This Kettle Lake was formed about 15,000 years ago when a piece of receding glacier broke off, then melted, to leave a hole about 10.5m deep
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Nature Trail
Look For The Numbered Stakes And Trees:
1. Poison Ivy (Rhus radicans): "Leaves three, berries white, soon you'll take flight" If you didn't know what it looked like before, now you know. The plant can be upright, trailing or high-climbing. DON'T TOUCH any part of it may be posisonous and ANYONE can get it even if you haven't had the rash before.
2. Elderberry (Sambucus spp.): Look behind you. Ripe fruits of this ornamental shrub are eaten by 43 species of birds and also by humans if they can beat the birds to them.
3. Sugar Maple (Acer saccaharum): This valuable tree species is best known as Canada's emblem and for the production of maple syrup. The wood is used for furniture.
4. White Ash (Fraximus americana): The leaves of this tree are compound, 8-15" long, being composed of 7 leaflets. The wood is hard, heavy and used for sporting goods, tool handles and furniture.
5. Black Cherry (Prunus serotina): Late ripening fruits are eaten by migrating birds in fall. 30m high with dark bark, branches reddish brown. Sweetish or bitter fruits.
6. Hawthorn (crataegus app.): This tree is noted for its thorns and is a valuable wildlife shrub.
7. American Elm (Ulmus americana): Most of this species died out with Dutch Elm disease transmitted by a beetle which burrowed beneath the bark. There are still some small trees surviving.
8. Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum): This maple has very long spindly branches. The leaves are 5-lobed and silvery-white beneath.
9. Shagbark Hickory (Carya ovata): The leaves are compound, usually 5 leaflets. Bark is shaggy. This hardwood is used for tool handles, sporting goods and machinery parts. The squirrels like it nuts.
10. Apple (Malus spp.): The apple is a member of the Rosaceae family which includes plum, pear and other fruit trees.
11. Multiflora Rose (Rosa spp.): This bush is an Asiatic plant that was introduced to N. America. It provides good cover for song and game birds.
12. Black Walnut (Juglans nigra): The wood of the walnut is the most valuable in North America. The wood is used to produce veneer, furniture. The nuts are prized by animals and man.
13. Marsh Black Willow (Salix nigra): Shrub 3-20m high, near streams, lakes, low-lying areas. Bark-flaky, dark brown to black. Branchlets brittle at base but tough and flexible above.
14. Ant Hill: Nature's soil tillers. As rooms are dug out below, each ant carries soil particles to the surface. In time, the mound grows.
15. Red Osier Dogwood (Cornus stolonifora): This common shrub has red twigs and white flowers. Dogwood provides cover and food for rabbits, birds and deer.
16. American Beech (Fagus grandifolia): This tree is easily recognized by its smooth grey bark. The wood is used for flooring, furniture and railway ties.
17. Ironwood (Ostrya virginiana): Little commercial value due to the size. Wood is one of the hardest of native species.
18. White Birch (Betula populifoilia): Chalk-white bark with black markings. The slender-branched trees are often used for landscaping.
19. Basswood (Tilia americana): This tree has one of the softest and lighest woods. It is valued for carving, trim, plywood and furniture. The Indians wove strong, tangle-free ropes from the long bark fibres.
20. White Pine (Pinus strobus): Needles are grouped in clusters of five. This is the most valuable pine.
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