Our Properties

132 Savannah Oaks Pond, Brantford ON

In November 2024, the City of Brantford donated a 14.7 acre property to the Brant Land Trust. TCG owned many of the lands on Hardy Road and entered into extraction agreements with the City and the former Township of Brantford to extract the pits they respectively owned. What was once farmland, now became aggregate.

The pond located at the back of 132 Savannah Oaks Road was a wash pond from those days when this entire area was a moonscape, created as a result of aggregate extraction.

Westcast Industries purchased this property for their Research and Development building, with the pond being rehabilitated for the enjoyment of their employees and their families. In recent years, Westcast sold the property to the City of Brantford who purchased the pond site. In 2022, Brant Land Trust worked with the Brant Tree Coalition, under the leadership of Chuck Beach, and planted over 3000 native trees along the slope to the pond.

The pond area is home to a diverse range of wildlife, including fish, nesting birds, turtles, frogs and numerous invertebrates. There are invasive species identified – Black Locust and Common Buckthorn - and a management plan is being formulated. The Eastern Meadowlark has been identified in the grassy area. It is ‘Threatened’ meaning the species lives in the wild in Ontario, is not endangered, but is likely to become endangered if steps are not taken to address factors threatening it.

The Brant Land Trust is very appreciative of this, our first donation. The preservation of this pond as a small ecological reserve, amid and industrial area, signifies our commitment to maintaining a balanced and healthy ecosystem. The site is under study and not open to the public. Thank you Westcast for creating this habitat.

History

TCG owned many of the lands on Hardy Road and entered into extraction agreements with the City and the former Township of Brantford to extract the pits they respectively owned.

This pond, was a wash pond from those days when this entire area was a moonscape, created as a result of aggregate extraction. Westcast Industries purchased the property and rehabilitated the pond for the enjoyment of their employees and their families.

The property was sold, with the pond portion severed for a donation by the City of Brantford to the Brant Land Trust in November 2023.

In 2022, the Brant Tree Coalition planted over 3000 trees. This property is an environmentally sensitive area that is under study as a habitat for fish, birds and snakes.

Links of Interest:

Ignatius Cockshutt Forest in the County of Brant

Working with the County of Brant and the property owner, the transfer of a 24.3 acre woodlot to the care of the Brant Land Trust was completed in December 2023. This ecologically sensitive land is now under the permanent stewardship and protection of Brant Land Trust. The property donation has been registered with Canada's Ecological Gifts Program. Bordered by the Grand River to the east, Cockshutt Road to the west and Newport Road to the south, it consists of 3 fully forested, steeply sloped ravines and creeks that serve as a critical riparian corridor - natural habitat for wildlife as it travels along the Grand River. The forest consists of mature hardwoods, white pine and younger forest with some Carolinian elements typical of this area. Part of the slope was subject to a major landslip 2 decades ago which revealed a significant bank that has been identified as a possible nesting habitat for species such as bank swallows. A detailed ecological assessment of the property will be undertaken as Brant Land Trust as part of the stewardship responsibilities.

The property, which was generously donated by a member of the Cockshutt family, is part of the land Ignatius Cockshutt originally purchased in the Lefferty Tract in the mid 1800’s. Since then it has been held by 5 generations of the Cockshutt family.

In his time, Ignatius Cockshutt was often thought of as a hard business man, but in retirement he became well known as a philanthropist who supported and initiated local charities. Brant Land Trust has chosen to name the property The Ignatius Cockshutt Forest to recognize the long history of service to Brantford and the County of Brant of Ignatius and the Cockshutt Family.

The Brant Land Trust is a registered charity that is dedicated to securing, protecting and restoring functioning ecosystems and biodiversity in the County of Brant and the City of Brantford.

Ignatius Cockshutt Forest, Brantford ON — Ignatius Cockshutt Forest contains steeply sloped, forested ravines - Photo: Tom Woodcock