Protecting two more provincially significant natural areas

 The last few posts featuring a significant natural area has focused mainly on Pelee Island. There is no question Pelee Island has been one of the biggest challenges of my career, but there are other significant natural areas that are important in their own right. This post will feature two: what is now Clear Creek Forest Provincial Park, as well as Bickford Oak Woods Conservation Reserve. My connection with these two sites go back a long ways, and if I had remained in my initial career position at Rondeau, neither of these sites would have been on my radar, and they might not be protected today. So this is another reason for me to thank God for changing my position at Rondeau to one where I could have more success in protecting His creation!

Clear Creek Forest (CCF)

I first encountered CCF back in the early 1980s, when in addition to my position at Rondeau, I was also the regional coordinator for the first Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas. As part of my atlassing role, I was on the search for places to explore and document good bird breeding habitat. I had never been to this particular part of what at the time was eastern Kent County, and was exploring some back roads. I came across a sizeable wooded area, that had a trail running into it. This was before the Trespass to Property Act was in exsistence, so unless a property was posted, it was accessible. So I ventured along the trail, and was very impressed with the variable topography as well as what appeared to be an untouched woodland with lots of big trees.

It was clearly a mature hardwood forest that warranted more exploration. I was also part of a small group of people who were trying to identify significant natural areas of both Kent and Elgin counties. I contacted the others and described this site, and after they had visited it as well, it was decided to add this site to the list.

It was in good condition, and there was nothing much happening with it for at least a decade or more. But then the owner, an older woman from Michigan, was going to dispose of it in the early 1990s. The next generation of hers just wanted to sell it for something like woodlot residential, meaning it would be broken up into sizeable lots with roads and expensive housing, a loss of trees and of course being off limits.

I heard about this plan, I think it was through the municipal planning process which I had input on via our OMNR district planning team. I immediately got going on this, trying to stress the significance of this site to my colleagues and, of course, the broader attention of groups such as local naturalist groups as well as the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) and local individuals. Certainly there was a lot of interest to protect the high quality woodland, which had some impressive old growth characteristics, and old growth forest was becoming more and more of an important feature of a natural area.

Here is a photo of me, back in my bearded days, standing beside the monster American Beech,

The end result was that there was enough local support, as well as $$ from organizations such as NCC, and also OMNR, so that after a few years, it was acquired for protection. Via the appropriate park planning process, it was eventually added to the Ontario Parks holdings as Clear Creek Forest Provincial Park, and is currently administered by Rondeau Provincial Park.

CCF has been a favourite place of mine to explore. It has some impressive displays of spring wildflowers, and I have given nature walks at it. A friend and former Rondeau staff person and I have been to it quite a few times with our black lights, attracting numerous moths and other night time creatures. There are currently almost 450 species of moths recorded for the site, not to mention a few other non-moth creatures.

 Some of the moths are fairly tiny, such as this Zeller's Ethmia....

...others are distinctly larger, and quite showy such as this IO Moth.

One of the plants it is known for, at least to orchid enthusiasts, is a population of the Large Twayblade, an endangered species in Ontario and Canada.

There is also a small stand of Pawpaw, another species at risk, as is Flowering Dogwood which follows.

It is great to visit in any season.

April

On one occasion a little while before I retired, I took some of my biologist colleagues on a tour of some significant sites that I wanted them to know about, so they would be more familiar with places they might have to deal with after I retired. This next photo shows one of my colleagues admiring the huge American Beech tree that was right along the trail. At the time, it was one of the largest of its species in all of Ontario, measuring 95 cm dbh. Unfortunately in the last few years it has fallen down.

October

I used this photo of the creek meandering through the site, as the cover of my book.

 On the other side of the road that goes along the north side of the wooded area is a former gravel pit. I'm not sure when it shut down. I do remember back in the 1960s I went swimming in it with some friends, and it had been shut down well before that. 

 The area surrounding these little lakes that had been dug out years ago, has been restored to a mix of mostly native plant species, although there are numerous non-native species that have found there way to it as well.

 

 Bickford Oak Woods (BOW)

 Bickford Oak Woods is a large woodland in more or less north Lambton County. The largest area is at the east end of a mostly woodland corridor that extends westward for about 6 km to the St. Clair River. It was evaluated along with many other natural areas, in the mid 1970s, but the outcome of that overall evaluation at that time was that it was not a priority. Admittedly it showed signs of a fair bit of logging many years earlier, and at least some parts of it had been grazed by livestock, so it was anything but pristine. But time can make a difference.

It had been in the ownership of a couple of people who had invested in it for future industrial development. Certainly parts of northern Lambton, especially closer to Sarnia, had a lot of industrial development on the ground, most of which revolved around the oil industry. However the area of BOW was not as high a priority for development in the 1990s. I still remember a telephone call at my office, from one of the owners, who said that his partner was not in good health, and they wanted to dispose of this site. His question to me was 'did the Ministry of Natural Resources have any interest in it?' I responded fairly favourably and said I would investigate the possibilities. So I did, contacting the same set of organizations and clubs that I had contacted regarding Clear Creek Forest. It took some effort to bring all the interested parties on board, but it was headed toward some level of protection, and in addition to the usual organizations mentioned above, the Rural Lambton Stewardship Network (RLSN) was invaluable in supporting this. Part of the challenge was to get a better idea of the flora and fauna that occurred, so we hired several knowledgeable individuals to work as a pair of teams, with one group concentrating on the flora and the other on the fauna, especially breeding birds. And the results were encouraging, that it was quite significant. Certainly a woodland of this size was, in itself, important, and to have it connected for additional area of about 6 km to the St. Clair River made it even more so. The only things that broke up the continuity were a few north-south roads.

The site was on a slightly undulating clay plain, which meant that water remained on the surface where it could. 

Marsh Marigolds indicate a fairly wet site at least early in the season.

Overall, the trees were not large, as logging had occurred a few decades earlier. In fact there were a lot of trees that were multi-stemmed, as after they had been cut, several sprouts occurred and continued to grow vying with each other for dominance.

Some, like this Red Oak, had as many as seven stems!

Certainly there were some significant breeding birds, such as Cerulean Warbler, which is considered an endangered species in Ontario and Canada. 

However one of the most significant finds was to discover a new tree species for Canada! It was Swamp Cottonwood. It did well in a part of the woodland that, in the early season was quite wet, with standing water, and an adjacent more open area had a good stand of Buttonbush.

Buttonbush in the background

Eventually it will dry out, and as the growing season gets underway, the Swamp Cottonwood flourishes.

Leaf of Swamp Cottonwood

 Needless to say, evidence like this clinched the deal, and with funding from various naturalist clubs as well as the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), and some from OMNR who would take over the management and supervision of the site, it became another significant natural area. It is now known as the Bickford Oak Woods Conservation Reserve. I have had the pleasure of exploring it quite a bit since the early 2000s, including leading a few hikes to the Swamp Cottonwood patch. Unless you know exactly where to go, chances of finding it in this large woodlot would be next to impossible as it is not even close to what resembles a trail through the forest. At one point, my regular contact with NCC asked me to lead a special hike for a group from the Provincial Environmental Commissioner's office who were visiting Sarnia. The Environmental Commissioner at the time was Gord Miller, a former University of Guelph botany classmate of mine, so it was a pleasure to lead them and re-connect with him.

 The woodland itself was separated from the nearest road by agricultural fields, so as part of the overall acquisition of the property, some ag fields were included. They were subsequently planted into prairie habitat, with the strong support of the RLSN, and the prairie vegetation has continued to thrive with all sorts of species, rare and common, but which are popular with butterflies.

Prairie Landscape

Gray-headed Coneflower

Prairie Dock

 

Great Spangled Fritillary

So this is a bit of information on two of the other significant sites I was heavily involved with especially during the last couple of decades of my career. Again, had I not had my Rondeau job taken from me back in 1985 and plunked down into the OMNR district office, opportunities like this would not have happened, so Praise God!

The next post will likely deal with a couple of sites, one in Windsor and another elsewhere in Lambton, that required a lot of effort to change what might have happened.