Black Oak Savanna
The Black Oak Savanna site is our flagship, 81-hectare grassland restoration site. It is home to our Ecology Centre, Gitigaan and Mitigomin Native Plant Nursery. Over the past 20 years, the Alderville Black Oak Savanna team has transformed this property from what was, at the time, a series of agricultural fields in cash crop rotation. Today, the property boasts a thriving grassland restoration site with an abundance of rare and at-risk plant and animal species. The site now plays a key role in the future restoration of this unique eco-region by acting as a pristine source for native plants and seeds.
To learn more about the ecological restoration practices the team uses to maintain this special property, please visit our Mandate page and pay us a visit!
Stream to Shore
Sandercock Creek
Stream and creek restoration is an important practice for the environment and local communities. A healthy creek is clean, can withstand storm waters and doesn’t readily erode. Sandercock Creek, located on Sandercock Road in Alderville First Nation, flows north to Rice Lake. Sandercock Creek sits within agricultural fields and receives runoff and sediment that can have a negative impact on the creek’s overall health, and in turn that of Rice Lake. Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) of the area documents Sandercock Creek as a cold water stream ideal for Brook Trout. Through a school project, Alderville youth Gezhii Smoke-Laforte envisioned a healthier creek and wrote a restoration plan that the Alderville Black Oak Savanna has begun to enact. Stream to Shore is now in its 6th year of restoration and has expanded to include the surrounding land.
Pamitaashkodeyong
In 2019, Alderville BOS began the extensive restoration of the lands surrounding Sandercock Creek. This second 38-hectare property, also previously under cash crop rotation, is named Pamitaashkodeyong (Lake of the Burning Plains). Pamitaashkodeyong combines Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Western Science stewardship. Only regional Tallgrass Prairie and Black Oak Savanna remnant genetics are used as a seed source for phased restoration plantings and seeding of Pamitaashkodeyong. The restoration of Pamitaashkodeyong is a major ecological milestone for Ontario grasslands, as lands managed by Alderville BOS now make up one of the largest parcels of diverse native grassland habitats within Ontario. The property will become a key seed source for future initiatives and a connective corridor between partnership conservation efforts in the Rice Lake Plains.
Turtle Stewardship
Turtle Stewardship on Rice Lake is an ongoing conservation effort led by the Alderville Black Oak Savanna team. Unfortunately, roadsides and farmer’s fields are ideal nesting habitats for many of Ontario’s eight turtle species, meaning many turtles are killed or injured travelling to and from their nesting sites each year. To help mitigate this, the Alderville BOS team creates constructed turtle nest sites in ideal locations adjacent to Rice Lake. The team also builds and deploys nest protectors to help reduce loss due to predation.
- 6 of the 8 species of turtles in Ontario are found on Alderville First Nation
- All 8 species are at risk
- Species at Risk are protected by federal and provincial legislation
- Turtles (mshiikenh) have significant cultural importance for Anishinaabe people, who believe North America was formed on a turtle’s carapace
