Mottled Duskywing reintroduction at the Pinery

While this project might be quite beneficial regarding the Mottled Duskywing’s future in Ontario, I take issue with the common misbelief that Pinery’s current vegetation type is the result of the historical influences of Indigenous people using fire to create this savanna. If one takes note of the history of the Grand Bend to Port Franks area, it was very clearly a pine-oak forest at the time of settlement, not an oak savanna.

The prescribed burn approach to managing tallgrass prairie and oak savanna in southwestern Ontario became popular, beginning in the 1970s. I believe the Pinery managers sincerely thought they were doing the right thing, but failed to consider the area’s history. As a result prescribed burns and the removal of pines began in earnest in the Pinery/Port Franks area by about the early 1980s and has continued ever since, but ignored the history of the area. The Grand Bend to Port Franks area was heavily logged over a period of about 80 years, to the point of ‘completing the clear cut’ as quoted by logging companies in the early 1900s. The oak savanna that has been promoted and managed for in the last several decades is a result of the clear cutting that took place over that long-term logging. I know of several professional foresters within the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources who raised their eyebrows with concern, as did I, over the park managers’ actions when they initiated the removal of pines and began an aggressive prescribed burn program to perpetuate the oak savanna theme. Unfortunately this inappropriate management probably contributed to the demise of the Karner Blue Butterfly.

If you would like to know about this in more detail, check out my blog post:

https://pawsnaturenuggets.blogspot.com/2019/04/fire-right-tool-or-wrong-tool-in-our.html