Where Prairie is located in Ontario
photo of Rice Lake Prairie (Alderville, Ontario)
Prairie in Ontario is situated in roughly a triangle stretching from the tip of Georgian Bay, southwest to Lake St. Clair, then northeast to the Trent River, and west to Georgian Bay.
For the most part, tallgrass prairie in Ontario is limited to small fragments. While large sections of prairie still exist at Walpole Island First Nation near Wallaceburg and at the Ojibway prairie complex in Windsor, most prairie can be found along railway right-of-ways, and in the corners of fields.
click here to view map of prairie locations in Ontario, it is a
large jpeg file so be warned.
Tallgrass Prairie
Tallgrass prairie is dominated by grasses that reach up to three meters in height. As it requires a fair bit of moisture, it can be found furthur east then other types of prairie ( short grass, mixed grass).
Branchton Prairie Remnants
Brantford Prairies
Dunwhich Prairie
Holland Landing
Ojibway Nature Reserve and Prairie Remmants
Rice Lake Prairies
Walpole Island Indian Reservation Prairies
Savannah
Savannah is an ecosystem where scattered trees contribute only 10% to 50% canopy cover. The trees are widely spaced due to competition for moisture and nutrients. In a continuum of ecosystem dilineation determined by an increasing requirement for moisture, savannah is the ecosystem that is situated between tallgrass prairie and oak forest. Since the two ecosystems are contigious the interdegration between species can be prounced. As a result of the minimal canopy closure and the resulting abundent sunlight the majority of the understory species are species of the tallgrass prairie. There are however species that are truely associated with savannah. The classic indicator being the False Foxgloves Aureolaria spp.
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In addition to oak savannah in Ontario, there are also limited areas of cedar savannah in Southwestern Ontario and aspen parkland in Northwestern Ontario.
Savannah is a far more restricted community than prairie in Ontario. This fascinating community is worth of a website of its own.
Pinery Provincial Park
High Park Oak Woodland
Alvars
An alvar is a limestone plain. They can be fissured or relatively unfissured.While most prairies exist on deep well drained soils many prairie plants, because of their drought tolerance can also grow on these inhospitable limestone environments. In the U.S. Midwest these situations are called "goat prairies" an allusion to goats being the only animals that could survive on the vegetation. In Ontario there is some reluctance to recognise plant communities on alvar as being prairie.
In Ontario we are fortuante to have some of the finer alvar communities in North America. The better examples occur on Manitoulin Island, the Bruce Pennisinula, and in eastern Ontario near along theTrent River and in Carden Township. Alvar communities are currently receiving a lot of attention, and are also worthy of their own website.
Miscellaneous Prairie Habitats in Ontario
Other situation where prairie plants also occur in Ontario are on a very limited area of Oriskany sandstone near Haggersville; on several sand plains in Norfolk-Haldimand Region and Holland Landing on Lake Simcoe and along the Great Lakes Shoreline praticularly along Lake Huron.
Some of the Great Lakes shoreline prairie is also called "fen". If these "fens" are dominated by prairie grasses it makes sense to call them "wet prairies".
The prairies listed above are only a small sample of what can be found in Ontario. Prairie is being restored or created in many places in Ontario as people come to appreciate its beauty and uniqueness. There are scores of prairie creation and restoration initiatives underway in a wide range of situations on private and public lands. For furthur information please see "who's involved in prairie page"
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