Mark Prier

Artwork


Grey County Pastoral: Proton Township Exclosure, 2012-present

Grey County Pastoral: Proton Township Exclosure is a long-term living installation attempting to restore the historically-documented forest of Proton Township (now part of Southgate Township) to one acre of land. The land is ‘exclosed,’ that is, it has been fenced-in with re-purposed livestock fencing to a height of 8 feet to exclude white-tailed deer. It is also rabbit-fenced to a height of 2 feet.

Exclosures are fenced-in areas typically used to prevent browsing animals, such as cattle and deer, from grazing an area; in short, they exclude. Ecologists often use exclosures to reveal how an area would grow and develop without the presence of grazing animals. Typically, the area immediately outside of an exclosure is more heavily browsed than areas further from the exclosure. As a result, exclosure interiors can be dramatically different than their immediate surroundings.

In 2012, this one acre site, cleared of forest after 1855 and used for farming since then, was plowed and shaped using a tractor to re-create the pits and mounds of a forest floor. In the spring, vernal pools form in the pits, and the mounds provide places for seeds to land and germinate. Many of these mounds were also turned into ‘false treefalls,’ with old cedar fenceposts simulating upturned tree roots and unused logs from a mill site simulating fallen tree trunks. These ‘false treefalls’ will provide wildlife cover and re-introduce nutrients to the exclosed ground.

Once prepared, the one acre site was sown with over 70,000 tree seeds. The seeds were matched to the local ecozone, and were both collected from local stands and purchased from the Ontario Tree Seed Facility. The small forest areas surrounding the exclosure will also help to re-seed the site. The selected species were based on those recorded in David Gibson’s Field notes, Diary & Report of part of Proton, a land survey done Dec. 2, 1853 to Jan. 11, 1855. This survey recorded the pre-settlement make-up of the forest along the future concessions and sideroads. The trees documented were (arranged from most common to least common, listed by historically-documented common name / contemporary common name / and scientific name):

  • Cedar / Eastern arborvitae / Thuja occidentalis,
  • Maple / Sugar maple / Acer saccharum,
  • Hemlock / Eastern hemlock / Tsuga canadensis,
  • Tamarack / Tamarack / Larix laricina,
  • Beech / American beech / Fagus grandifolia,
  • Balsam / Balsam fir / Abies balsamea,
  • Spruce / White spruce / Picea glauca / Black spruce / Picea mariana,
  • Black alder / Willows / Salix spp. / Alders / Alnus spp.,
  • Elm / White elm / Ulmus americana / Rock elm / Ulmus thomasii,
  • Birch / Paper birch / Betula papyrifera / Yellow birch / Betula alleghaniensis,
  • Basswood / Basswood / Tilia americana,
  • Black ash / Black ash / Fraxinus nigra / Red ash / Fraxinus pennsylvanica,
  • Ground hemlock / Canada yew / Taxus canadensis,
  • Pine / Eastern white pine / Pinus strobus,
  • Balm of Gilead / Balsam poplar / Populus balsamifera / Trembling aspen / Populus tremuloides,
  • Ironwood / Hop hornbeam / Ostrya virginiana,
  • Cherry / Black cherry / Prunus serotina,
  • Soft Maple / Red maple / Acer rubrum / Silver maple / Acer saccharinum,
  • Butternut / Butternut / Juglans cinerea,
  • White ash / White ash / Fraxinus americana / Red ash / Fraxinus pennsylvanica.

As of 2014, the sown trees within the exclosure are still seedlings competing with other native and invasive plants.

“...in some sense the pastoral is not about the country but about what the country means to the city and what the past means to the present.” (19)

Rebecca Solnit
As Eve Said to the Serpent. Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Press, 2001.

Grey County Pastoral is an ongoing project attempting to engage with the past (and present) of rural Ontario by focusing on Grey County. It aspires to deal with the area’s history as imagined, nostalgic, and ‘pastoral,’ and as heinous, dispossessing, and colonizing. It is not so much about revealing the true past as much as it is about revealing the imagined past that continues to affect the present.

A line drawing of a landscape plan for a fenced exclosure, with clusters of mature trees contained within fencing. The fencing is illustrated with text that lists all the tree species within. The plan is titled, Grey County Pastoral: Proton Township Exclosure. A wide shot of a still-dormant farm field in spring. An old red tractor is plowing the middle third, turning over brown soil as it goes. A man in a dark grey wool coat, dark brown cap, and rubber boots walks with a white bag slung over his shoulder. He throws maple keys into the air as he steps toward the camera. An exclosure gate made of livestock fencing and rebar stands in the snow in front of a landscape of bumps, isolated dormant plants, and cedar posts. A view through the livestock fencing at the bumpy landscape of logs, cedar posts, and dormant plants, all of it covered in snow. The fencing runs into the distance on the right. A view through the livestock fencing, divided in the middle by a tall rebar post. The landscape is spring greys and browns. Upturned mounds of soil topped with cedar posts, vernal pools, and old logs lie here and there. The exclosure fence runs at an angle to the camera, rebar posts regularly marking space into the distance. It is summertime, and the plants are nearly halfway up the fence and topped with blooms.
Looking down inside the exclosure at the bottom of the fence, strung with chicken wire. Out of the greenery grows a tree seedling. In the middle of summer, a vernal pool has dried up, leaving two short lengths of a log on brown soil fringed with yellow blooms. A tree sapling grows among them. Outside the exclosure in winter, the fence runs into the distance, leafless mature trees grow to its right. A set of footprints winds through them in the snow. After the snowmelt, vernal pools have formed across the brown plants of the previous summer. Three cedar posts stick out from the top of a mound of soil. The fence marks the perimeter in the background. An exclosure gate made of livestock fenceing and rebar marks the entrance to the exclosure in summertime. Inside, the plants are getting tall, and some young trees and shrubs reach higher here and there. Outside, the plants are cuts short, like a lawn. A view through the livestock fencing, showing a green landscape of plants, some blooming, and a cherry tree nearly five feet tall. Inside the exclosure, one of the mounds is almost hidden by summertime plant growth. Flowers are blooming all around, while three cedar posts stick out from the mound, leaning quite close to the ground, as though ready to fall down.

The Ontario Arts Council is an agency of the Government of Ontario.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Nous remercions de son soutien le Conseil des Arts du Canada.