Binney Corner Nature Preserve
Among the rolling grain fields of Manitoba’s Pembina Valley sits an oasis for White-tailed Deer, American Beaver, Red Fox, and countless birds both big and small. The 30 acres of preserve land north-west of Manitou has been developed and maintained by the community to save remnants of the once-vast prairie ecosystem.
Developing a similar project? Click here for the ‘How To’ of Binney Corner was developed. Visit Binney yourself: www.pvcd.ca/binney.html
Making the Binney Corner Preserve
Binney Corner Nature Preserve was established to conserve three important prairie ecosystems; open grassland, aspen forest and marshland. The land was bought by the Pembina Valley Conservation District (PVCD). Shortly after their purchase, the staff at PVCD decided that the care of the land should be in the hands of the community, and so the Binney Board of Directors was formed.
The board includes six community members from Manitou. PVCD staff are still involved to help find external sources of funding for the projects and Manitoba Conservation Resource Offices also serve as a source of guidance for environmental concerns. The original mandate of the Binney Board of Directors was to keep the preserve in as natural a state as possible. Aside from the planting of a few coniferous trees, this mandate has been upheld.
The Preserve has a lot to offer
In addition to the prairie and forests, a tributary of the Mary Jane Creek runs through the preserve. A 100 foot floating boardwalk has been built to bridge the creek. A dock was built as well.
Five short walking trails weave through the preserve offering visitors a chance to explore the prairie ecosystems. The trails are distinguished by different colours for their length and colour coded markers along the way ensure that hikers stay on track. An observation tower for wildlife viewing gives visitors a bird’s eye view of the site.
Interpretation
A trailhead at the entrance to the preserve welcomes visitors and offers the history of the land, and a map of the area. Along the walking trails interpretive signs unearth features of the surrounding environment.
Six ‘Critter Kits’ are available from the PVCD office, enabling school and public visitors to experience critter dipping at the docks in the marsh. The kits include nets, containers, magnifying glasses and identification cards for wetland critters. Binoculars and identification books for the larger animals are also found in the kits.
A guide of native flowers found on the preserve is available on the PVCD website or can be viewed at the PVCD office in Manitou. The wildflower guide was compiled by Jake Goertzen, a member of the Binney Board. Jake became familiar with native plants of the Pembina Valley from previous volunteer work as a 4-H leader for an ‘Outdoor Living’ program.
School Groups
Binney Preserve is an attraction for local schools and daycares in the Conservation District. The PVCD has arranged to cover the expense of bus transportation for local schools, and if the school is particularly lucky they may have Jake Goertzen as a bus driver Jake will stay with the group and offer a tour of the preserve. Jake is a member of the Binney Board and can offer a great deal of insight into the preserve for the groups. Students from the Manitou Envirothon teams are highly involved with Binney as it offers them hands on experience in preparation for their annual competition.
Caring for the Environment
With the help of Manitoba Conservation the grassland area of the Binney Preserve underwent a controlled burn one fall. The burn removed dead grasses and kept the bushes and trees from overgrowing the prairie. The majority of the burn was completed in one day, but Envirothon students from Manitou returned with Natural Resource Officers for another day of spot burning with pack-cans.
The only problem that the preserve has run into is the busy beaver. Beavers are given credit for creating the marshland habitat, however in some ways they have become too industrious, causing floods on the preserve and over rural roads. Between disease in the aspen trees and the beavers, the forest has suffered greatly. The Board has taken different measures to control the beaver population including removing the dam, and live trapping. The Binney Board continues to work with a local trapper who successfully controls the beaver population.
Maintenance
Trail and site maintenance is carried out by volunteers using local equipment. Some trails have been built up with shale; however Board members prefer the mowed trails as this takes less time and money to maintain. The Bord has considered using woodchips but have decided against it as the woodchips could easily be washed away in the spring by flood waters.
In the fall volunteers remove the dock and boardwalk from the water to avoid ice damage. The docks are stored on the shore during the winter months.
The PVCD and the Binney Board have produced a promotional pamphlet about the site which provides information about the natural environment, the development of Binney and directions to the preserve.
Funding
The dock and boardwalk were funded by the Environmental Youth Corp.
Funding for the six Critter Kits came from Enbridge Pipeline Inc. The observation tower was constructed by volunteers and was also funded by Enbridge Pipelines Inc. The Conservation District provided funding for a picnic area and outhouses.
Both the trailhead kiosk and interpretive signs made of lexan were developed locally by the Checker Signs of Morden Manitoba, and the trail sign by Tumbleweed Signs in Winkler. A map of the site was developed by the board.
A Lesson From Binney
Does your community have a similar project? Funding can be accessed through your local Conservation District. If the district does not have the funds of their own to support the project, staff at the district office will help find a possible outside source of funding. Funding partners and sponsors of the Binney Nature Preserve include Pembina Valley Conservation District, Enbridge Pipeline Inc., Environmental Youth Corp, Manitoba Conservation, Critical Wildlife Habitat Program, and Manitoba Water Stewardship.
Check out Binney for Yourself
Directions: Two miles West of Manitou on Highway #3, two miles North on gravel road. The trail is clearly marked along the #3 Highway.
Contact:
Kathi Furniss PVCD Administrator
261 Main St., Manitou, Manitoba
(240) 242-3267 or pvcd@goinet.ca
Organization: Binney Nature Preserve Board of Directors, Pembina Valley Conservation District
Habitats and Communities
Self-Guided Interpretive Trail
The fusion of local rural knowledge and academic knowledge lead to the development of a self-guided trail in Clearwater, Manitoba. The trail journeys through town and into the surrounding Pembina Valley, telling both the cultural and environmental histories of the regions.
Value of Local Knowledge
While working on a doctoral degree in environmental sciences and with a special interest in prairie ecology, Alexis Knispel seemed like an ideal person to lead a guided tour of the Pembina Valley. The intended tour was for a group of university students attending the Living Rural Communities and Environments course in Clearwater, Manitoba. Alexis prepared the hike with the intent of discuss the varied flora, fauna and geology of the Valley ecosystem. But after meeting local resident Roy McLaren, it was clear to Alexis that she could only offer a partial view of the Pembina Valley. Alexis had an academic understanding of the environment; but Roy offered to share the history of the environment and community, the essential story of the Valley.
The McLaren family has been living and farming in Clearwater for five generations. In fact, in the Life and Times of Clearwater, Manitoba, the Clearwater correspondent for the Winnipeg Free Press writes “Clearwater is a flourishing village. The town owners are Mr. L.O. Armstrong and Mr. Alexander McLaren”. Roy’s great grandfather, Alexander McLaren, was part owner of the village when it was first established, and the McLaren family has been farming the same two sections ever since.
Life on the Land
Having spent a lifetime walking the land, Roy has witnessed many environmental changes in the Pembina Valley. He also has an interest in the cultural history of the region, which he picked up through the years and from stories he was told by his father and grandfather. Roy will tell you of how the original wooden trestle bridge in town once wavered in a strong wind. He can tell you about the prohibition years in Clearwater, or about the livery barn that once stood in town.
At 80 years old, Roy continues to walk his property with ease, and when he guides others along the trail, he often has to slow down for the younger hikers, helping them up steep river banks and over barbed wire fences.
The changes in the Cypress Creek are particularly important to Roy. The creek that runs around the town and through the McLaren property is today no more than a trickle of what it once was. Roy wants more people to understand how the creek has been altered by human activities.
Changing Land
Roy spent his youth at the creek, fishing, catching frogs, swimming and exploring. The creek also provided a place to cut ice for family ice houses. But the drainage of prairie potholes and farmland over the years has filled the creek bed with silt. Today a person can ford the creek without any trouble, and there are no longer deep pools filled with fish and frogs.
In recent years, the sediment in the creek has caused the water to back up at the bridge where the creek flows into Rock Lake. As a result, the water runs from Rock Lake back down the river, washing out roads and causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs.
Passing Knowledge
Roy’s passion lies in telling the story of the land and the environmental changes that he has witnessed over the years. Roy wants people to open their eyes to the effects of years of bad land management practices. By taking people on the hiking trail, he hopes that they will see the direction land management has taken in the past and the future direction we should be taking. It is a history unknown to many, and Roy hopes that through education, people will become aware of the problems and work towards ways of fixing them
History Lessons
When I interviewed Roy and Alexis about the trail, Roy wasn’t interested in dwelling on his integral role in creating the trail. Rather, Roy wanted to share more about the town’s history and the environmental changes he has witnessed on the landscape. His interest is infectious, as he discussed possible routes the trail could take and other points of interest he could share with us and others.
Creating the Trail
Alexis was the first person Roy ever took on a guided hike of the area. Her interest in Roy’s stories sparked an immediate friendship and a desire to share the history of the Pembina Valley with more people. Together Roy and Alexis have mapped out a self-guiding trail through the original town site, the present day town, and the McLaren property. Shortly after their initial hike, Roy and Alexis were offering guided hikes to university students and to people attending the Harvest Moon Festival.
The trail is mostly on the McLaren land, and permission has been granted by other landowners when the trail passes onto their property. In the summertime cattle may be on the land, requiring hikers to alter their route slightly.
The trail is a component of the Harvest Moon Society’s Learning Center, and it intended to teach visitors and local resident about the rural history and changes on the land in the past 150 years. Alexis has combined the stories Roy has shared with her own ecological knowledge to write a self-guiding pamphlet for the trail.
Eventually Alexis would like to see three different trails developed, including a 1 hour hike presenting Roy’s knowledge in a pamphlet and interpretive signs along the route. The guided hike will be developed with the help of an interpretive planner. A second route will take approximately half a day to walk and a third loop will be a day long hike.
Currently funding for the interpretive trail is being sought from the Heritage Grants program from Manitoba Culture, Heritage and Tourism.
Contact Information
Alexis Knispel
Environmental Conservation Lab
303 Wallace Building, University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3T 2N2
Alexis_Knispel@umanitoba.ca