Happy Valley Forest is a 6.48 square kilometre provincially significant

ecological Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

area, classified as an

Area of Natural and Scientific Interest Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an o ...

by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. It consists of an upland

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

on steeply rolling

topography Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sc ...

, various wooded swamps, and minor

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...

areas (wet

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat, or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non- woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as these areas maintain an open character. Meadows may be naturally occurring or arti ...

thicket A thicket is a very dense stand of trees or tall shrubs, often dominated by only one or a few species, to the exclusion of all others. They may be formed by species that shed large numbers of highly viable seeds that are able to germinate in t ...

s and

cattail ''Typha'' is a genus of about 30 species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae. These plants have a variety of common names, in British English as bulrush or reedmace, in American English as reed, cattail, or punks, in ...

swamps). A few small

kettle A kettle, sometimes called a tea kettle or teakettle, is a type of pot specialized for boiling water, commonly with a ''lid'', ''spout'', and ''handle'', or a small electric kitchen appliance of similar shape that functions in a self-contained ...

ponds are also present. Located on

Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start of the Silurian Period Mya. T ...

bedrock over the

Oak Ridges Moraine The Oak Ridges Moraine is an ecologically important geological landform in the Mixedwood Plains of south-central Ontario, Canada. The moraine covers a geographic area of between Caledon and Rice Lake, near Peterborough. One of the most sign ...

, the forest attains elevations between 122 and 152 m, increasing westward. The majority of the area is composed of

overburden In mining, overburden (also called waste or spoil) is the material that lies above an area that lends itself to economical exploitation, such as the rock, soil, and ecosystem that lies above a coal seam or ore body. Overburden is distinct from tai ...

of ice-contract stratified

drift Drift or Drifts may refer to: Geography * Drift or ford (crossing) of a river * Drift, Kentucky, unincorporated community in the United States * In Cornwall, England: ** Drift, Cornwall, village ** Drift Reservoir, associated with the village ...

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class o ...

, gravel and

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel ...

of varying origin ( kame,

outwash An outwash plain, also called a sandur (plural: ''sandurs''), sandr or sandar, is a plain formed of glaciofluvial deposits due to meltwater outwash at the terminus of a glacier. As it flows, the glacier grinds the underlying rock surface and ca ...

or collapse). Soil types in the forests are predominantly pontytool sandy loam; Brighton sandy loam, King clay loam (southern and western steep areas), and bottomland (along stream banks) are present in small areas. The upland forest is dominated by

sugar maple ''Acer saccharum'', the sugar maple, is a species of flowering plant in the soapberry and lychee family Sapindaceae. It is native to the hardwood forests of eastern Canada and eastern United States. Sugar maple is best known for being the prim ...

in most areas, and sugar maple and American beech in others, though species such as

paper birch ''Betula papyrifera'' (paper birch, also known as (American) white birch and canoe birch) is a short-lived species of birch native to northern North America. Paper birch is named for the tree's thin white bark, which often peels in paper like ...

, white ash,

eastern hemlock ''Tsuga canadensis'', also known as eastern hemlock, eastern hemlock-spruce, or Canadian hemlock, and in the French-speaking regions of Canada as ''pruche du Canada'', is a coniferous tree native to eastern North America. It is the state tree of ...

black cherry ''Prunus serotina'', commonly called black cherry,World Economic Plants: A Standard Reference, Second Edition'. CRC Press; 19 April 2016. . p. 833–. wild black cherry, rum cherry, or mountain black cherry, is a deciduous tree or shrub of the ...

and

red oak The genus ''Quercus'' contains about 500 species, some of which are listed here. The genus, as is the case with many large genera, is divided into subgenera and sections. Traditionally, the genus ''Quercus'' was divided into the two subgenera ''C ...

are found throughout. The eastern portion is instead dominated by

red maple ''Acer rubrum'', the red maple, also known as swamp maple, water maple, or soft maple, is one of the most common and widespread deciduous trees of eastern and central North America. The U.S. Forest Service recognizes it as the most abundant nativ ...

and red oak, interspersed by American beech, paper birch, eastern hemlock and largetooth aspen. In the valleys of this forest can be found largetooth aspen with white birch, red maple and occasional beech, red oak and trembling aspen. Moreover, several kettle depressions and small kettle ponds are present in the area. Supporting over 100 bird species, and numerous other wildlife species, the Happy Valley Forest is recognized for its size and the presence of various rare species. Native and rare species include: * Acadian flycatcher (endangered) * Hooded warbler (threatened) * Jefferson salamander *

Cerulean warbler The cerulean warbler (''Setophaga cerulea'') is a small songbird in the family Parulidae. It is a long-distance migrant, breeding in eastern North American hardwood forests. In the non-breeding season, it winters on the eastern slope of the And ...

The

red-shouldered hawk The red-shouldered hawk (''Buteo lineatus'') is a medium-sized buteo. Its breeding range spans eastern North America and along the coast of California and northern to northeastern-central Mexico. It is a permanent resident throughout most of its ...

was a vulnerable species, but as a result of conservation efforts, was reclassified in 2006 and is no longer at risk. Note that the status of the species listed above is for Canada only. None of these species is currently facing global extinction. The forest is also home to the

northern flying squirrel The northern flying squirrel (''Glaucomys sabrinus'') is one of three species of the genus '' Glaucomys'', the only flying squirrels found in North America.Walker EP, Paradiso JL. 1975. ''Mammals of the World''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Universit ...

and the

southern flying squirrel The southern flying squirrel or the assapan (''Glaucomys volans'') is one of three species of the genus '' Glaucomys'' and one of three flying squirrel species found in North America. It is found in deciduous and mixed woods in the eastern half o ...

, which depend on trees with holes for nesting and food storage. The southern flying squirrel is at the northern extent of its range in Happy Valley Forest.

Happy Valley Infiltration Area

The Happy Valley Infiltration Area is the source for the ''Happy Valley Tributary'', which merges with the ''Schomberg River''. It has an area of 9.45 km².

Politics

In addition to the politics of the Oak Ridges Moraine, Happy Valley Forest faces a number of political and social issues. Since the late 1990s, ATV use throughout the forest became a concern, both because the vehicles create noise, and because they cause damage to various plants; some indigenous plants are in danger of

extirpation Local extinction, also known as extirpation, refers to a species (or other taxon) of plant or animal that ceases to exist in a chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere. Local extinctions are contrasted with global extinct ...

, while similar, hardier invasive species take over their

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

. To address the issue, in 2007 the township passed a bylaw mandating that all concession roads in the forest be closed, and erected fences around the property to eliminate access to ATVs. The

Nature Conservancy of Canada The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is a private, non-profit, charitable nature conservation and restoration organization based in Canada. Since its founding in 1962, the organization and its partners have protected of land and water acro ...

(NCC) has a long-term goal to protect 500 acres (2 km²) of Happy Valley Forest. Over of land are currently protected by the NCC and its partners via land purchases, land donations and conservation

easement An easement is a nonpossessory right to use and/or enter onto the real property of another without possessing it. It is "best typified in the right of way which one landowner, A, may enjoy over the land of another, B". An easement is a propert ...

s. In May 2013, NCC announced that 90 acres of conservation lands named Love Mountain in the Happy Valley Forest Natural Area were donated by a family that acquired the land in 1930, and funding for its conservation was obtained from private parties, the

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...

, and the

Regional Municipality of York The Regional Municipality of York, also called York Region, is a regional municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, between Lake Simcoe and Toronto. The region was established after the passing of then Bill 102, An Act to Establish The Regional ...

References

{{King, Ontario Oak Ridges Moraine King, Ontario Protected areas of the Regional Municipality of York Forests of Ontario Areas of Natural and Scientific Interest