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Alvars, rarest of habitats

© Van Waffle

The first time I saw an alvar was on Labour Day weekend in 1997 with Dan, my partner at that time. Alvars are among the rarest habitats on earth, found only in Sweden, Estonia and the Great Lakes Basin.

As we returned to our tent from a walk that Sunday morning, Miller Lake campground was churning with the news that Diana, Princess of Wales, had died.

In memory

It hit us both hard; the death of a relative could hardly have hurt more. Perhaps because her name and face had come into our lives so often, it impacted us personally. She had much sadness in her life, but Diana made the best of it by rising above her own shame and shortcomings to add her influential voice to some important causes such as seeking a cure for AIDS and a ban on land mines. She tried to show by example that those with power should lend it to those who have none.

• Read my poem, Elegy on the thirty-first of August.

Dan, whose mother is British, was quite depressed. It reminded us how such events force us to face our own mortality. But life is not futile. Small present experiences, like sitting on a picnic table in the forest, enjoying the summer warmth, are enough to justify living. It is the complex fabric of life.

The wonders of Dorcas Bay

That afternoon, after visiting the homely harbour at Tobermory, we stopped on a whim at Singing Sands on Dorcas Bay, which is part of Bruce Peninsula National Park. As we walked along the beach trail, my excitement grew. Everywhere I looked were wildflowers I had never seen before. I realized we were exploring one of the rare alvar habitats I had read about in Seasons, a magazine published by the Federation of Ontario Naturalists.

This beach, on the west side of the peninsula, slopes very gradually into Lake Huron. The sand and rocks experience an extreme range of conditions from brutal November storms to cold floods in spring to blistering heat and drought in summer. This environment hosts rare plants endemic to arctic, prairie and Mississippi River Valley habitats, as well as ones unique to the Great Lakes Region.

Wildflower wonderland

I didn't expect to see much, so late in the summer. The vegetations consists largely of lichens, algae, sedges and a few other vascular plants that can tolerate the extremes. But the wildflowers at that time are unusual and glorious: pitcher plant, white orchis, grass-of-parnassus, fringed

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