May is the month at The Conservancy. Migration is in full swing as beautiful, diverse species make their way back to their breeding grounds for summer, volunteers are springing into action monitoring the health of these populations. The Passport to Nature has launched (on Earth Day of course) and we are preparing for our biggest community fundraiser of the year out on the Carden Alvar – the Carden Challenge!
The story of the beautiful Carden Alvar begins some 500 million years ago, when the land we call home was covered by a tropical sea. Millions of Ordovician era seashells over millions of years, were deposited on the sea bottom, through geological process this hardened to limestone. As ages passed and global temperature changed these shallow Paleozoic seas were replaced with glaciers. When the glaciers slowly melted they scrapped away the limestone’s surface making it perfectly flat. So flat it is now referred to as ‘pavement’. This is the foundation of today’s Carden Alvar, a globally rare ecosystem, just past Lake Dalrymple.
After the glaciers receded and Indigenous people embraced life in a freshly revealed southern Ontario there was a plethora of food and fresh water. Culturally important salmon, American eel and wild rice allowed them to thrive for thousands of years in this region.
Springing forward to the time of settlement the alvar pavements wouldn’t yield to a plough, and the immigrants who settled took to cattle ranching. The large tracts of land devoted to cattle farming meant that grasslands were maintained, making it an ideal spot grassland for birds to migrate to each spring.
The ebb and flow of spring floods and summer drought means only specific species are able to survive and thrive here. This stop over for migrators, and location of unique flora and fauna make the Carden Alvar a wildlife haven in the spring, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, wild amounts of biodiversity converge, and so too have conservation organizations.
It was in the early 1990’s that conservationists first turned their eye to this globally rare landscape and knew it had to be protected for future generations of humans, plants and animals. Together, The Couchiching Conservancy, Nature Conservancy of Canada and Ontario Parks have protected and maintained a wildlife corridor in the region comprised of over 10,000 acres. It is in support of this rare landscape, this massive migration, these unique species and this precious corridor that the Carden Challenge was born.
The Carden Challenge is a 24-hour birding and biodiversity marathon that raises tens of thousands per year to keep protecting this special place. Not only do participants have the joy of 24 hours in the wild, the gratification of protecting invaluable resources in our community but also the fresh wave of exhilaration each time they see one of the hundreds of species they may see in the day. It’s magic.
So, please visit the Carden Alvar – see if for yourself, or our website and support the Carden Challenge, after all, it was 500 million years in the making!
Courtney Baker is the Office and Acquisition Coordinator at The Couchiching Conservancy, protecting nature for future generations.
