Includes Bossu Wetland
Well, it’s about time we shared everything about our nature reserve here at the Homestead. Since I was the main catalyst for the reserve’s creation, the task falls on me (Larry) telling the story. For me, it goes back to some personal experiences with nature starting as a child exploring the family homestead (and beyond) with my Uncle Bob
Everyone should have an Uncle Bob
and sister. I touched on this and my developed love for nature in the very first story I wrote (previously as the 1st in this series of blogs.) This was later followed-up by discovering the Sydenham Field Naturalist and Lambton Wildlife clubs and further exploring nature with many very enthusiastic and knowledgeable nature lovers. This evolved into my becoming quite the nature geek I guess but I love it. To make a long story short, this led me to wanting to conserve and protect nature here at the homestead. It took some time to convince other members of the family, who were more in charge of things around here, to develop something like the 25-acre nature reserve we have today. Taking 25 acres out of production isn’t a small thing. But this did eventually happen in 2 phases really.
An excavator, expertly handled by Norm Lane, broke ground in October 2005. The field had just had the soy bean crop harvested and was quite a clean slate. This was all arranged by our local Ducks Unlimited Canada rep Darrell Randell with partners including Stewardship Kent and Ontario Nativescapes and with the direction of local wetland expert, Bob (Griz) Lozon. Our budget was low, maybe $10,000 plus but the site was so perfect for creating a wetland and nature reserve that we really didn’t need a lot of expensive work to be done. That’s because this field was a wetland 100 and more years ago. This was true restoration as to habitat type. We were not really forcing or creating, we were returning the land to what it used to be and what it wanted to be. We often had wet years that made it difficult to successfully crop that land, but we always made money from farming it.
So, I was given full say in the design of the landscape and we developed 3 ponds, the larger of which was dug to a depth of 7 or 8 feet, the other 2 much shallower, and a 600-foot-long, 30 + foot wide channel, with 5 deeper holes, meandering through the site. Excitement erupted when about 6 feet down the excavator brought up coarse wet black sand and shale-like material followed by water springing from this layer and starting to fill the pond. This was an unexpected bonus. So, the large pond slowly filled up but it took the fall rains, winter snow and spring rains to fill up the entire wetland area, which was about 12 acres at first, but it was full in March of 2006. Then the wildlife started arriving. Hundreds of ducks and geese used the new wetland followed in early April by hundreds of shorebirds, around 2,000 at times. Two rare birds were found on our new wetland, an Eurasian Ruff (from Europe) and a Snowy Egret (from the sub-tropics, Florida?) These rare birds attracted a lot of attention and numerous birders came to see them. We built an observation tower for viewing the wildlife which was used by many that first spring.
Plus, now there were hundreds of frogs singing, first and mainly chorus frogs, then green and leopard frogs and American Toads. The reserve was exploding with life in what, just a few months earlier, was a field of soy beans. Next were the wetland plants, whose green shoots started rising from the wetland shallows. Numerous species including cattails, rushes, sedges, monkey flower, waterplantain to name a few. By early June the entire area, except the deep water, was growing greener by the day and developing wonderfully. Willow thickets developed along the water’s edges. We were in awe of how quickly, and mostly on its own, this wetland was providing habitat for wildlife and developing ecological values.
If you build it, they will come
The reserve was expanded in 2011, with the St Clair Region Conservation Authority planting 5 acres of trees and Ontario Nativescapes planting prairie meadows. Thus, we reached the current 25 acre size of the reserve. Today, the wildlife that calls the Honeylocust Homestead reserve home is astounding. Already we have trees that are 20 feet tall; shrubs have germinated everywhere as have perennial wild flowers and sedges and grasses; a family of beavers moved in and built a large beaver lodge; owls shelter in the plantation and hunt the meadow areas a night; coyotes and deer wander our trails; herons and ducks (65 wood ducks on 1 count) roost in the wetland area at night; woodcocks and snipe do their courtship flights overhead in the spring; dragonflies abound; every possible frog and toad species for our area now live here and I could go on and on.
This all aligns with our vision of homesteading in harmony with nature. With treating our land as an ecosystem. We will have no shortage of pollinators,
Native bees and butterflies
beneficial insects and songbirds and we are supporting several species at risk including Eastern Fox Snake (Endangered) and Blanding’s Turtles (Endangered) to name a couple. We have always had fox snakes here but now their numbers and size are growing. Becky found an 8 foot+ long snakeskin shed by the barn. Nearly half of the Honeylocust Homesteads 55 acres are in some form of habitat, creating wonderful ecological values, supporting wildlife and providing us with a natural opportunity to heal, grow and find respite. Nature does it and we love it.
Larry
Honeylocust Homestead 