Three years on from the launch of its award-winning ‘Stepping into Nature’ self-guided walking tour of the Minden riverwalk, the Haliburton County Master Gardeners (HCMG) is preparing to unveil a similar feature for the Minden boardwalk.
Featuring 10 stops unpacking vital information about the marsh and swamp located in Minden’s downtown, the boardwalk tour will launch May 22. Master gardener Carolyn Langdon said people can stop by the boardwalk in-person to check out installed panels or take the tour virtually, through the STQRY Guide app.
“There’s a bit of a lasting legacy to this. If we were to hold a workshop about the marsh, we might have 10 people attend. But this interpretive tour is a permanent form of education. It’s accessible and the signs are written in a way that everyone can understand, even young people,” Langdon said.
It was a collaborative effort. While the HCMG did all the heavy lifting researching the area and planning the panels, the project has been funded by a $4,500 grant from the Haliburton County Development Corporation. CanoeFM assisted with audio recordings, Minden Hills township installed the signposts, and the County is covering the annual subscription for the app, which people can use to learn more about each stop.
Langdon said, originally, HCMG wanted to release the boardwalk tour alongside the riverwalk offering in 2023.
“That was the plan, but the boardwalk was shut down around that time for needed repairs. So, this has always been in the back of our mind… the marsh plays such an important role in our community. We feel it has a story that needs to be told,” Langdon said.
While some of the boardwalk remained underwater earlier this week, leftover from April’s flooding, Langdon said the water should have subsided in time for Friday’s launch.
The panels, designed by Parker Pad and Printing, cover various topics. There’s information about the wetland’s makeup. Langdon said it’s considered an accession wetland, meaning it’s made up of different components, in this case a marsh and boggy swamp.
“We go into the differences between them and what kind of plant material each supports,” she said. “It provides facts about wetland types and food web interactions between the plants and animals that call this habitat home.”
There’s a profile on two populous plants – the red elderberry and virgin’s bower; a breakdown of the different bird populations that frequent the marsh, from the redtailed hawk and indigo bunting to the alder flycatcher and song sparrow; an Indigenous component, reflecting on the role and importance of water to Indigenous people; and a panel celebrating biodiversity in the wetland.
Langdon said there’s also a feature called ‘dead tree standing’ looking at the important role felled limbs play.
“We make reference to the fact that, even after a tree has died, it keeps giving life. Sometimes, a dead tree is so full of life that it supports more life than when it was alive,” Langdon said. “It’s really important to leave logs lying down in the forest, allow them to rot. They provide incredible stores of food, because they attract insects that break down the wood and they can attract birds and small mammals looking to form a new habitat.”
Another panel focuses on ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ and highlights the everchanging landscape of the site.
“We went in there early last summer and did an inventory of all the plants we found. Then we went back at the end of summer and a beaver had disrupted things dredging muck to dam a culvert,” Langdon said. “The marsh was going dry because of the drought we had last year. The beavers were so active they inadvertently uprooted a whole community of plants. They completely disappeared.
“So, we talk about them because they will come back over time,” she added.
Aside from sustaining native life, the marsh plays a pivotal role in sponging water in the spring, when much of Minden is on flood watch. Langdon said without it, there would likely be a major flood event every year.
“The marsh absorbs a tremendous quantity of water. During weather events, the water spreads out and so this marsh slows down the water and filters it. It takes away pollutants and excess nutrients from the water, meaning downstream, in places like Gull Lake, the water flowing is a lot cleaner.”
Langdon credited fellow master gardener Ruth Treloar for compiling much of the information, which she said took hundreds of hours. She also thanked local bird enthusiast Cheryl Fraser for her contributions.
Friday’s launch will feature a unique ribbon cutting, using Virginia creeper, with speeches from Anishinaabe elder Mary Jane Macleod and Minden Hills mayor Bob Carter. Langdon said all attendees will receive a native plant that they can take home. It begins at 2 p.m.
For more information, visit www. haliburtonmastergardener.ca.
