Trees planted to protect vulnerable wetlands in Blandford-Blenheim

An environmental initiative has taken root in Oxford County in hopes of protecting some of the province’s vulnerable wetlands.

Ducks Unlimited Canada, the Grand River Conservation Authority, climate resilience initiative Nature Force and local landowners have worked together on five wetland restoration projects throughout Blandford-Blenheim over the last two years.

“Nature Force is a group of insurance companies that have invested in wetland restoration as natural infrastructure. Natural infrastructure is geared toward the reduction of flooding,” Nick Krete, conservation program specialist with Ducks Unlimited Canada, said. “As you can imagine, insurance companies would have a vested interest in reducing flooding and claims that would come in from that.”

Those resiliency efforts continued with tree planting in Plattsville on Thursday.

Landowner Dennis Willms said when the idea was first purposed to him he had his doubts.

“Ducks Unlimited approached us about a year ago and asked us whether we would engage with them in wetland restoration on our property,” Willms said. “As landowners, we were a bit suspicious initially, but they convinced us and in that engagement they had with us conversationally, we recognized the beauty of what this could be and what is has become.”

Volunteers plant trees in Plattsville as part of a wetland restoration project on September 12, 2024. (Dan Lauckner/CTV News)

Willms’ land was one of the properties chosen by Ducks Unlimited after they had determined the general area where they could do some remediation work. They then looked for landowners who seemed to be community-minded and eco-conscious.

“This is part of the Washington Creek watershed here which is a cold water trout stream. We have a monitoring component as part of this. There’s monitoring that's going on in the stream channel. With these wetlands in place, we have baseline data from before the wetlands were put in so we can actually measure the tangible difference we have made in flood attenuation,” Krete explained.

Volunteers plant trees in Plattsville as part of a wetland restoration project on September 12, 2024. (Dan Lauckner/CTV News)

All remediation work is completed at no cost to the landowner.

The work done so far has already made a noticeable difference.

“This looks very different than last year. It was sort of very wet. Many years ago there was apparently a pond here that was dammed up by beavers, but this has always been very wet. It was difficult to access the woodlands we have here. This has enriched not only the whole look of it, but its feasibility,” Willms reflected, looking around at his land.

“Now, when we come down here, we see all kinds of diverse things we never saw before. Which in itself becomes an educational moment for the community, for young people, for us even. It has really impacted us personally. Consciously. It’s really a demonstration of how important it is to have stakeholder collaboration and partnerships,” Willms said.