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