The arrival of winter last week wrapped up what was an incredibly busy season for the volunteers behind Winkler’s Discovery Nature Sanctuary.
The 34-acre site at the northeast corner of the city features walking trails that wind their way through natural grassland and woodland habitats resting alongside seven acres of wetlands.
Board chair Paul Goossen shares that the team got to work on the expansion of the site’s pollinator garden as soon as last winter’s snow had melted in the spring.
“We had initiated that particular pollinator garden a few years ago and we’ve been trying to do something with the remaining space there,” he says, stressing the importance the garden plays in providing habitats for bees and butterflies that pollinate local plants and crops.
“Part of that was this year we put in over 1,7000 native plants in the springtime. We also added just over 120 native shrubs and trees just adjacent to the garden there. It provided a really nice addition to that area.”
It took a small army of volunteers to get that planting blitz completed and to care for the fledgling plants throughout the summer.
“We’re so grateful to the volunteers that helped with that,” Goossen says. “It was a lot of work, a lot of watering, a lot of weeding and weeding and weeding.”
Many of the plants thrived and Goossen is eager to see how much taller they’ll grow next summer. They also plan to further expand the pollinator garden with more plants.
“We’re thinking of doing maybe about half what we planted this year,” he says, “and then adding a few more shrubs as well.”
Volunteers will be needed again for that project come spring.
“It would make our work a lot easier if we had a lot more volunteers,” Goossen says. “People that love to pull weeds or just like to get away and do a little bit of gardening, that would be really helpful.”
A call for help will go out in a few months, but you can also reach out to the organizing committee in advance by email to discoverynaturesanctuary@gmail.com.
“Whether it’s planting or whether it’s weeding or watering, there are lots of different jobs there that people can help us take care of,” Goossen says.
The sanctuary’s grassland restoration project also took a big jump forward this summer.
Volunteers had previously prepared about 6.5 acres for the planting of native grasses. This summer saw the first round of seeding happen.
“We’ve been sort of prepping the area for two or three years now,” says Goossen. “We’re hoping next year to do some more seeding because some of the areas didn’t take, and so hopefully those areas can be prompted to burst forth into grasses in the future.”
The hope is to provide visitors with a glimpse of the prairies of years gone by.
“A lot of people, when they think of prairies, a lot of them just think of crops and agriculture,” Goossen says. “Historically, you know, the southern part of Manitoba was just a sea of grasses mostly.
“I’m hoping that this will give people a sense of what the prairie used to look like.”
The summer also saw the installation of new information kiosks at the east and west entrances of the sanctuary, a brand new logo created by a local high school student (now available on T-shirts sold at the Winkler Chamber offices, with proceeds going to DNS projects), and additional conservation work by way of a large mound of earth in the northwest corner of the site modified to provide a nesting habitat for Bank Swallows.
Hopefully next spring visitors will enjoy seeing a flurry of activity at the face of the mound as the swallows begin to make use of this area for nesting, Goossen says.
He’s also hoping 2024 will see more field trips to the sanctuary by local schools.
Over 450 student visits took place at DNS this year, including students from both Garden Valley School Division and Western School Division.
It’s a great chance for kids to learn about the environment and biodiversity in an outdoor setting so close to home, Goossen says.
“It’s an outdoor living classroom which I think could be used a lot more by schools, particularly the younger kids,” he says. “There’s so much potential there.”
Goossen says the committee is always pleased to see the sanctuary filled with people enjoying nature, snapping photos and bird watching.
“Pretty much every time that I come there’s at least one or more people using the site,” he says. “It’s very gratifying to see it’s being used.”
While the trails aren’t maintained in the winter, the Discovery Nature Sanctuary remains open year-round from dusk until dawn.
“It’s a place just to go and think, relax,” says Goossen.
Supplied Photos
The Discovery Nature Sanctuary in Winkler
