Description

As its name suggests, this signature site, just southeast of Harrow, is lowlying and swampy, with an abundant population of Poison Sumac. It is the only Poison Sumac swamp in Essex County, though such wetland communities used to be more widespread prior to land clearing and drainage for agriculture. Skunk Cabbage carpets wet areas with its enormous elephant-ear leaves. Drier upland areas support a few Butternuts, a tree that is declining throuhgout much of its range due to blight.

Agriculture surrounds the area on all sides, but the wamp itself is now almost entirely protected: the Nature Conservancy of Canada owns 90% of it, from a purchase pieced together from the "Back 40s" of a number of farmers' fields (taken from the Carolinian Canada Signature Sites Guide by Lorraine Johnson 2005).

Vegetation

This site on sand plain is predominantly lowlying and swampy. Vegetation types present include lowland thicket (dogwood-poison sumac) swamp, sedge meadow, and lowland forest (yellow birch-red/silver maple), with drier portions in the northeast offering some upland woods representation (Klinkenberg, 1984 in Eagles & Beechey, 1985).

Representation

This site is certainly unique in the region, as it is the only swamp of its type left in Essex County. A high number of rare species occurs here, for so small an area (Oldham, 1983 in Eagles & Beechey, 1985).

References

* Allen, G.M., P.F.J. Eagles and S.D. Price (eds.) 1990. Conserving Carolinian Canada: Conservation Biology in the Deciduous Forest Region. University of Waterloo Press, Waterloo. 346 pp.

* Eagles, P.F.J. and T.J. Beechey (eds.) 1985. Critical Unprotected Natural Areas in the Carolinian Life Zone of Canada. Final Report, Identification Subcommittee, Carolinian Canada. The Nature Conservancy of Canada, The Ontario Heritage Foundation and World Wildlife Fund (Canada). 400 pp.

* Klinkenberg, R. 1984. Life Science Areas of Natural and Scientific Interest in Site District 7-1: A Review and Assessment of Significant Natural Areas in Site District 7-1. Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Parks and Recreational Areas, Southwestern Region, London. OFER 8403. vii + 22 pp. + appendices.

* Oldham, M.J. 1983. Environmentally Significant Areas of the Essex Region: A Background Report to the Essex Region Conservation Plan. Essex Region Conservation Authority, Essex, Ontario. viii + 426 pp.

© Natural Heritage Information Centre, 1998

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