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NCC Magazine - Spring 2017

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BOOTS ON<br />

THE TRAIL<br />

Learning about prairie skinks<br />

Visitors to this Manitoba property<br />

may still be able to catch a glimpse<br />

of a historic trade route.<br />

Yellow Quill<br />

Prairie Preserve<br />

This native mixed-grass prairie area in Manitoba conserves<br />

nature and our shared history of the land<br />

Ruffed grouse<br />

Long before European explorers and<br />

settlers arrived in North America,<br />

indigenous peoples had defined the<br />

most convenient routes to travel the landscape.<br />

Among them, the Yellow Quill Trail (named for<br />

Chief Yellow Quill of the Saulteaux First Nation<br />

during the late 1800s) connected Portage la<br />

Prairie, west of Winnipeg, with the Boundary<br />

Commission Trail, just past the western<br />

Saskatchewan border. Later, these trade routes<br />

were adopted by European settlers.<br />

Today, the Yellow Quill Prairie Preserve,<br />

south of Brandon in Manitoba, still bears faint<br />

traces of the Yellow Quill Trail. Here, the trail<br />

passes through a rolling, sandy prairie of<br />

mixed grasses, such as big and little bluestem,<br />

green needle grass and porcupine grass,<br />

interspersed with hazelnut, juniper, aspen, bur<br />

oak and white spruce.<br />

A NATURAL FAMILY LEGACY<br />

The Mooneys, fourth-generation descendants<br />

of the European pioneers who settled in the<br />

area in 1885, were the original owners of most<br />

of the lands: 1,440 acres (580 hectares) within<br />

the Yellow Quill project area. The family has<br />

leased the remaining 960 acres (390 hectares)<br />

from the provincial government.<br />

Over time, conversion of the neighbouring<br />

native grasslands all but eliminated these<br />

once-large tracts of native grasslands. But the<br />

Mooneys knew the ecological value of their<br />

lands. After being approached by <strong>NCC</strong>, they<br />

decided to fulfill the wishes of their departed<br />

father by selling the land to <strong>NCC</strong> in the<br />

hopes that their mixed-grass prairie would<br />

not be lost.<br />

<strong>NCC</strong> purchased the lands from the<br />

Mooney family in 1999. Shortly after completing<br />

the purchase, <strong>NCC</strong> developed a management<br />

plan that incorporated traditional cattle<br />

grazing practices to maintain biodiversity.<br />

LANDSCAPE: <strong>NCC</strong>. SKINK: <strong>NCC</strong>. GROUSE: ROBERT MCCAW.<br />

6 SPRING <strong>2017</strong> natureconservancy.ca

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