Partnerships with the Nature Conservancy of Canada at Clear Creek Forest

David Sterrett, TOARC President, marvels at the grandeur of some of the older trees (>300 yrs) in Clear Creek Forest during a visit to the site this spring.	At the Clear Creek Forest Nature Preserve on the north shore of Lake Erie in Orford Township, Dan Kraus from the Nature Conservancy of Canada, and researchers from the University of Guelph and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans are rehabilitating an existing gravel pit pond on the property to a forested wetland community. Existing agricultural drainages (currently dumping into Clear Creek) will then be re-engineered into the newly created wetland and the changes to regional water quality and local biodiversity will be assessed. It is predicted that the newly created wetland habitat will allow the preserve to better retain surface flows and allow recharge of the shallow groundwater system. The goal of this research project is to determine whether the rehabilitation of the abandoned pit will enhance both the local biodiversity and regional water quality.
Dan Kraus, Conservation Science Manager for the NCC, explains plans for fall construction at the pit during at a site visit to Clear Creek Forest	Over the past year the hydrological model of the Clear Creek watershed was completed. Belinda Ward-Campbell, a Ph.D. candidate working under Dr. Rob Mclaughlin at the University of Guelph and Dr. Nicholas Mandrak (DFO), installed flow monitors at the site, and data from the flow monitors and aquatic inventories pre-construction were compiled. It was discovered that tremendous flow events occur through the Clear Creek after rain events and during the spring thaw which may be scouring the creek bottom and influencing aquatic fauna and surrounding vegetation. Diverting two agricultural drainages into the newly created wetland on site will reduce the volume of water entering the creek, and is predicted to decrease the destructive nature of these peak flow events.
The past year has also seen the completion of an ecological land classification on site and a terrestrial inventory of flora and fauna (including species at risk) was completed. This spring, the baseline ecological dataset pre-construction was completed with the spring botanical survey. Construction of the wetland and the re-routing of the agricultural drains are set to proceed this year, followed by extensive monitoring of regional water quality and local biodiversity post-construction.