Black Oak Savanna and Tallgrass Prairie initiatives earns Alderville two awards

By Rick Garrick

Alderville was recently recognized with two 2017 Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Awards for long-term restoration efforts at the Black Oak Savanna and Tallgrass Prairie initiative. The community received the Community Leadership Award and one of 12 Excellence in Conservation Awards at the Feb. 23 awards ceremony at Queen’s Park in Toronto.
“It was really exciting — I got to meet a lot of neat people doing a lot of neat projects,” says Cheyenne Blaker, ecological stewardship technician with Alderville Black Oak Savanna. “I was just so proud of what we are doing here and all of us who have contributed.”

Alderville formally began the restoration initiative in 1999 by focusing on the preservation and expansion of the Black Oak Savanna and Tallgrass Prairie, which is the largest intact tract of native grassland habitat left within the Rice Lake Plains. The community opened the Alderville Black Oak Savanna Ecology Centre in 2009.
“This ecology centre and the conservation and restoration work that was started here was all started about 20 years ago by Rick Beaver,” says Radek Odolczyk, ecological restoration and stewardship coordinator with Alderville Black Oak Savanna. “So many different people, from community members, volunteers, professionals, have contributed to this project. For anybody who has experience doing ecological restoration, they kind of understand that it really takes blood, sweat and tears and a lot of determination to make something like this happen.”

The restoration initiative also includes Traditional Environmental Knowledge, passed down by Elders and knowledge holders.

“I’ve been here on and off for a decade now, and seeing the changes that have happened throughout the years is really inspiring,” Blaker says. “It went from a couple of acres of tallgrass prairie, and we have 162 acres of land now. Not all of it is tallgrass prairie, but we’re really trying to expand and being able to see that over the years really makes you feel good about the work the whole team is doing.”

The restoration initiative protects two different types of grassland: tallgrass prairie and oak savanna. It is part of the less than three per cent of original grassland habitats that still exist in Ontario and across North America. High Park in Toronto also contains a black oak savanna habitat.

“We’re kind of at the north-eastern extent of what historically was prairie and savanna habitat,” Odolczyk says, noting that a variety of organizations, including Nature Conservancy Canada (NCC), are also doing prairie restoration work in the Rice Lake Plains. “So we actually partner with (NCC) in many ways in terms of sharing seeds that we collect here of these local tallgrass prairie and black oak savanna plant species.”

The Black Oak Savanna and Tallgrass Prairie is also home to 40 species at risk found in Canada.

“(The) Eastern Meadowlark, which is a threatened species in Ontario, basically roam around just outside of the building,” Odolczyk says. “It’s pretty interesting to see, and a lot of naturalists and people that are interested in birds will actually come here specifically just to see certain species of birds.”

The Alderville Black Oak Savanna staff usually conduct prescribed burns as part of the restoration initiative’s management plan.

“When there are wildfires we put our burn plan aside, but every year we are trying to do some burning,” Odolczyk says. “It’s the main way to maintain these habitat types. These grassland habitats actually have evolved to require fire as a way of checking woody plants succession.”

Thirty-six young people, four individuals and one organization were also recognized during the awards ceremony.