Stewardship in Managed Wilderness

To cultivate or to rewild? To hand-pick optimal plants for each micro-environment, giving them the best chance for success, or to stand back and let nature take its course? These are the choices facing property owners, Carol Goodwin and Janet Pope. In both instances, controlled environments, starting with house, lawn and garden, co-exist with wild spaces. 

The team at the Centre by the Sea had the opportunity  to visit Carol and Janet in spring of 2023, a week before a series of devastating forest fires engulfed the province and threw us into a state of emergency – a reminder of how crucial issues of stewardship can be. As we toured Carol and Janet’s properties, both rich with flowering trees, meadows and wetlands, we observed a stark contrast between the two women’s land and management styles.

Retired botany professor, Carol Goodwin, has created her own private arboretum in the suburbs of Kentville. The property is managed with love, and guided to optimize maximal biodiversity amidst many different environments. On 13 acres of land, nestled on a hillside surprisingly close to the urban core, the natural beauty of Nova Scotia’s native plants and animals is showcased through zones of progressive wilderness. Six of the 13 acres of land is wrapped in a high, light metal fence to keep deer from eating young flora. The remaining seven acres are left to forest themselves naturally, without the pruning of invasive species such as the high-volume, self-seeding Norway Maple, or the fast-growing, canopy-forming walnut trees.

 

Carol Goodwin’s residence, and surrounding garden

Within the fence, there are two zones. Closest to the residence, a meticulously pruned botanical garden, featuring endangered Wood poppy, beds of tyme, and bonsai-tending Jack pine trees, all intentionally planted and kept free of invasive species, allowing blossoms to flourish. Further along, a path threads through tall Norway spruce to an open meadow. Catering to birds, bees, and other pollinators, the varied landscape hosts a concentrated abundance of biodiversity. Wire birch grows next to hemlock, hawthorne, Aronia, and Rosa Virginiana. Songbirds nest among the tangled bushes and tall grasses. Wilderness flourishes here, though under the careful watch of Carol’s trained eye. Saplings, weeds, and other species that would detract from the health of the native plants are removed.

Carol tours the team through the walking trails around her property, the dividing fence pictured on the right

Less than an hour away, in Hants County, lies Janet’s 50-acre riverside property, a former homestead of retired British officer Colonel Henry Denson. According to the Hantsport and Area Historical Society, Colonel Denson was an influential man:

“It was said that he was very strict. Colonel Denson supposedly asked to be buried in an upright position when he died so that he could continue to watch over. But, as the story goes, these orders were not followed. Worried he would come back to life, after his forehead was noticed breaking into a sweat three days after death, he was buried in the typical manner and placed 10 feet of soil and rocks on top of his grave.” 

Archaeologists have visited the property and found it steeped in history. Research and local stories have uncovered a rich and varied past. On our walk, Janet points out evidence of shoreline Acadian settlement (cellar remains with stone walls built without mortar), sunken graves in the Burial Ground, and the site of Col. Denson’s original home with its hill top view of the Avon River and distant Blomidon. In the 1940s, the land was planted in apple orchard, part of entrepreneur Roy Jodrey’s large holdings in the fruit and produce business. Later, under Jodrey, a spruce tree stand was started with the hope of supplying his nearby mill, Minas Basin Pulp and Paper. In the mid 1970s, the property of young spruce and aging apple trees was purchased by Janet’s parents, where they ran their publishing business, Lancelot Press. Like Carol, Janet has recently inherited the family property and now shapes it according to her own interests in ecology and healthy living.  Her aim is to preserve and rewild the natural Nova Scotia landscape.

In a brisk 20-minute walk, manicured paths wind through meadow and forest to the saltmarsh shore.  The separation of each environment is a partial function of natural origin, partially the remnants of a monoculture that proliferated the area. Surrounding the residence, Janet keeps a managed tall grass meadow under careful watch, trimming seasonally, and maintaining a perfect environment for fox, deer and pheasant. Janet is a keen observer of these animals and happily points to their dens and middens. As a reminder of the land’s past, enormous run away apple trees blossom at the bottom of the hill. It’s unusual to see apple trees this size, unpruned – allowed to exist freely and foster habitats and food for the creatures of the forest.

Like the escaped survivors of the former  orchard, the abandoned pulp forest has been left by Janet to revert to a more natural state, giving freedom for many other species to move in. Hurricanes have assisted this process. Felled giants–mostly conifers–create breaks in the canopy, allowing the forest floor to bloom with ferns and wildflowers as not seen in decades. Nestled in the border of the forest, four towering elm trees remain on the land, untouched by the Dutch Elm disease endemic of the 1980s. 

For Janet, this is a hopeful sign, as is the abundance of wildlife on her property. Janet tells stories of walking among foxes and deer, who have little fear of her, and letting the monoculture forest rewild in a fairly laissez-faire approach, permitting nature to take its course. However, Janet’s property is part of a larger system. The causeway in Windsor, cuts the Avon River from its source. This has led to a glacier-like deposit of silt that’s 7 miles long and growing steadily. The silt causes the river to widen its banks, eroding neighboring land and flooding the shore. This is most evident on Janet’s property, Enormous oak trees may be lost in the next 10-20 years as the bank collapses and marsh takes over. There are erosion problems elsewhere in the forest, located on a steep hillside. As soft earth moves–loss of ground cover bares roots and makes trees vulnerable to storms– and subterranean gypsum collapses into sinkholes. The landscape changes. Janet watches and takes comfort in the resiliency of natural systems to adjust and rebound. 

A large tree toppled by recent storms on Janet’s property

Carol and Janet approach their properties in different ways. Carol restricts the movement of animals in order to create a tree garden enclosed within a wild space. For Janet, the movement of animals is key to her free-flowing rewilding project.  Both women respect and care for their environments. Both have enhanced their properties, and in the process of making trails and walking the land, they’ve brought themselves, their families and friends a joy of nature, and the benefits of physical health and wellness.