Tallgrass Prairie & Wetland Restoration in the York Regional Forest

Nobleton Tract, York Regional Forest is located in King Township, just northeast of Nobleton, Ontario. York Region Natural Heritage and Forestry partnered with Tallgrass Ontario to plant 16.2 hectares of tallgrass prairie at this site in 2014. In 2020, approximately 6.3 hectares of prairie was farmed for two seasons as the initial drill-seeding was unsuccessful due to the amount of competition from undesirable species. The objective was to cultivate the soil, manage weeds and plant a competitive crop to reduce the seed bank of undesirable species over time. These “re-start” areas were then drill-seeded with a prairie seed mixture in spring 2022. The remaining intact prairie areas received their initial controlled burn in April 2022 and again in April 2023. The site continues to present restoration and enhancement challenges while providing important functional grassland habitat for breeding and migrating birds, including species at risk such as Bobolink and Meadowlark, and pollinators like the Monarch butterfly. In addition to the tallgrass prairie creation and restoration efforts, the TRCA has been working to restore wetland areas in conjunction with tree planting on slopes to convert areas not suitable for grassland establishment. This restoration field trip will look at the meadow, prairie, and wetland systems and discuss the specifics of their construction implementation and ongoing monitoring efforts.