Rare orchids draw visitors to Wagner Natural Area west of Edmonton
Adrienne Lamb, Rick Bremness | CBC News | Posted: May 29, 2021 1:30 PM | Last Updated: May 29, 2021
‘I would say it’s a well-kept secret’ says a scientist studying the spot
Under a wide-brimmed hat, Dave Ealey peers through his binoculars across a meadow at the Wagner Natural Area.
"It's hard to put into words, but for me Wagner is a place of spiritual nourishment,'' says the president of the society stewarding this 251-hectare space west of Edmonton and east of Spruce Grove along Highway 16.
"I just want to get onto my trail, I want to go through my forest, I want to hear the birds," Ealey says.
The Wagner Natural Area now belongs to all but it was once owned by local farmer William Wagner, who donated the land designated a protected habitat by the provincial government in 1975.
The Wagner Natural Area Society was formed in 1983 and since then local volunteers, like Ealey, have guarded the spot against surface mining, highways and other development.
They also maintain the area for the public to explore free of charge.
You can see more from the Wagner Natural Area on Our Edmonton — Saturday at 10 a.m., Sunday at noon and 11 a.m. Monday on CBC TV and CBC GEM.
The 1.5-kilometre Marl Pond Trail loop features a picnic shelter, outhouses, benches and a boardwalk.
At this time of year, rubber boots are required at points along the gravel path through the boreal forest wetland.
Ealey calls the spot unique for a number of reasons, not the least of which is it's "just the right habitat for something as special as an orchid."
You can find 16 species of orchid — more than half the varieties in all of Alberta — on display at Wagner Natural Area in the months of June, July and August.
You can't pick them but the biologist says the trial "allows people to come close without causing a disturbance."
Ealey says the reason for the "intense concentration" of orchids has a great deal to do with the quality and chemistry of the groundwater in the fen.
"A fen is a nutrient-rich wetland; it's a special type of wetland and it's not what people often refer to as a bog," he says, adding that bogs are low in nutrients.
Ben Rostron has been studying the Wagner Natural Area since the 1980s.
"Groundwater is exciting for a hydrogeologist," says Rostron, a University of Alberta professor in the department of earth and atmospheric sciences.
One of the questions Rostron wants to answer is why does Wagner occur where it does?
He points to a meadow and asks, "If you walk 50 metres that way, we have rare plants and orchids and all kinds of insect eating plants. Scientifically, why is that?"
Rostron and other scientists are studying the groundwater flow into the natural area to learn more about why some areas are wetter and some more dry, and how the groundwater affects the rare plants as well as animals, trees and insects.
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For years they've monitored the groundwater with more than 30 piezometers and digital loggers, mapping water levels and measuring the effects of surrounding development.
Rostron says they've now started sampling to determine the age of the groundwater, with preliminary findings revealing it's between 3,000 to 6,000 years old. "We're pretty excited about that."
There are signs throughout Wagner Natural Area pointing out some of these scientific facts but Rostron says it's also a "nice, close, safe, accessible" spot to enjoy nature.
"I would say it's a well-kept secret."