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The Search for the Last Ancient Forests of Southern Ontario by Bruce Kershner, Bert Miller Nature Club Hushed forest cathedrals, giant trees and virgin forests once covered today's Southern Ontario. After 300 years of land exploitation, urban sprawl, bulldozing, and clearcutting, it seems impossible that primeval forests survive. Yet ancient forests do survive in Southern Ontario. Disbelief is still so strong, even in the scientific community, that many dismiss the notion. But the proof is undeniable. In Southern Ontario's only thorough old-growth survey - in the Niagara Peninsula - 16 ancient groves have been documented in the eastern three towns. It is ironic that the largest, tallest and oldest living things have been overlooked until the last several years. We repeatedly find that "virgin forests" are still "virgin territory" for research and discovery. And they are still being cut down or destroyed! The intention of this article is to spur interest to search for undiscovered ancient forests in your own region, before they too disappear. Old-growth forest is a forest whose canopy is dominated by Ancient Trees (defined as 150 years or older). Preferably, there should be 8 to 15 Ancient Trees (or greater) per acre. "Ancient forest" is a synonym. The general categories of Old-Growth Forest are: 1) Original Old-Growth Forest - a site that has been continuously forested with Old-Growth trees since European pre-settlement times. 2) Virgin Old-Growth Forest - an Original Ancient Forest with no evidence of intentional human disturbance, the rarest of all. Previously, "virgin" forest was erroneously used as a synonym for "Old Growth." Some maintained that to be called "Old Growth," it had to be "virgin." That would eliminate 98% of all Old-Growth Forest in our region. Nearly all have a minor amount of disturbance. 3) Secondary Old-Growth Forest - a site that was cut down (or its Old-Growth trees were cut down) 150 to 200 years ago or longer, but has been largely uncut since, allowing the forest canopy to be dominated by Ancient Trees again. Visual Categories of Old Growth: Big-Tree Old-Growth - Old-Growth Forest featuring "Big-Trees": towering or impressive diameter, even champion-size. This matches the classic image that people have for Old Growth. Examples: Temagami, Niagara Glen, Backus Woods. Dwarf Old-Growth - Old-Growth Forest featuring "dwarf-trees" of harsh sites: Niagara Escarpment cedars, savannah, summits, rocky or sandy barrens. Trees are charismatic, with twisted, bonsai, gnarled or bizarre growth forms. HOW TO RECOGNIZE OLD-GROWTH FOREST You don't have to be an expert or scientist to recognize Old-growth Forest. The visual signs are easy for anybody to learn. Although coring a tree with a special drill is a certain way to measure tree ages, you can use visual features to estimate age. The more Old-Growth indicators, the more confident you can be it is Old Growth:
HOW DID OLD-GROWTH FORESTS SURVIVE? How did Ancient Forests survive? The answer is usually "sheer luck and happenstance." But on several types of properties, Old-Growth was able to escape human exploitation. One-in-three sites grow on habitats so rugged, steep, inaccessible or "poor" (summits, cliffs, rocky slopes, swamps, sandy "barrens") as to deter old-style logging. One-in-four sites were saved by caring owners of wealthy estates, recreation camps, or rural landowners who deliberately set aside their majestic forests, inspired by their beauty. One-in-four survive on old public properties (parks, preserves, institutional lands) purchased before logging or clearing got to that site, and chose not to exploit or "manage" their forests. Which properties today are most likely to cut down their surviving Old Growth? Some public lands owned by Ontario MNR or "Crown Lands" which allow "timber management," and most properties owned by private individuals. EXAMPLES OF OLD-GROWTH FORESTS IN SOUTHERN ONTARIO Little is known about surviving Old Growth in Southern Ontario simply because no one has conducted a comprehensive regional survey. The first regional surveys are those of Dr. Doug Larson's study of Niagara Escarpment ancient cedars, and the Federation of Ontario Naturalists' Woodland Heritage of Southern Ontario report (1999). The author has completed the first year of a comprehensive Niagara Peninsula survey, hopefully to expand to other parts of Southern Ontario. Here are some discoveries from F.O.N.'s and my surveys:
WHY DO AN OLD GROWTH FOREST SURVEY? The first way to protect Old Growth is to find it before it is cut down. Only then can the case be made to protect it, attract publicity, and tap grass-roots and political support that leads to formal protection. Nature groups must take the lead by pressuring government agencies to conduct Old-Growth Surveys, or by initiating it themselves. It is a fun and easy volunteer project, or with grant funding. Nature groups do not need to have "experts" to discover Ancient Forests. You just need to receive brief training from Old-growth sleuths like me, and you're on your way to making exciting discoveries of the largest and oldest living things in your region! Kershner is a forest ecologist and Old-growth Forest authority, author of 10 books, including Secret Places: Scenic Treasures of Western New York and Southern Ontario (1-800-228-0810) |
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Ponds In the September issue Darrell Randell discussed his role with Ducks Unlimited. This month he covers how to approach the creation of ponds. I get a lot of phone calls from people wanting to know about some sort of wetland project on their property. Usually it is about a pond, or a complex of ponds, but there are other ways to create or enhance wetlands. This month I will talk about ponds. We have throughout most areas in Lambton, Kent and Essex the benefit of heavy clay soils. That means that in most areas, if we dig a hole it will fill with water when it rains and you have a pond. The water you lose to evaporation during those hot, dry summers is made up for by the rainfall during the rest of the year. When people call they generally are looking for two things. One is advice. "How should I construct this pond to make the most of my wildlife investment?" While a hole in the ground may hold water it must be dug in certain ways to ensure that wildlife can use it. I like to see irregular shorelines, and very gentle bottom slopes. Both of these points are extremely important to create feeding areas and refuge to escape predators. Predators love straight lines where they can see everything at a glance. Gently sloping bottoms are a safety feature. In case people or wildlife fall in they can climb back out easily. It also promotes a variety of aquatic plants to grow. The ideal is to have your pond about 50% open water and 50% emergent plant life. The open water is created by having deeper water in those areas. Unless you are planning to include fish in your pond there is very little reason to go deeper than six to eight feet. With fish you might want to dig it twelve to fourteen feet deep. Ducks Unlimited does not encourage the use of ponds for fish but feels it is the landowner's choice and cost to do so. Perhaps the best way to illustrate the point about these ponds is to use examples. Along Highway 401 and 402 at most overpasses you can see ponds that were dug to use the earth for the bridge approaches. In most cases these were dug over 30 years ago. They were sheer walls with virtually no shallow areas. They hold water but have little to no vegetation. The wildlife value of these old borrow pits is extremely low. By way of comparison when Lambton County rebuilt the bridges on the Kimball road at Wilkesport in 1996, the material for the bridge approaches was excavated with the plan to create a wildlife friendly pond. It is worth the drive just to see the difference. In the first year it was dug, cattails had pioneered into the pond on their own. It is truly a area well used by wildlife. I saw about 75 redheads on there one day this spring. I always see something interesting there. It is right beside the Nicholls Memorial Forest. The other thing people inquire about is financing. "Is there any grant money available to help dig my pond?" The quick answer to that is "probably yes". It will not cover the full cost but will help with between one third to one half the cost, provided all the guidelines of how to dig are followed. A signed agreement with DUC and all necessary permits must be in hand before construction can start. After it is completed and inspected by myself or another DUC staff member a grant cheque will be issued. There is a dual purpose for the grant. The first is to assist and reward people who share the DUC vision of creating wetlands. The second and more important purpose is to focus attention on how to dig these ponds so that the wildlife get the maximum use of them. Darrell Randell |