HOME & GARDEN: Huron County roadside naturalization project showing promise: Wallis
BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN
Last spring, Huron County took a bold step to implement its Rural Roadside Pilot Project, which was one of the pillars of the county’s Corporate Climate Change Adaptation Plan.
Huron County Climate Change and Energy Specialist Derry Wallis took the time to speak to The Citizen about the first year of the project, what the future holds and the potential expansion of the project if it’s successful.
“The pilot will be used to inform the creation of a long-term Enriching the Rural Roadside Strategy,” Wallis said at the time, June of 2023, “which will support beneficial roadside management practices, such as the inclusion of naturalization projects and reducing maintenance requirements on county properties to adapt and mitigate the impacts of climate change.”
The seed money for the program last year came in the form of $20,000 from the county’s forestry reserve, complemented by $8,700 from the Canadian Wildlife Federation (CWF).
The project, which has gone ahead at the Brussels-area Stevenson Tract and the Gorrie-area Adams Tract, aimed to reduce maintenance time for Huron County staff, accustomed to mowing that grass several times per year. As a result, it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the county, but the planting of native wildflowers will also sequester carbon and increase stormwater management capacity, a step on the journey to the county adapting to handle more frequent extreme weather events.
The planting will also increase pollinator environments, which Wallis says everyone should be striving for. The project will ensure reproduction of flowering plants, sustain native plants and habitats on which humans depend, while increasing carbon sequestration and soil stabilization at the chosen sites.
Wallis, in speaking with The Citizen, said that the strategy and, in turn, the roadside project, was informed by University of Guelph students a number of years ago. Furthermore, as the county assigned more time and resources to adapting for climate change, Wallis said, people within her department began looking to other Ontario municipalities that were taking on exciting and innovative projects to reduce their carbon footprint and improve their relationship to the environment.
One of those areas was Lanark County in eastern Ontario, which was replanting native shrubs and plants for environmental reasons.
So, Wallis and her team got to work. She said that it’s important to note that native plant seeds are in short supply right now, which, in addition to making them hard to get your hands on, also makes them a bit more expensive than you might anticipate. She also points out that it may be a process, in that it may take several years for the plants to fully bloom. As a result, in just the second year, she has not yet seen much in the way of output, but has high hopes for the future as planting will be taking place very soon. (Two planting events, in conjunction with local community groups - a church in Gorrie and the Brussels Lions Club near Brussels - were unfortunately cancelled, but originally scheduled for May 4. She said the Brussels club has expressed an interest in the project, so she brought members into the project with the hopes of teaching them more about it. Wallis also felt that it was a good outreach program to help teach people about naturalization so close to Earth Day.)
Another benefit of the process is that it will help shield the county against invasive species, which is an ongoing battle with any area that includes natural areas. The main species of concern in those areas are buckthorn, common periwinkle, wild chervil and phragmites.
The planting would also aid in the reduction of soil erosion, Wallis said, which is always a concern in Huron County, which is home to some of the most productive farmland in the province, as well as the country.
Last fall, the work on the two acres of property began with removal of existing grass and pulling of invasive species before tilling the soil and seeding the soil before the temperatures dropped too far.
Before planting, however, Wallis and the team needed to concoct the perfect mixture of plants they wanted to create in the Stevenson and Adams Tracts, so they reached out to the CWF to find out which mix of native plants would best work in the Huron County area.
(For those wanting to explore this idea for themselves, the CWF has something on its website to help people identify native plants and grasses for their area that is open to everyone. Check it out if this is of interest to you.)
In the end, they came up with 22 varieties of plants for the project, which are: common milkweed, green coneflower, arrow aster, butterflyweed, heath aster, upland white goldenrod, wild bergamot, evening primerose, showy tick-trefoil, bushclover, hairy pink beardtongue, wild columbine, brown-eyed Susan, Virginia mountain mist, big blue stem, Canada rye, little blue stem, Savannah grass, slender wheat, switch grass and Virginia rye.
Furthermore, in addition to providing guidance on just the right mix to make their naturalization dreams come true, Wallis said the CWF was also very generous with its staff time and resources, providing knowledge and guidance every step of the way.
Another factor in finding the right mix, she said, was taking into account not just the region itself, but the attributes of each specific site. To be specific, different species of plants were chosen for each site because one is more wet and the other is more dry, so seeds were chosen for each of the two sites based on their ability to thrive in either wet or dry conditions.
As for the planting itself, Wallis said this will be a big year for the two sites, to see how they take to the natural seeds and what grows and what doesn’t. This spring, summer and fall will do a lot of heavy lifting in regards to educating Wallis and her team to see what works and what doesn’t ahead of planting again in the fall and another warm-weather season in 2025. This year will show them if there are any changes that need to be made.