SCOTSBURN – Jim Drescher of Windhorse Farm in Lunenberg County was keynote speaker at the Friends of Redtail Society AGM held at the John P. Gammon Centre in Scotsburn on Saturday.
“Windhorse Farm is a stewardship training centre whose purpose is to protect, enrich and offer to others a container within which people can discover their own intrinsic healthiness and discover their deepest connection with all other beings,” Drescher said.
“That’s very similar to the purpose of this project.”
The farm he works at was settled in 1840 by the Conrad Wentzell family and the woodlot has been harvested each year for the last 170 years.
Because of proper management the lot has the same volume of standing timber today as it did in 1840.
Drescher was asked by the Wentzell family to continue the experiment which he has for the last 20 years.
On the farm, he and his family operate a native plant nursery, organic orchards and do a lot of educational program.
While their land usage might be different than what Friends of Redtail intends, he said the purpose is the same.
He offered this advice for the members:
“Carry on,” he said. “I think they’re doing fantastic work and I want to support it in any way I can.”
He said he hopes they don’t give up.
“It’s easy to get discouraged because the vision is so big, sometimes we get caught by the obstacles,” he said. “It’s continually important to raise our energy and realize those obstacles are stepping stones.”
He belives they can do it.
“I think there’s no doubt. I just hope they can buy all five parcels (of the land) instead of just three,” he said.
Earlier in the day he and the members of the club went for a walk through the land they hope to buy.
“It was fantastic,” he said. “It’s a really really beautiful forest. It’s a wonderful example of Acadian forest. It’s important to protect it and it’s important to offer the opportunity for people to come and see it and experience all there is within this forest.”
Acadian forests are diverse in terms of flora and fauna, and are a transition forest between the Northern Artic forest and the Boreal, he said. Tens of thousands of species of plants and animals live in it.
“It’s potentially an endangered forest, there are so few Acadian forests left,” he said.
