
• Tall grass prairie and oak savannah woodland habitats once flourished in southwestern Ontario, covering 1,000 and 2,000 square kilometres, respectively. Brant County is lucky to have remnants of this globally unique ecosystem, which in turn provide homes for rare and endangered plant and animal species that can live nowhere else: for example, dwarf chinquapin oak and the cerulean warbler.
• Brant Resource Stewardship Network helps with two important conservation tasks: protecting and reconnecting. Landowners participate in prescribed burns to rejuvenate the oak savannah and control invasive species, which in turn helps preserve tall grass prairie species like the butterfly milkweed, whorled milkwort and tick trefoil.
• To reconnect isolated pockets of habitat, farmers also work with neighbouring landowners to plant native species of trees, shrubs and grasses next to natural areas. Their efforts create homes and natural travel “corridors” for rare and endangered animal species and encourage the regrowth of globally rare prairie and oak savannah woodland habitat along fences, roads, watercourses and farm drains.
Project Partners and Supporters:
- Boss Gobblers of Brant-Oxford (National Wild Turkey Federation)
- Brant County 4-H Club
- Brant Rod and Gun Club
- Caledonia Anglers and Hunters
- County of Brant
- Grand River Conservation Authority
- Inner Edge Youth at Risk Program
- Millennium Grow Green Program
- Ontario Federation of Agriculture
- Landowners
- The LUNA Project
- Trout Unlimited Canada
- University of Guelph
- University of Waterloo
For more information, contact:
- Kathy Hodgins, Coordinator, Brant Resource Stewardship Network, Ministry of Natural Resources, Guelph (519) 448-1714
- Khahy Ho, Lake Erie COA Basin Coordinator, Lake Erie Management Unit, Ministry of Natural Resources, London (519) 873-4647