Beamer Memorial Conservation Area

Beamer Memorial Conservation Area is located on the Niagara section of the Niagara escarpment and is part of the UNESCO Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Reserve. Managed by the Niagara Region Conservation Authority, Beamer Memorial features a trail system that traverses along cliff-top forests and down into the river valley of Forty Mile Creek, and includes several look-out points. Beamer Memorial is an important stop-over point for birds of prey during migration season and hosts a hawk watch tower.

Beamer Memorial Conservation Area lies firmly in the Carolinian forest zone and is composed of rich deciduous and mixed-wood forests. On top of the Escarpment, on level ground before the cliff face, sugar maple dominates the forest canopy, interspersed with red oaks, basswood, ironwood, and black cherry. Common understory trees and shrubs include hawthorns, dogwoods, roses, raspberries and chokecherry, and vines such as grapevine, honeysuckles, Virginia creeper, and poison ivy. Ground-level herbaceous vegetation is diverse, with both native species, such as trout-lily, bloodroot, jack-in-the-pulpit, cleavers, woodland strawberry, and Canada mayflower, and exotic species, such as garlic mustard, Herb Robert, and dandelion. In wetter areas, walnut and hickories prevail in the canopy, and are joined with moisture loving herbaceous species, such as jewelweed and sensitive fern.

As we move towards the cliff face, the soil becomes drier and thinner, and the ecosystem transitions to cliff-top forests of cedars. These cedar forests are common along the Niagara Escarpment, and although small in stature, can be very old. Beamer Memorial’s cedars are younger than some found on the escarpment further north but are still old enough to count as old-growth, with the oldest individuals having germinated in the mid-1700s. Finally, descending into the Forty Mile Creek valley, forests become dominated by eastern hemlock, who love to have their feet wet.

Beamer Memorial Conservation Area is part of the Niagara Peninsula, which was homelands of the Attiwandaron (Neutral) people. Just west of Forty Mile Creek, below the escarpment slope, a 1976 archaeological dig revealed the presence of a Neutral burial place dating to the 1650s, where 63 people were buried. No evidence of villages or settlements was found associated with the burial site, but the site is close to a source of chert, which Attawandaron people harvested for tool making. Furthermore, there are several of their historic villages upriver, suggesting that they frequently visited the area where Beamer Memorial is located today.

From the mid-1600s onwards, Attiwandaron (Neutral) peoples were dispersed and adopted into the Haudenosaunee, who frequently traveled through the area along the Niagara escarpment. Indeed, the current Bruce trail that runs through Beamer Memorial Conservation Area is a modern continuation of the trail systems used by the Haudenosaunee for overland travel from Niagara Falls to Hamilton Harbor. Anishinaabeg peoples arrived in the area by the 1700s, and so today the region is considered homelands to both Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee.

Beamer Memorial Conservation Area website:  Beamer Memorial | Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority (npca.ca)

Johnson, Lorraine. 2007. The Natural Treasures of Carolinian Canada: Discovering the Rich Natural Diversity of Ontario’s Southwestern Heartland. Carolinian Canada Coalition.

Kelly, Peter E. and Larson, Doug. 2007. The Last Stand: A Journey Through the Ancient Cliff-face Forest of the Niagara Escarpment. Natural Heritage Books.

Ontario’s Old Growth Forests: Old growth in Ontario's Greenbelt - Ontario's old growth forests