Fleming College

The effort, a collaboration between non-profit, academic, and private organizations, is focusing on planting on lands owned by the Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust in Northumberland County, cultivating the specific habitat that will attract these birds. The Ontario Kirtland’s Warbler Working Group – the driving force behind this exciting project – involves the Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust, Fleming College, GEI Consultants, Birk’s Natural Heritage Consultants, Simcoe County, American Bird Conservancy, and the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

The current effort to create a habitat in Northumberland County was inspired by a recent initiative to create Kirtland’s Warbler habitat in the County of Simcoe’s Packard Tract. Peter Burke, Senior Ecologist for GEI Consultants who led the project, was thrilled when the birds appeared: “In 2022, not only did one bird show up, but three males set up territories. That may have been ten percent or more of the Canadian population. It demonstrates that we can achieve a Canadian conservation success story with the right conditions and people working together.”

Burke credits Simcoe County Head Forester Graeme Davis and Invasive Species specialist Will Cox for their contributions to the success. “In the U.S., partnerships involving federal and state forestry and wildlife resource departments have been critical to the warbler’s population growing from about 150 singing males in the 1980s to more than 2000 today” Burke notes. Habitat management was such a success in the recovery of this conservation-reliant bird, that Kirtland’s Warbler was removed from the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 2019.

Aileen Barclay, Program Director for the Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust, explains: “We approached this project a little differently from the Simcoe County project as we started from the ground up on former marginal agricultural lands. It was bare soil, and we are restoring a forest ecosystem on it.” Barclay adds that “recovery of the U.S. population was achieved by timber harvesting and replanting using the right density of trees with scattered openings needed by the bird. The breeding areas are on large state or federal forests, but in our case, it is retired agricultural land owned by a non-profit.”

Sue Walmer, CEO of the Land Trust states: “This is by far the greatest amount of restoration work our organization has done for any of our properties. All native species seeds were collected from the surrounding landscape and processed by hand; the trees will also be hand-planted. We are grateful for the Ontario government’s Species at Risk Stewardship Program funding to help us do the work.” The property was bought with funding from the Government of Canada’s Nature Smart Climate Solutions Fund, the Government of Ontario’s Greenlands Conservation Partnership program, The MapleCross Fund, the Sitka Foundation, the ECHO Foundation, and the McLean Foundation.

The group is excited to be the first to restore Kirtland's Warbler habitat on agricultural lands, which has its challenges. Dr. Ben Walters, Professor in Fleming College’s forestry cluster, who surveyed the site’s soils and helped with project design explains, “a lack of examples for creating the habitat from agriculture means compiling a lot of research to create an approach. Like most species at risk, Kirtland’s Warblers have specific habitat needs.” Funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council’s (NSERC) College and Community Social Innovation Fund, Walters and student researchers compiled the habitat information and worked with the partners to create options. “Kirtland’s Warblers require a young pine forest with a high tree density and some openings that have certain plants growing in them,” Walters says. “In Michigan where the warbler thrives, the native vegetation is still prominent there, so they plant the trees, and the ground vegetation fills in naturally without specific management. Here, we had to find and collect the seeds of species that are now scarce on our landscape due to forest clearing and fire suppression since European colonization. We will experiment with species mixes and how long to allow the plants to grow before planting the trees into the habitat.” New funding secured in June 2024 from the Ganawenim Meshkiki Initiative will support more seed collecting, seed cleaning and planting activities to increase the amount of future habitat on the site.

There is concern over whether conservation projects should target a single species such as the Kirtland’s Warbler. Ken Tuininga, a retired Canadian Wildlife Service employee who managed the federal Kirtland’s Warbler recovery team and is now an ecologist with Birk’s Natural Heritage Consultants, adds that “although we are mostly focusing on one species, we are more importantly creating a naturally existing ecosystem. The habitat will also be used by many naturally occurring species here, some of which, like the Grasshopper Sparrow, Common Nighthawk, Eastern Hog-nosed Snake, and Mottled Duskywing, are also species at risk.” Tuininga further explains “planning focused on one species, but its habitat is like an umbrella that benefits all species that use the forest ecosystem.”

Forests Ontario provided tree planting subsidies through the Canadian Government’s Two Billion Trees program. Val Deziel, Director of Restoration Programs, has been watching this project closely as it combines elements of two of her program’s focal habitats - forests and grasslands. “The forest openings in Kirtland’s Warbler habitat are not exactly grasslands, but they include plants found in tallgrass prairie communities as they can handle the dry, sandy soils,” Deziel explains. “This project shows how many pieces combine to make an ecosystem and the benefits we see when we include them all. Restoring whole ecosystems increases the amount of carbon being stored, improves the ecosystem's health, and creates habitat that can be used by more wildlife, including this endangered species.”

Jessica Kaknevicius, CEO of Forests Ontario, adds “This project shows that simple-looking pine plantations can be more than just tree farming. These can restore ecosystems that would naturally regrow after wildfire but are now not as common because of management practices like fire suppression. Forest management is changing, we are working towards natural, ecology-based approaches, so the Kirtland’s Warbler and other wildlife benefit from this kind of thinking.”

It takes a few growing seasons for the trees to reach the right height for Kirtland’s Warbler. In the meantime, the group will keep learning about the habitat and improving methods to replace what the bird needs. They also aim to expand the warbler’s habitat by acquiring lands and working with the government, forest industry, and private landowners across central Ontario from Lake Huron to the Ottawa Valley. The Ontario Kirtland’s Warbler Working Group recognizes the critical financial contributions of the Government of Canada, the Government of Ontario, the MapleCross Fund, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Forests Ontario, GEI Consultants, American Bird Conservancy and Ganawenim Meshkiki (GMI), a Trustee of the Eastern Georgian Bay Initiative (EGBI).

“It’s encouraging to see so many partners come together to make a positive difference for our natural environment and the species that depend on it,” said Andrea Khanjin, Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks. “Congratulations to all the organizations and individuals involved in this important effort to protect and restore the habitat for one of the rarest songbirds in North America. This project is proof that conservation is a team effort.”

If you are interested in supporting this initiative or have more than 20 hectares (50 acres) of land with sandy soils that you would possibly like to create Kirtland’s Warbler habitat on, contact Ben Walters at benjamin.walters@flemingcollege.ca.

Funding notes:

Over $11.7M in funding will be provided from Environment and Climate Change Canada’s (ECCC)’s Nature Smart Climate Solutions Fund (NSCSF) to the Ontario Land Trust Alliance to support nature-based projects that promote carbon storage and capture while providing important habitat for species at risk and/or species of cultural and local importance. This is part of the $1.4 billion that Canada has invested in the Nature Smart Climate Solutions Fund. These funds will be matched from other sources including individual donations and foundation support, as well as other levels of government.

The Greenlands Conservation Partnership program helps conserve ecologically important natural areas and protect wetlands, grasslands and forests that help mitigate the effects of climate change. Through the Greenlands Conservation Partnership program, a total of $38 million has been invested to date by the Ontario government with an additional $20 million committed through the 2024 Ontario Budget. Additional match funds are raised from other sources, such as individual donations and foundation support through the Nature Conservancy of Canada and the Ontario Land Trust Alliance, and other levels of government.

Through the Species at Risk Stewardship Program, the Ontario government invests $4.5 million annually in stewardship and research. This program helps protect and recover plants and animals that are at risk. The Species at Risk Stewardship Program encourages people and organizations to get involved in protecting and recovering species at risk and their habitats through stewardship activities. It’s part of Ontario’s track record of strong environmental stewardship, preserving the rich biodiversity of our province for future generations.

We acknowledge the support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).