‘A chorus of wonderful music’ at Black Oak Heritage Park
Nature area reopens to public after being closed since Dec. 2015
Scott Kersey can finally get back out and enjoy the “beautiful nature” he enjoys so much now that the city-owned Black Oak Heritage Park has reopened.
The Windsor resident has been a frequent visitor to the nature area for the past 20 years.
“I watch the deer, I see coyotes, I look at the different mushrooms, the different berries,” Kersey said Saturday morning soon after the official reopening. “And I try to teach my kids about the wilderness out here.”
He said it’s an area that’s “special in his heart. “We don’t have much around anymore and we might as well enjoy it while we can.” The nature area has been closed since December 2015 to accommodate construction of the Herb Gray Parkway. But now that access to Broadway Boulevard has been reestablished, visitors can enter the park from dawn to dusk. Located on the city’s far-west side, the more than 100-acre (40hectare) park is home to Black Oak savannah and Black Oak woodland with some tall-grass prairie. It provides shelter for a variety of wildlife — deer, coyotes, raccoons, rabbits — birds, owls, bugs and butterflies.
“Because Black Oak Heritage Park is quite large it’s able to provide home for not just for deer but also things like coyotes, grey fox have actually been seen there,” said city naturalist Karen Cedar. “And also hawks, we have seen bald eagles there, red-tailed hawks, great horned owls — all the big predators. “We also have some incredibly beautiful song birds that are here in the spring, summer months. They’re nesting and they can be seen and mostly heard,” she said. “It’s quite a chorus of wonderful music.”
Cedar said the park’s Black Oak savannah is one of the largest in Ontario but it is also one of the most endangered habitats in Canada.
She said the area is heavily used, especially when the weather is good, but it’s also a great place to go when it’s cold because the trees offer shelter from the wind. Two kilometres of marked trails in the north section of the natural area are open for passive recreational activities such as hiking, bird watching, photography and leisurely bike riding. Motorized vehicles, including e-bikes, are not allowed.
The south section of the park is not open for public use nor is the property owned by the Windsor Port Authority along the park’s western boundary.
But the adjacent dog park has reopened.
Glen Griffith let his eight-monthold boxer Layla run off some excess energy in the fenced-in area before taking her for a walk along the trails.
“It’s hard to find a place where you can just let her run. She loves to run,” he said.
The LaSalle resident said he uses the park as much as he can. “There’s a lot of wildlife, a lot of deer. I’ve seen coyotes,” Griffith said.
“I love this area. It’s beautiful.” Construction at the site of the Canadian Port of Entry for the Gordie Howe International Bridge, adjacent to Black Oak Heritage Park, is ongoing.
Any entry into the construction site is considered trespassing. As construction activities continue, temporary closures for Broadway Boulevard and Black Oak Heritage Park will continue. Visit www.wdbridge.com/en/construction-notices for information on road closures.