Conservation
Conservation in the Sydenham Section
The Bruce Trail is more than just a footpath. It plays a vital role in protecting and preserving one of Canada’s most important natural environments.
The Bruce Trail Conservancy is working to create a secure and permanent conservation corridor, containing a public footpath along the Niagara Escarpment, in order to protect its natural ecosystems. As one of Ontario’s largest land trusts, we have been responsible for the preservation of almost 20,000 acres of land since 1974. We have protected a diverse array of landscape types – wetlands, karst topography, open meadows, caves, towering scarp edges and lush forests. This work has been instrumental in the Niagara Escarpment being named a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve by the United Nations in 1990.
Thank you to all our Donors who have given so generously to our land acquisition campaigns and helped to preserve these irreplaceable treasures!
How can you help? Become a donor! brucetrail.org/ways-to-give/
Take a look at some of our conservation highlights within the Sydenham section:
Cattail Marsh (2024)
This large nature reserve is adjacent to the BTC’s Bayview Bluff, south of Ontario’s Bayview Escarpment Provincial Nature Reserve. It contains 14 acres of wetlands consisting of a large Cattail swamp and meadowmarsh, and a sizable (105 acre) Sugar Maple and Cedar forest.
The property lies within the Bayview Escarpment provincially significant Life Science Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI) creating a vast 35 km woodland corridor extending from Chatsworth to Cape Rich.
Woodford Karst (2024)
The Woodford Karst Nature Reserve (just south of Woodford) showcases a mix of vital and valuable ecosystems including a large Sugar Maple forest, three acres of coniferous forest, deciduous forest, Maple swamp, White Cedar swamp and meadowmarsh.
It also features an impressive Escarpment crevice system as well as iconic talus and rocky outcrops. These provide important habitat for many species including bats and snakes.
Along with neighbouring protected natural lands, the property creates a 14 km woodland, Escarpment and wetland corridor within the Bognor Marsh and Escarpment Life Science ANSI.
Mossy Gorge Nature Reserve (2023)
This 50-acre property is almost entirely forested. It features significant interior hardwood forest and a re-naturalizing pine plantation. Within the forest sits a large ravine with beautiful moss-covered rocks, a remnant of an old valley stream.
This large forested area near Walter’s Falls is a local wildlife refuge, providing habitat for a variety of species. Species of concern identified on this property include: Woodthrush, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Hart’s Tongue Fern, and Butternut.
Sydenham Escarpment Nature Reserve (2023)
The Sydenham Escarpment Nature Reserve lies east of the Sydenham Forest East (Map 31) and helps preserve a large, contiguous corridor of habitat that serves as an extremely important local wildlife refuge for forest-dependant species.
Lindenwood Pond (2022)
Lindenwood Pond Nature Reserve is home to a large Sugar Maple forest with beautiful patches of Eastern White Cedar. Hidden in the forest is a serene naturalized pond with a trickling watercourse that provides a home to amphibians and water-loving birds.
Lindenwood Pond Nature Reserve sits between The Glen Management Area to the south and east, and the BTC’s Lindenwood property to the north (Map 33). This acquisition enabled the completion of a 17 km stretch of Main Trail (up to the Kemble Wetland area) secured within a contiguous natural corridor of protected land. Together with these adjacent conservation lands, large swaths of interior forest are conserved. This ‘deep woods’ habitat is crucial for certain animal species to thrive in an otherwise fragmented forest landscape.
Kemble Rock and Kemble Wetland
The Kemble Wetland Nature Reserve is just south-west of Kemble Mountain. Its 142 acres include regenerating fields, meadows, and an impressive wetland complex.
Together with the adjacent 200-acre Kemble Rock Nature Reserve we have a remarkable 342-acre expanse of preserved land. More than 2 km of the Bruce Trail’s Optimum Route is secured, and we’ve moved 3 km of Trail off roadways.
Kemble Rock contains a mature deciduous forest. It’s quite large, and has significant ‘interior forest’ habitat (defined as forested land that is 100m away from a forest edge), which is extremely important for numerous species such as the Pileated Woodpecker, Ovenbird, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Wood Thrush, and Eastern Wood-pewee.
Kemble Wetland contains part of the Kemble Wetlands Life Science Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI), as well as part of the Indian Creek Provincially Significant Wetland complex.
This nature reserve protects a variety of habitats including:
Regenerating agricultural land:
This regenerating land is now transitioning to native trees and shrubs which have seeded in from the surrounding forests and fencerows, and provides habitat for grassland and edge associated bird species.
Deciduous forest:
The emerging forest contains young Sugar Maple, White Ash, White Elm and Hawthorns, and provide excellent habitat for certain bird species, particularly the Brown Thrasher, Blue-winged Warbler and Gray Catbird.
Wetlands:
The wetlands are dominated by Swamp Maple and Black Ash, which provide habitat for birds such as the Northern Waterthrush.
Ancient Beach Nature Reserve
The 58-acre Ancient Beach Nature Reserve secures about 1.1 km of the main Bruce Trail in the upper regions of Grey County, at Colpoy’s Range Road and Cole’s Sideroad. See map 34 in the Guidebook.
Its evocative name comes from the 11,000-year old baymouth beach ridge, stretching across the mouth of the Slough of Despond, which formed after the glacial Lake Algonquin lapped up high on the cliffs of the Escarpment long ago. Today this Provincially Significant beach bar forms the northern boundary of a thriving wetland in the Slough of Despond. Rounded cobbles scattered throughout the property give clues to its wave-pounded past.
Habitats on this property include regenerating forest, open meadow, thicket swamp, and meadow marsh. These are home to many birds, rare creatures like Northern Map Turtles and Redbelly Snakes, as well as rare plants like Schweinitz’s Sedge.
Sydenham Nature Reserve
Long-time member and active volunteer Cliff Keeling donated this 127-acre Nature Reserve to the BTC in 2015. It’s located near Inglis Falls Conservation Area(near Owen Sound), east of Highway 6, and just north of Rockford. https://brucetrail.org/map-32-sydenham-sydenham-nature-reserve/
The Niagara Escarpment lies west of the highway but there’s a secondary Escarpment rise on many parts of this nature reserve, including some exposed bedrock and many boulders. The disappearing stream exhibits a karst feature, and it re-appears 75 meters away at another stream.
This property supports a variety of habitats including a typical deciduous Escarpment forest, a pine plantation, swamp, and meadow. These lands provide an important wildlife corridor connecting other forested areas nearby
Silent Valley
Silent Valley is a place of cultural, geological and biological diversity that calls for exploration. For decades the trees on this land were harvested. Now this forest is regenerating, and this nature reserve’s diverse habitats – ponds, meadows, forest and cliff – can once again thrive.
Several Side Trails have been built on this property to help explore and learn (reference BTC Guidebook – Map 30).
Learn more about Silent Valley by reading the book! It may be purchased locally from any SBTC Board member, or online through the Bruce Trail Conservancy.
Fossil Glen
Fossil Glen is a 68-acre gem approximately 6 km north of Owen Sound. It has many unique wonders:
- The unique moss and fern covered dolostone ridge, which supports a community of Eastern White Cedar and Mountain Maple. This ridge is host to fossils that are 430 million years old.
- The impressive display of ferns including: Walking Fern, Mackay’s Bladder Fern, Bulblet Fern, Goldie’s Wood Fern, Narrowleaved Glade Fern, Marginal Wood Fern, Spinulose Shield Fern, Intermediate Wood Fern and a healthy population of Hart’s Tongue Fern (a provincial and national Species of Special Concern)
- The protective canopy of Sugar Maple, Hemlock, White Ash and American Beech trees that are approaching Old Growth condition
- A coldwater, groundwater spring from the Escarpment face that empties into a pond providing excellent habitat for waterfowl and amphibians
