Volunteers collecting prairie seed
at Lake Erie Farms
by Heather Arnold, NCC
Current Projects - Lake Erie Farms
In 2003, the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) purchased the 400-acre (162-hectare) Lake Erie Farms property within the South Walsingham Sand Ridges Life Science Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI). An ANSI is a provincial designation recognizing important and often rare habitats or communities. This particular ANSI is characterized by a series of undulating sand ridges, dunes and low-lying plains. Prior to NCC’s securement, almost half of the property had been dedicated to tobacco farming since the 1920s, while the rest was left as oak woodland, deciduous swamp and forest.
NCC has been working on the restoration of this large farm property in order to recreate once present natural habitat for threatened species and species of special concern such as Hooded Warbler, Cerulean Warbler and Louisiana Waterthrush.
Restoration work, as delineated under the property management plan, has included preparing fields for planting, creating property buffers, planting a mix of native species, and a fall native seed collection event run through NCC’s Conservation Volunteers program. Invasive species management was also part of NCC’s work at Lake Erie Farms and included research, and on-the-ground elimination of invasive targets such as Garlic Mustard, a highly aggressive European weed.
Work at Lake Erie Farms will benefit additional priority bird species including Blue-winged Warbler and Grasshopper Sparrow and may draw back a presence of Red-shouldered Hawk and the endangered Acadian Flycatcher.
