A Wayne County Gem Ganargua Creek Meadow Preserve

Barb DeRoo

This 56 acre parcel in Macedon owned by the Genesee Land Trust may be small, but it earns "precious jewel" status with its wealth of habitat and wild life diversity. I visited on April 29th and enjoyed the spring activity.

The trail head is on Bunker Hill Rd and starts at the base of the Macedon water tower visible from Wilkinson Rd. It begins in a hardwood forest where numerous early wild flowers strive to grow and flower before the trees leaf out and block the sunlight reaching the forest floor.

Spring Beauties, Violets, Toothwort, Early Meadow Rue, red and white Trillium, May Apples and Dutchman's Beeches were all in bloom. The early Saxifrage appeared to be doing well in the pollination race with bumble bees swarming around the sweet smelling flowers. Mourning Cloak moths and Sulphur butterflies were out but their activity seemed more random compared to the bees.

The trail descends to a Ganargua Creek floodplain meadow that was briefly in a nine hole golf course for The Farm Resort in the 1960s. After a couple springs of flooding that land use was abandoned. Wild leeks abound on the creek banks where Belted Kingfishers vie noisily for feeding rights. There is a colorful growth of Scottish Bluebells nearby. They're not a native species and probably escaped from a nearby garden, but they are beautiful and are non-invasive to my knowledge.

This time of year, the only evident invasive plant is Black Mustard. Trail Works members who visited the Sterling Nature Center last year will recall that the Center's naturalist labeled Black Mustard the only species there that visitors are encouraged to pick to stop it from spreading. Ganargua Creek Meadow may also have more of it than they care to encourage.

The Genesee Land Trust chose well in preserving this small but diverse area. Stop by and see for yourself the next time you are interested in the southwest corner of Wayne County. Get out there and do some snooping!

Visit the Genesee Land Trust at their web site www.geneseelandtrust.org.

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Newsletters:
May 2006
August 2006