Preserving 62 acres of Carolinian forest

Emotions were running high on Thursday Sept. 12 at the Grand Opening of the Deer Ridge Conservation Area and Hiking Trail, on Glengariff Drive, in Talbotville. 

The event acknowledged a donation of 61.58 acres of forest in perpetuity to Kettle Creek Conservation Authority (KCCA) by Ted and Duggie Gill, local horse farm owners in the process of downsizing their Southwold operation. Their farm is also called Deer Ridge. 

“I’m going to cry, it’s just so incredibly important to protect this,” Ted Gill, 81, told the small crowd assembled for the announcement. “We are part of a generation that has taken and taken and taken from the earth. It’s time for all of us to start giving back to the earth.” 

The new conservation area is the first created since KCCA acquired the Dalewood Conservation Area in 1975. The Gills first donated 46 acres to KCCA in 2022 and an additional “surprise” donation of 15.58 acres was announced at the grand opening. 

Located in the heart of the Carolinian Zone – a fragile ecoregion stretching from Toronto to Windsor, where broad-leaved deciduous trees predominate – Deer Ridge includes some 324 species of flora and fauna, including nine at-risk species and three regionally rare species. 

For full details see the Sept. 18 edition of The Aylmer Express. (AE/Joe Konecny)