Alderville Black Oak Savanna – Jewel of the Rice Lake Plains

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Wild Blue Lupines

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Located on Alderville First Nation, the Alderville Black Oak Savanna is the largest intact tract of native grassland in Central Ontario.

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Ecological Restoration - Education - Research

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Grasslands: A carbon sequestration powerhouse.

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Bye Bye Buckthorn! Huge thanks to the volunteers w

Bye Bye Buckthorn! Huge thanks to the volunteers who came out this evening to help us remove invasive European Buckthorn! Invasive species management is a never-ending part of ecological restoration and natural area management. If you’d like to attend future events, be sure to sign up on the volunteer list through our website.

We couldn’t let this day fully pass without shar

We couldn’t let this day fully pass without sharing a tribute to our Ecological Restoration & Stewardship Coordinator, Radek Odolczyk, who joined us 10 years ago today! Whether you know him as Radicle Radek, the Rad Man, Mushroom Boy or Radek, almost everyone who has worked at, with or adjacent to the Alderville Black Oak Savanna over the past decade remembers him, and for good reason! While it has taken the minds, efforts and dedication of many over the years to transform the site into what it is today, Radek’s tireless effort has been absolutely pivotal. If you have any special Radek memories, we’d love to read them in the comments! And don’t miss the short video at the end to see the results of all that hard work.

Alderville Black Oak Savanna is hosting a contest

Alderville Black Oak Savanna is hosting a contest for turtle and nest sightings throughout AFN. It's as easy as recording a sighting for a chance to win!

Since 2017, the Alderville Black Oak Savanna team

Since 2017, the Alderville Black Oak Savanna team has been working to restore Sandercock Creek. Efforts to create a more robust buffer between the creek and surrounding farmland, enhance stream morphology, and increase biodiversity have finally started to show signs of success, with fish sitings in the creek both last fall and this spring! Last week the team initiated fish surveys in the creek as part of the Stream to Shore project. 4 fish traps were set and although they each came out empty this time, surveying will continue at regular intervals throughout the season. We hope the ongoing stream restoration efforts will continue improving this cold water creek habitat, allowing it to become a prime habitat for diverse fish species and benthic invertebrates!

Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis) is a great al

Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis) is a great ally in prairie restoration. This native, prairie-loving plant can survive low-intensity fire (as pictured with the crispy dried edges). In their first year of growth the plant forms a basal rosette that protects the soil and takes away space from other non-native species. In their second year, they grow a tall flower stalk with yellow flowers that smell like fruit-loops and bloom in the evening, giving it the common name Evening Primrose. It is also the host plant for the striking Evening Primrose moth (Schinia florida), spotted at the Pamitaashkodeyong restoration site last summer. #prairie #plants #pollinators #grassland #tallgrassprairie

It is so exciting to see Wild Blue Lupine seedling

It is so exciting to see Wild Blue Lupine seedlings having germinated and growing in a relatively new management unit! This little Lupine is happily growing at Pamitaashkodeyong in one of this years burn blocks! We are always humbled to be reminded that restoration works!

Come on out to help tidy up our wonderful communit

Come on out to help tidy up our wonderful community next Monday! Lunch provided for participants. Meet at ACC!

With our prescribed burn season complete we seeded

With our prescribed burn season complete we seeded approximately 60 kg of seed (tallgrass species and a small amount of wildflowers) over a total of 44 acres at the Pamitaashkodeyong restoration site! We are seeding these areas to establish more prairie species as these acres are early in the restoration timeline. Species in the seed mix like Canada Wild Rye compete with non-native species and become a great fuel source, allowing us to continue carrying fire through these areas, which is one of our greatest allies in prairie establishment!

Last week we had the lucky opportunity to broadcast into snow. Snow-seeding provides a very easy way to visually track seed covereage and the snow provides moisture to support the seeds in breaking their dormancy, as the snow melts it carries the seeds deeper into the soil, increasing the seed-to-soil contact and giving them their best chance to grow.

We intentionally seeded the final area this past sunny Tuesday before a thunderstorm that evening. The rain, much like the snow carries the seeds deeper into the soil!

Check out these exciting signs of spring on the Sa

Check out these exciting signs of spring on the Savanna!! Prairie Buttercup in bloom and Wild Blue Lupine popping up in one of our burn units! Every year it is incredible to see the land wake up after a long winters nap.

2024 Burn Season. Recently there was an article pu

2024 Burn Season. Recently there was an article published by the New Yorker called Catching the Fire Bug. A highly recommended read, this passage was especially relatable to our team:

“The smoke smelled comforting—like a mixture of sage and resin, citronella and my grandpa. There was a kind of horticultural joy, too. Our flames destroyed the young Eastern red cedars that threatened to turn prairie into woodland. The newly blackened earth absorbed the sun and then warmed, which signalled to the bulbs and the rhizomes that they could emerge and drink light from the big sky.”

This morning we seeded some of the units burned la

This morning we seeded some of the units burned last week, just in time for the snow to pull the seed down into the soil and help stratify and break dormancy!

Whether or not a unit is seeded and how much seed we distribute is determined by what stage of restoration the unit is in. Units that are further along and have established Tallgrass habitat on them receive little to no seeding as they already have their own seed source! Species mixes are determined by site and habitat type. We mix our seed with sawdust to help distribute it more evenly and so we can more easily see it on the dark, burnt earth. 🌱

Seed seed seed ❤️collected and cleaned last fa

Seed seed seed ❤️collected and cleaned last fall, now being weighed out and mixed to be spread onto our burn blocks! Check out all those colours, textures, shapes and sizes! Can you guess which seeds belong to which plant?!

Another amazing day conducting burns to restore ra

Another amazing day conducting burns to restore rare tallgrass habitat!! Again, endless thanks to the volunteers who assist our team and allow us to pull off these technical fires🔥Todays unit was treated as 2 to complete, making a total of 8 burns at the Black Oak Savanna site. The next step will be to seed these areas and watch as they green up and spring to life in the coming weeks.

Today we conducted 3 prescribed burns. They were a

Today we conducted 3 prescribed burns. They were all a success, thanks to the amazing crew of volunteers who came out to help our small team pull it off! That makes 6 units burned so far…. And it’s not even spring yet.

At the Black Oak Savanna, we love our WORK 🔥🔥🔥 Today was a success and our burn season is off to a great start. Please keep an eye out for further burn announcements over the next week or so

We are currently hiring 2 seasonal positions (Marc

We are currently hiring 2 seasonal positions (March-December 2024 @ 35 hrs/week). Check out the link in our bio for the job posting and to learn how to apply!

The focus this week has been felling hazard trees

The focus this week has been felling hazard trees (mostly Ash having succumbed to Emerald Ash Borer) at one of our restoration sites and removing the brush, to ensure there isn’t too much fuel in the burn block come spring!

Here’s our amazing field team in our latest toy

Here’s our amazing field team in our latest toy (sorry, we mean tool😆). We are very fond of them.

A recent frosty afternoon at the ecology center 🩵

Some photos from workshop 2 of our Landscapes of C

Some photos from workshop 2 of our Landscapes of Colour series. This time we used our freshly dyed wool to felt small ornaments and images. Check out some of these amazing results!

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