Native Plants As Habitat For Wildlife - Native Plant Society of ...

Some Plant-Animal Relationships in the Lake Athabasca Sand Dunes
Peter Jonker
Extension Division, University of Saskatchewan
I cannot tell you that the dunes are teeming with unusual wildlife relating in most unusual
ways to local plants. The truth is that, although the wide open sand fields occasionally
serve as places to escape mid-summer mosquitoes and blackflies, they are generally
avoided by various local animal species as largely unfriendly terrain with little to offer in
comfort or food. The dunes are in many ways a mostly deserted, windswept landscape
suffering from temperature extremes.
It is this very desolation, however, which serves to bring into surprising and delightful
contrast the presence life. Whether it be, on a small scale, a single clump of floccose
tansy clinging to the surface of an immense sand field or, on a larger scale, a pocket of
felt-leaved willow or jack pine sprouting from a moist interdune trough, each is like an
oasis. These often provide important opportunities for a variety of insects, birds, or
mammals during the course of a year. These provide ongoing opportunities for human
visitors to encounter and observe such animal life. Having camped and hiked in the dunes
on 12 occasions with groups or on personal expeditions, I have had recurring
opportunities to observe some relationships.
In this presentation, supported with slides, we will consider what vegetation
characteristics are likely to be of interest to resident animals, how this is reflected in their
use of the dunes area generally, and how this is reflected in their use of particular species.
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