In a recent outing to the immense and unsung Wainfleet Bog with my girlfriend, Maria Fratangelo, we were greeted face-to-face with one of Niagara’s rarest birds of prey in an area of 3607 acres.
The short-eared owl is a rarity in Ontario, often eclipsed in comparison to the more populated and popular great horned owl and eastern screech owl. It was Maria’s first visit to Niagara Peninsula’s most massive green space, one of the few areas where you can’t hear traffic or see building in any direction as far as the senses can reach. As I told Maria and the guests I take here every year, Wainfleet Bog is not scenic in the traditional sense, but it oozes an essence of wildness not found anywhere else in the region.
Maria and I walked along an abandoned railway that had small trees and bushes growing between its rails. This is a mathematical and biological testament to prove that the extraction of peat stopped in this bog in the 1990s. Peat, a type of condensed carbon-rich moss, was extracted and packaged in hay bale-like chunks to be used as fuel for heating, housing insulation and an alternative to manure for farm fields. These railways once carried the peat out to the roadways in carts for distribution.
The 1990s was a time where modern western society had epiphanies that some ecosystems were better off preserved than destroyed, and Wainfleet Bog barely came out on the winning side of that seismic shift. Although about 90 per cent of the original bog was destroyed due to peat mining and general deforestation, one statistic remains untouched — size matters.
Ever since Canada’s southernmost bog was allowed to heal and grow back naturally, the sheer size of the now protected landscape, overseen by the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority, remains its greatest asset. There is a general theme in ecosystems around the world; larger area equals higher biodiversity. In other words, bigger intact environments are generally capable of supporting more species of plants and animals than their smaller counterparts.
Therefore, it is no surprise that Niagara Peninsula’s Wainfleet Bog (3607 acres), Short Hills Provincial Park (1600 acres) and Willoughby Marsh (550 acres) are some of the most lively areas of not just Niagara, but all of Canada, given their southern location and short winters.
Let’s circle back to the circular big eyes that Maria made eye contact with in Wainfleet Bog. The short-eared owl does not frequent busy, noisy or populated areas. To find this rare species perched a few feet off the ground and at eye height was a celebratory moment for Maria. I walked right by the perfectly camouflaged owl — it must have tried to remain as still as possible to avoid detection. Maria had a brief but amazing “staring contest” with the magnificent bird before it took flight, which we both watched in amazement. It all happened so fast that I don’t have a photo to show for it, and that’s fine by me.
The short-eared owl’s presence is a sign from nature that we were in a grand natural area. Here’s the thing with big ecosystems; they are devoid of human interruptions such as high visitation rates, roads, air traffic, noise pollution, light pollution and illegal dumping. Even for the hunters who legally hunt in the bog, they will tell you this as much as I would- much of it is impenetrable. Waist-deep waters and thorns in your face are not everyone’s cup of tea, but the wildlife thrives out here in areas that humans simply can’t get to in any form of ease.
Larger habitat areas allow for animal and plant populations to spread themselves out and further diversify their genetics. In other words, creating healthy distance between members of the same species allows time and space for unique genetic traits to develop, and when they find each other again, the genetic richness increases and acts as safeguard for diseases and other sweeping threats to populations. This is especially true for the eastern massasauga rattlesnake, the carnivorous sundew plant, wild cotton, and potential presence of cougars that call the bog home.
In places like the most developed area of Canada (that’s us), there is immense value in preserving these wild lands with the best interests of biodiversity and our human wellness alike. There is more than enough science out there to show how large and biodiverse natural areas benefit our economy and mental health in the same stroke of their existence. If you want to feel this for yourself at the human level, get some rubber boots and dare to penetrate the wildest spot remaining in the region, the legendary Wainfleet Bog.