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| Tieleman Westerhout (left) wanted habitat for wildlife. Photo: Jason Mortlock |
Driving north of Clinton, Ontario, on County Road 8, just before Londesboro Road, the highway rises. From hilltop you can look out to the northwest down a green valley. The slopes are coming to life with new hardwoods, and there’s clean water in the wetlands running to the Maitland River.
This valley is a demonstration site, showing landowners that wetlands can be restored; that erosion-prone land can be held back by new forests; and that managed meadow with shrub cover can provide an oasis for wildlife. It’s a place where the deer and the wild turkeys roam – along with other interesting creatures.
But just a few years ago, this was just a 36-hectare (approximately 90-acre) wedge of land that made Brad Westerhout and his father, Tieleman, scratch their heads. They were successful poultry and cash crop farmers in a region where crops are king, and this particular piece of land was simply not “plough-worthy.”
“But we agreed it might as well be doing some good,” said Brad. So he and his father, avid hunters and nature appreciators, asked the Huron Stewardship Council for ideas and help.
The area was a small valley between two slopes with a central portion that had once been a wetland. In the days of horse-drawn fieldwork, a drainage ditch had been dug through the wetland to allow for some cultivation. But when larger-scale mechanized farming took over, the small, irregularly shaped piece of land was abandoned to pasture.
When they bought the farm, the Westerhouts thought they might plant some trees in the valley land. “But we may have gotten a little carried away,” laughs Brad Westerhout. 6,000 trees later, encouraged and aided by a variety of conservation organizations, Brad and his father have restored wetland function to the bottom lands and reforested some of the sloping and upland portions. Other portions were left as meadow with shrub cover, to provide a variety of habitat.
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| Brad Westerhout (right) admires one of 6,000 trees planted. Photo: Jason Mortlock |
The Westerhouts restored the wetland areas in the fall of 2008, and finished tree planting in the spring of 2009: bitternut hickory, black cherry, red oak, burr oak and swamp white oak. Wetland restoration involved creating four separate cells to intercept and hold surface flow crossing the area. Keeping in mind the demonstration potential of the site, they used a different type of water level control in each of the cells.
The Huron Stewardship Council worked closely with the Clinton Ministry of Natural Resources and Maitland Valley Conservation Authority, helping to get access to assistance and with acquiring any necessary permits. Funding, advisory or other assistance was also provided by MNR’s COA (Canada-Ontario Agreement Respecting the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem) program, Ducks Unlimited Canada, the Environmental Farm Plan, the Huron Clean Water Project and the Trees Ontario Foundation.
With its wetlands restored and its slopes covered with trees. this small valley has more, and better, water, and a wider variety of wildlife habitat. It’s a peek into what’s possible for those curious landowners who also have a piece of “orphaned,” marginal – but restorable and valuable – wetland in Huron County.
For more information, contact:
- Steve Bowers, Stewardship Coordinator, Huron Stewardship Council, Ministry of Natural Resources, Clinton (519) 482-3661
- Andy McKee, Lake Huron COA Basin Coordinator, Upper Great Lakes Management Unit, Ministry of Natural Resources, Owen Sound (519) 371-5449
