From Wastelands to Plantations to Natural Forests: The Amazing Journey Of Ontario’s Former Blowsand Areas

 If you could go back in time a hundred years and tour southern Ontario, you might be shocked to see expanses of desert along the way. Yes, desert! 

Where did these desert areas come from? And why aren’t they there anymore?

The remarkable transformation of southern Ontario’s deserts, known as blowsand areas, is one of the more interesting ecological success stories you will hear in this province.

Glacial soils and tree loss set the stage for disaster

The settlers cleared acres of forest in southern Ontario, but in some areas the topsoil was too thin for agriculture. In some cleared areas of southern Ontario, the topsoil blew away, and deserts known as the blowsand areas formed.

Bill Parker, a research scientist with MNR’s Ontario Forest Research Institute (OFRI) in Sault Ste. Marie, who has spent a decade studying these areas, begins the tale of the blowsand areas.

“The many Europeans who began arriving in southern Ontario in the early 1800s were very efficient at clearing the forests for farming and timber harvesting,” explains Parker.  “They not only used the timber for construction here but also shipped it back to England.  Ontario’s massive white pines, for example, were coveted for ship’s masts and other naval timbers.  The settlers also burned many of the original forests to clear the land quickly and easily for farming.” 

Soil erosion was extreme at times, as evidenced by the exposed roots of tree stumps.

By about 1880, 75 to 80 per cent of the forests in southern Ontario had been cleared for farming and urban uses. Unfortunately, in the parts of southern Ontario where glaciers had deposited a lot of sand and gravel, removing the trees created an ecological disaster.

“After the trees were burned or cut down and the land ploughed, the thin layer of topsoil quickly eroded and blew away,” says Parker.  “All that was left was the underlying infertile sand and gravel. The farms had to be abandoned.  These fragile lands that had once supported lush, diverse forests had been turned into barren wastelands, some of which covered hundreds of hectares.”

Tree planting to the rescue 

Many farmers ended up having to abandon their land and their dreams.

In the early 1900s, the Ontario government began working with county governments to draw up laws and agreements to encourage people to plant trees in the blowsand areas in hopes of bringing them back to life, says Ken Elliott, a forestry specialist based at the Ministry of Natural Resources’ Southern Science and Information office in London. 

Conifers were chosen for planting as they could tolerate the harsh, open conditions of the dry, infertile blowsands.  Red pine was seen as the native species that would have future value and could best stabilize these sites. Over the course of the 20th century, these mostly publicly-owned plantations grew well under the watchful eye of the province through agreements with municipalities and conservation authorities. These new forests allowed for soil enrichment and shelter under which a variety of other tree species, shrubs, and wild animals could thrive.  The highly degraded waterways in these areas were restored, and erosion, sedimentation and flash flooding returned to levels expected in healthy forests.

Due to the government encouraging planting of conifers decades ago, the blowsand areas are now healthy, thriving forests.

Over the years, millions of people have enjoyed hiking, skiing, cycling, and other activities in these plantations without even realizing their historic nature.  County governments and other owners have realized as much as $1 million a year through careful management that includes harvesting of mature pines for utility poles and other uses

“Plantations lack biological diversity,” says Elliott. “Yet no one can dispute that plantations have transformed Ontario’s desolate blowsand areas back into healthy and diverse forests. It’s a remarkable success story and was the beginning of ecological restoration in Ontario.”

So the next time you take a hike through a red pine plantation, look around and try to imagine what it might have looked like 100 years ago…and be glad it’s green and healthy today.

What does the future hold for the former blowsand areas?

No one can dispute that plantations have transformed Ontario’s desolate blowsand areas back into healthy and diverse forests.

Challenges do remain. Parker, Elliott and others are working to ensure that as the mature pines are harvested or die off, the new forest that grows in is similar to the natural forest that grew here before Europeans came. Their research will help ensure that these forests are managed in a way that encourages the right species to grow.

Parker says that he, Elliott, and Steve Williams from MNR's Aylmer office recently started a new variable density thinning trial in a red pine plantation at St Williams Conservation Reserve west of Port Dover. This trial will test more ecologically based thinning methods in hopes of creating a more structurally and biologically diverse forest, compared with more traditional approaches aimed primarily at wood production.

"The goal is to restore these plantations to native Carolinian forest types, using thinning methods that both derive an economic return from harvested red pine trees and conserve and enhance biodiversity," Parker says.
  

Another OFRI research scientist, John McLaughlin, has been studying a puzzling and sudden decline of large groups or pockets of red pines in some plantations, which has lost revenue for counties and caused forest managers to fear that the wrong species will take hold in these large openings.  He found that root diseases are the main factor associated with the mortality pockets and that the hardest-hit plantations are those with alkaline soil layers. The alkaline soil hinders root development, causing the trees to be more susceptible to disease during drought years. 

McLaughlin likes to tell how John Wilson, a former MNR employee in Kemptville, often took groups on tours of the Larose Forest, planted on former blowsand areas.  He would show pictures of the blowsand deserts and talk about how forest management had converted desert into habitat for orchids.  He would then point out the pink lady’s slippers growing at their feet.

It was always a moment of awe for the audience.