Canadian Wildlife, May/June 2009
Lots of Refuge: Private landowners are helping wildlife find food and shelter by nurturing woodlots.
By Sharon Oosthoek
Russell McNally and his wife Marjorie bought their 81-hectare Nova Scotia woodlot about 30 years ago, fully aware that managing it would be no walk in the park. “It was not in good shape,” recalls McNally. “It had been high-graded — they targeted the best trees for lumber and shipbuilding and left the poorest ones.”
The woodlot’s location on the slopes of Nuttby Mountain near Truro, one of the highest points in the province, meant they also had to contend with high winds and heavy snowfall. And so McNally got to work, applying everything he knew about coaxing woodlands back to health. As a forest technician with the provincial Department of Natural Resources, he knew quite a lot.
McNally planted rows of fast-growing red pine on a parcel of abandoned farmland to shelter the surrounding woods from high winds. He thinned damaged and lower value trees, replanting them with more robust species native to Acadian forests. He also built nesting boxes, and created ponds both for wildlife and as insurance against fires.
And when McNally discovered two declining wild apple trees, he nursed them back to health. They reward him with a crop every few years that he shares with foraging deer and partridge.
Nearly three decades later, he and a long list of wildlife — beavers, cougars, rabbits, trout, ducks, hawks, eagles, owls and songbirds — are all enjoying the fruits of his labour.
Anecdotal evidence suggests McNally is on the vanguard of a growing movement among private landowners to rehabilitate woodlots and create a home for wildlife. Whether it’s corridors linking isolated patches of forest or full-on restoration of degraded areas, wildlife is top of mind. And in a province like Nova Scotia, where private individuals own half the land, well-managed woodlots are key to any attempt at habitat restoration.
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