The Wesleyville Project

Wesleyville natural heritage

Located approximately 5 km west of Port Hope, the Wesleyville Natural Heritage Area is remarkable for its rich and interconnected habitat diversity, supporting a large number of important species. It is a vestige of the highly biodiverse ravine systems connected to coastal wetlands by coldwater streams that characterized the ecology of the north shore of Lake Ontario prior to settlement. Wesleyville lies within the glacial Lake Iroquois Plain, an area that has been rated as the highest priority for conservation within the Ontario Mixedwood Plains Ecozone, according to a 2014 joint study by Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

Significant features

Wesleyville Ravines, a provincially significant Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI) with old-growth forests that are among the oldest such stands in the ecodistrict
Chrysler Point Swamp, a provincially significant wetland
Wesleyville Coastal Marsh, a regionally significant ANSI
Chrysler Point Bluffs, a second regionally significant ANSI
Wesleyville Creek, a coldwater stream that provides habitat to Brook Trout and other fish species
Drumlinoid features (elongated hills and mounds formed by glacial activity) and grasslands bordered by forest

The Wesleyville Joint Working Group

The Joint Working Group – Wesleyville (JWG-W), is a joint volunteer committee between the Willow Beach Field Naturalists and the Northumberland Land Trust, who work in cooperation with landowners Ontario Power Generation, Hydro One, and Cameco Corporation. It is dedicated to promoting awareness of the unique and special ecological aspects of the Wesleyville lands. Several members of WBFN regularly volunteer their time and effort in support of the JWG-W. These efforts have involved bird counts, grassland surveys, tree hikes and the ongoing advocacy for the preservation of this important area. Recent efforts include an iNaturalist project, called the Wesleyville Biological Inventory, and an Earth Day garbage clean-up.

More information about Wesleyville

Wesleyville on iNaturalist: Wesleyville Biological Inventory

Wesleyville Archives: Reports