Backus Woods Carolinian Habitat Protected
In Norfolk County
The Nature Conservancy of Canada received a gift of 354 hectares from The W. Garfield Weston Foundation for its permanent preservation of this Carolinian land in south-western Ontario. Funding in the amount of $6.1 million will be used by the NCC for the purchase and long-term stewardship of ecologically sensitive lands including Backus Woods and two connecting forest properties from the Long Point Region Conservation Authority. Some of the oldest living trees in Ontario are found in Backus Woods. In addition the foundation, in May 2010, created a multi-year Norfolk Carolinian Legacy Project through which the NCC will protect 1 375 hectares of vital habitat that connects directly to both Backus Woods and the St. Williams Conservation Reserve. (February 15, 2011)
Peter Gorrie, in his article ‘The enchanted woodland ~ Ontario’s Backus Woods’, tells us that “some tree species here can be found nowhere else in Canada ~ towering tulip trees hundreds of years old almost 40 metres above the forest floor and Canada’s biggest stand of black gum trees which scientists, having bored thin cores of wood from their trunks, found the oldest sprouted here in 1579. Other trees include flowering dogwood, sassafrass and American sweet chestnut”. (Canadian Geographic, March 1, 1994)