The Mottled Duskywing butterfly (Erynnis martialis), an endangered species afforded protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), hasn’t been spotted in and around Backus Woods and St. Williams Forestry Reserve in Norfolk County since the late 1980s.

Like many butterflies, the Mottled Duskywing is selective about where it lives and what it eats. It relies on New Jersey Tea, a deciduous shrub, as its host plant. Their habitat in Ontario consists of rare and globally important habitats, such as tall grass prairie and oak savanna. Tallgrass prairie is first and foremost a grassland with minimal tree cover. Oak savannas are a grassland that is lightly forested, predominantly with oak trees. Both are dynamic environments with extremely high biodiversity and ecological benefits, however only about 3% of the historical coverage of tallgrass communities remains in Ontario.

These ecosystems benefit from low intensity fires, which rejuvenate the landscape by restoring nutrients to the soil and clearing away non-native and woody plants encroaching in these ecosystems. This is why prescribed fire is a common management tool done safely by licences professionals in tallgrass prairie habitats.

Due to the loss of this habitat over time in part through fire suppression, species such as the Mottled Duskywing have experienced reductions in populations.

The Open Country Working Group is working with the Ontario Butterfly Species at Risk Recovery Team. This Team is comprised of members from government departments, parks and conservation authorities, conservation organizations, academic institutions, relevant private organizations, as well as expert entomologists and restoration practitioners who are working across the province on the recovery of the Mottled Duskywing butterfly and restoration of the oak savanna and woodland habitats the Mottled Duskywing relies on.

In the LPWF, members of the Team are working with the Open Country Working Group to restore and enhance tallgrass prairie habitat on NCC lands identified as great candidate sites for reintroduction of the Mottled Duskywing. The Open Country Working Group, with funding from Canadian Wildlife Service, is actioning several stewardship activities include prescribed burns, conifer plantation management, removal of invasive species, and planting native wildflowers that provide a food source for pollinators. An emphasis has been placed on seeding of New Jersey Tea to support the Mottled Duskywing, although the stewardship activities on these sites within the Priority Place will support many other Species at Risk as well, including other arthropods, migratory birds, snakes, and more.

This project site is considered a significant and exciting part of a larger Mottled Duskywing recovery initiative because it involves creating habitat where it formerly existed, providing opportunities for future recovery activities.

The Recovery Team is planning its first reintroduction of the Mottled Duskywing to Pinery Provincial Park in 2021. This will be the first reintroduction of an endangered butterfly species in Ontario and paves the way for similar recovery activities in Norfolk County in the future.

Not only is this project setting the stage to bring back a species that was previously lost here, but it is also restoring and enhancing globally important ecosystems.

In Ontario, oak savannas occur in scattered locations, often as tiny remnants. Most savannas in Ontario have been converted to conifer plantations or other uses.

Long Point Basin Land Trust (LPBLT) was created 25 years ago with the goal to protect nature and biodiversity, which it does through land purchases and donations. To date, LPBLT has acquired ten properties, three of which historically supported dry oak savannas and are currently being restored or enhanced using ECCC funding through the Open Country Working Group.

One property is the 50-acre Stead Family Scientific Reserve, which was formerly 50% in marginal tobacco production and 50% Black Oak Woodland. Ken Stead purchased it to create an oak savanna insect reserve in memory of his father. In 1994, with the help of volunteers from the Norfolk Field Naturalists and funding from Carolinian Canada and TreePlan Canada, locally collected seeds, seedlings, and roots from the woodland edges were planted in the fields. Now, 27 years later, the planted area is a functional Black Oak Savanna with much of the expected native plants and animals returning, and even some surprises worth noting. Bait stations have revealed two new moth species for Canada, the Shivering Pinion (Lithophane querquera) and Roadside Sallow (Metaxaglaea viatica), and the rare Thaxter’s Sallow (Psaphida thaxterianus). These discoveries show that Kevin Costner’s quote in the movie Field of Dreams: “if you build it, they will come,” can also be applied to ecological restoration. Work continues on the property to remove the invasive exotic Autumn Olive and Eurasian cool-season grasses. In 2018, Ken Stead generously donated this wonderful place to LPBLT as a scientific reserve in honour of his family.

Another oak savanna reserve managed by the LPBLT, Spring Arbour farm, was partially cleared and replanted. Approximately half the property of Spring Arbour farm is open old fields with some regeneration of prairie grasses, Black Oak, American Hazel, Winged Sumac and Shagbark Hickory. Invasive exotic trees and shrubs are being removed and the non-native, cool-season grasses controlled. Once this is complete, new seed will enhance the site. Even now it is a great place to bird watch and there are nice views of the ravines and floodplain below along Venison Creek.

The third oak savanna newly acquired by the LPBLT is a 193-acre Trout Creek Nature Reserve northeast of Pinegrove. It has been used for commercial conifer plantations and forestry in the past. It is mostly overgrown Black – Hill’s Oak savanna. This property is adjacent to Norfolk County forests and together they are large enough to protect many significant species. In recent years, we have noted singing Whip-poor-wills and Hoary Bats, Ontario’s largest bat. In the openings, understory and edges are remnant populations of oak savanna plants ready to reclaim their place. Trout Creek Nature Reserve has a lot of regenerating Red Maple and White Pine that compete seriously with oak savanna habitats. These stands will be thinned so oaks, New Jersey Tea, Rock Rose, Arrow-leaved Violet and many other oak savanna species can flourish.