Summer lives on at urban prairie preserve

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This article was published 06/09/2021 (1795 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While the Living Prairie Museum’s guided tours have wrapped up for the summer, visitors are still welcome to explore the trail system and visit the interpretive centre, where staff are eager to answer questions.

The centre is open on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. throughout September. Some of the exhibits and artifacts are roped off for the time being, as the surfaces are too delicate to sanitize regularly. But many items, such as a vast collection of prairie wildlife taxidermy, are still on display.

“If you visit the interpretive centre, it’s still a great opportunity to learn about the history of the site, speak to the interpreters,” said Sarah Semmler, the museum’s curator.

The interpreters will note species that are showing off their fall foliage, for example, prairie sage. Along with wolf willow and silver leaf scurf pea, sage is one of many plants that inspired the name of the nearby neighbourhood, Silver Heights.

The centre has a store featuring wildflower seed packets and a selection of titles that explore the province’s natural history, including native plant and animal guidebooks. The wildflower seeds are hyper local to this region, and many come from local plots in St. Norbert.

Joshua Pearlman is a technical assistant with the Living Prairie Museum. As Pearlman looked out over the preserve one late August afternoon, he noted one species with its colourful, pollinator-attracting flowers on full display—the yellow goldenrod.

“It really likes to grow along the path for some reason,” Pearlman pointed out.  

The wood chip walkways winding through the preserve offer the visitor a glimpse into the past, to a time when tall grass prairie carpeted much of southern Manitoba.

Today, experts estimate that less than one per cent of this ecosystem remains. The biome stretched as far south as Texas at its peak before industrial agriculture washed over the continent.  

This summer’s dry conditions didn’t damage the hardy, drought-tolerant prairie perennials, and animal activity has been much the same, aside from a slight decrease in bee and butterfly activity, Semmler said.

Apart from the plant and animal attractions, there are points of interest along the trails that humans caused. For example, a circular grove of non-native oak trees near the back of the preserve indicates where a family had created a homestead. The family lived in the area until the mid-1960s, Semmler said.

“It still serves as what feels like a little yard, a little enclosed space, which is a nice way to make the link to people that used this landscape in multiple ways,” she said. “We can talk about some history of the families that have been here.”

Prescribed burns are included in the Living Prairie Museum’s annual habitat management plan. Earlier this spring, experts burned a patch of land to regenerate the soil and make way for new plant growth. This area is visible from the trail.

Preserving the natural systems and biodiversity within this plot of land is vital to the future of the tall grass prairie in Manitoba, Semmler said.

“Little remnants like this are important to maintain because they have that legacy and that snapshot of what this province used to look like and that diversity to support the species that rely on it, too,” she said. “To have that within city limits, I think, is pretty amazing.”