Ecological Demonstration Site

Currently, the Lower Grand River Land Trust (LGRLT) is undertaking a restoration project at Ruthven Park National Historic Site just north of Cayuga.

Through this project, the LGRLT plans to restore 30 areas of forest, five acres of meadow habitat and 2000 metres of riparian lands at Ruthven Park.

The LGRLT aims to re-vegetate fragmented woodlands and stream banks, thereby increasing much-needed habitat for both flora and fauna. It also aims to enhance water quality in agricultural areas.

Private landowners in the Lower Grand watershed can look to the Ruthven Park Ecological Demonstration Project for guidance. It will provide them with examples of ecological restoration opportunities that are available to them and their community

The ecological restoration project will:

• create meadow habitat around the mansion, thereby improving the migratory bird corridor along the Grand River;
  


• re-vegetate woodland openings that have been encroached upon by agriculture;
  


• buffer streams that run through and along the agricultural fields to improve water quality and habitat;
  


• assist adjacent landowner to fence cattle away from access to the river.

A day in the life of volunteers for the Ecological Demonstration Project

Excerpts from article appearing in May-June 2001 issue of Riversong, by Marina Martin

April 28. A cool sunny day. In the early morning, twenty-six volunteers trekked the one kilometer newly laid out trail on Ruthven Park to a three acre field that was to be planted that day.

Some of the volunteers dallied en route to admire the spring wildflowers growing in large clusters along the trail - spring beauty, bloodroot, cut-leafed toothwort, wild geranium, wood anemone, yellow and white trout-lily.

One could have spent the entire day exploring the woods and marshes east of Highway 54, but there was work to be done...

The field, bounded on three sides by a portion of the north Cayuga Slough Forest, was slated to be planted with some 3,000 trees - ash, pine, hickory, oak. The eroded waterways along the field and in a second field needed to be stabilized by further plantings of cedar and willow.

All species were native to the area, carefully chosen to suit the location. Some of the seedlings were from seed locally gathered and grown by Habitat Haldimand volunteers.

Denise Hart of Community Forest Initiative assisted in demonstrating proper planting techniques and supervising a group of high school students.
This particular field had been chosen as an ideal demonstation area for increasing interior forest habitat. By filling in the irregular edges of a forest, the forest core can be made habitable for rare interior forest bird species such as the prothonotary warbler. Other areas had already been planted earlier in the week with another thousand trees. These were riparian (wet) areas and corridors along fields — again important wildlife habitats.
	During the following week, more corridors were planted, and as well a field along Indiana road was planted by mechanical planter.

The whole project, with a total planting of 8,000 trees and shrubs, is to serve as an ecological demonstration project for the Watershed Stewardship Program, a totally new initiative of the Lower Grand River Land Trust.