Leeds Community Pasture
Bed level water crossing at Community Pasture.
The Leeds Community Pasture Association (LCPA) owns and manages a 607 hectare (1500) acre property, one of 11 Community pastures in Ontario. Grazing rights on the property are leased to 25 local farmers with over 500 cows. This pasture includes grasslands, woodlands and wetlands, and borders a highly productive shallow water lake and provincially significant wetland complex known as Upper Beverly Lake (UBL).
The Leeds Community Pasture Association (LCPA) owns and manages one of 11 Community pastures in Ontario, located near Soperton. Up to 25 local farmers graze their cattle at the Pasture in the summer. The property is bi-sected by Soperton Creek and its adjoining wetlands, which form part of the headwaters of the Beverley Lakes and Gananoque River watershed.
Sections of the shoreline habitat in the Community Pasture are accessible by cattle and have been eroded, resulting in increased nutrient and soil inputs to the stream, wetlands and downstream lakes and loss of wildlife habitat and connectivity.
The Community Pasture Board and the Leeds-Grenville Stewardship Council (LGSC) are working together to restore this shoreline area. The objectives are to restore fish and wildlife habitat and to reduce excessive nutrient supply to prevent further enrichment and loss of oxygen. In 2010 an Environmental Management Plan was completed which identified four years of stream and wetland restoration projects on the property.
The first two years of the Plan were completed as planned in 2010 and 2011. With the support of Environment Canada, Wildlife Habitat Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources the LGSC and LCPA completed the installation of over four kilometers (4050 meters) of cattle exclusion fencing along Soperton Creek, the installation of three water crossings and a solar watering system for cattle. With the support of Trees Ontario, 3,000 trees and shrubs were planted along the stream banks in 2011 by LGSC volunteers, teachers and 87 local students.
The Leeds Community Pasture Association (LCPA) owns and manages one of 11 Community pastures in Ontario, located near Soperton. Up to 25 local farmers graze their cattle at the Pasture in the summer. The property is bi-sected by Soperton Creek and its adjoining wetlands, which form part of the headwaters of the Beverley Lakes and Gananoque River watershed.
Sections of the shoreline habitat in the Community Pasture are accessible by cattle and have been eroded, resulting in increased nutrient and soil inputs to the stream, wetlands and downstream lakes and loss of wildlife habitat and connectivity.
The Community Pasture Board and the Leeds-Grenville Stewardship Council (LGSC) are working together to restore this shoreline area. The objectives are to restore fish and wildlife habitat and to reduce excessive nutrient supply to prevent further enrichment and loss of oxygen. In 2010 an Environmental Management Plan was completed which identified four years of stream and wetland restoration projects on the property.
The first two years of the Plan were completed as planned in 2010 and 2011. With the support of Environment Canada, Wildlife Habitat Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources the LGSC and LCPA completed the installation of over four kilometers (4050 meters) of cattle exclusion fencing along Soperton Creek, the installation of three water crossings and a solar watering system for cattle. With the support of Trees Ontario, 3,000 trees and shrubs were planted along the stream banks in 2011 by LGSC volunteers, teachers and 87 local students.
Leeds Community Pasture -East End Solar Outlet
