Location: Near the southern end and outflow of South Lake, Township of Minden Hills, County of Haliburton
Donor: Dennis Barry
Property Size: 100 acres (40 hectares)
Acquisition Date: 2012
Features: The Reserve is part of the provincially significant Kendrick Creek Wetland Complex and is located within the Highlands Corridor.
Activities: Due to its ecologically sensitive nature and/or safety issues, there is no public access to this property.
Not Allowed: There is no public access to this property. Visit Dahl Forest or Barnum Creek Nature Reserve for hiking trails.
About
The Fred & Pearl Barry Wetland Reserve is a 100-acre property that includes approximately 62 acres of wetland. The property was donated to the Land Trust, through the Government of Canada’s Ecological Gifts Program, in 2012 by Dennis Barry, with support from Dennis’s wife, Margaret Carney and his family.
“Margaret and I feel it is critically important to ensure long-term protection for the wetland complex,” said Barry. “We feel that the Haliburton Highlands Land Trust is in the best position to bring this about.”
History
In the 1940s, Fred and Pearl Barry owned a farm on the road between Minden and Kinmount. At that time, Ontario Hydro cleared a corridor through the farm to build twin tower lines. After the forest was cleared, several huge piles of maple trunks were left behind. Fred Barry traded that wood for the lot that is now owned by the Land Trust and named in his honour - the Fred and Pearl Barry Wetland Reserve.
Learn more about the Fred and Pearl Barry Wetland Reserve by reading this booklet, The Gift of Place.
If you are interested in donating land to the Haliburton Highlands Land Trust, please click here for more information.
Ecology
The Reserve is predominantly wetland that includes a black ash swamp, marshes and a bog. This bog is the largest bog component of the provincially significant Kendrick Creek Wetland Complex. The deep pockets of peat in this bog are important carbon sinks in Haliburton County.
Beavers have occupied the wetland continuously since at least the 1940s, and probably since long before the first settlers arrived. As a result, the nature reserve is home to a large and diverse number of species.
The wetland is confirmed habitat for the Blanding’s Turtle, which is a threatened species in Ontario. Canada Warblers and Olive-sided Flycatchers, which are also Species at Risk, have been documented on the property. Two dragonflies – Incurvate Emerald and Brush-tipped Emerald, have also been seen in the nature reserve. Incurvate Emerald is extremely rare in Ontario.
The largest component of upland forest consists of an early successional poplar-birch forest. There is also a small pocket of mature sugar maple forest on the property.
The Fred and Pearl Barry Wetland Reserve is at the headwaters of Kendrick Creek, which eventually joins the Irondale River, a tributary of the Burnt River, which runs through two of the Land Trust’s other properties: Dahl Forest and Smith Forest.
Management
The Reserve is managed by the HHLT Property Management and Stewardship Committee. A dedicated group of volunteers help monitor the property regularly.
In 2021, HHLT in partnership with Ontario Nature and Glenside Ecological Services Ltd. prepared a report designating a large swath of land as an important wildlife corridor. This corridor, known as the Highlands Corridor, extends from Queen Elizabeth II Wildlands Provincial Park southeast to Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park, and northeast to Silent Lake Provincial Park. The Fred and Pearl Barry Wetland Reserve is within this corridor and supports high biodiversity and ecological features and functions that build climate change resilience.
In addition to protecting and maintaining biodiversity and building resilience to climate change, protecting the Reserve strengthens connectivity to other nearby protected areas that include the Queen Elizabeth II Wildlands Provincial Park, Snowdon Park, and adjoining Crown land.
Other conservation goals for the Reserve include:
- Protecting and maintaining habitat for species of significance: Species at Risk, and provincially and locally rare species
- Providing natural wildlife habitat
- Promoting water quality and riparian habitat through the protection of natural shorelines and wetlands
- Protecting the bog and its deep pocket of peat as it is an important carbon sink in Haliburton County
- Protecting the entire wetland as a natural solution to reducing the threat of flooding
Acknowledgments
The Haliburton Highlands Land Trust wishes to thank Dennis Barry and Margaret Carney for their generous donation of the Fred & Pearl Barry Wetland Reserve through Environment Canada’s Ecological Gifts Program.
