Reforesting in Wolfville’s Reservoir Park
The Friends of the Wolfville Trails committee of the Blomidon Naturalists has launched a Reforesting Pilot Project in Wolfville’s Reservoir Park in collaboration with the Town of Wolfville and Acadia University’s Irving Environmental Centre. The park is 25 acres of wooded land that encloses a network of popular walking and mountain biking trails and two sizeable ponds that are popular sites for swimming, fishing, skating, and a resting place for migrating ducks.
The project began out of citizens’ concerns over the growing dominance of three invasive plant species along the trails: Glossy Leaf Buckthorn, Norway Maple and Multiflora Rosa (pictured above in order). All are prolific seed producers and spread rapidly to outcompete our native species. If left unopposed, these invasives can completely dominate forested areas and eliminate much of the ecosystem’s biodiversity, not just within the plant community, but also affecting insects, birds and the soil biome. This process is now well underway in these woodlands.
Pulling Out the Invasives
This project covers three areas along the park entry trail, each about 250 sq metres. In each area we laid out a grid of 25 equal blocks, allowing us to map plant densities and tabulate results. In all areas the Buckthorn distribution was often related to the proximity of large “mother” trees under which we’d find hundreds of small plants. In two areas total Buckthorn numbers were nearly equal at about 2550. In the third, 4136 Buckthorn plants were removed. In that same area, a single block included 797 plants… that’s nearly 80 plants within one square metre, a truly alarming degree of infestation.
Multiflora Rosa was in only one area, the sunniest, and there were only 20 in total. While this Rosa has become dominate along stretches of the adjoining Millennium Trail, smothering most other species, it is just getting established in the park.
How You Can Help
This fall we are replanting the areas we have cleared with native species. WE NEED VOLUNTEERS!! If you enjoy putting plants in the ground, getting outside and working with others, and/or making a difference, please join our team ! No expertise is needed.
- Please VOLUNTEER to help with the replanting!
- DONATE: Native trees, shrubs and wildflowers all need to be acquired to complete the project. Many of these must be purchased. Any donation, even small ones will help. The BNS provides tax receipts. Please make donations here. Select the donation option for the Wolfville Trails Reforestation Project.
- Learn about invasive species, even in your own yard, and take action. The Nova Scotia Invasive Species Council is an invaluable resource.
To follow-up on any of these options, e mail the Blomidon Naturalists coordinator.
A Special Place
In our work, we’ve often been delighted by the new and unexpected. We have discovered a few Sugar Maples in the sunniest areas amid so many Norway invaders as well as a few thriving Canada Elderberry. Perhaps our greatest delight is a scattering of Pagoda Dogwood saplings, surely nature’s inspiration for famous elements of Japanese architecture. So much close scouring of the forest floor has grown our awareness of the rich variety of emergent plant growth. With the help of “Plantfinder” we’ve come to know Frosted Hawthorn, Witch Hazel, Highbush Cranberry and our latest discovery the large-leafed ground cover “Trail Plant” (Adenocaulon bicolor).
There’s a health-giving magic to time spent visiting or adventuring in the woods. So, it follows that the health of our forests should be important to us. The three invasive species were all brought to North America by our settler culture from Europe or Asia and set loose in our ecosystem, which has no defence against their aggressive dominance. So, it is really up to us to take action to protect the precious native biodiversity of Nova Scotian woodlands. These woods are a truly special place for all of us, no age limits, and they need your help!