Fletcher Creek Earthcache EarthCache
Fletcher Creek Earthcache
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Fletcher Creek Ecological Preserve is located in Northern Flamborough. You will be visiting the headwaters of the Fletcher Creek & Spencer Creek watersheds, an area that has been designated as an Environmentally Sensitive Wetland (ESW), a Provincially Significant Wetland (PSW) and an Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI).
Please note that the area isnt accessible at night.
Ironically the area served as a limestone quarry for many years. Its funny how the aggregate industry has excelled at fouling up some of the finest wetland areas of our province ! Actually it isn’t funny. For a larger scale example of this I recommend visiting Keith Watsons Earthcache in Halton “Look inside the Niagara Escarpment – GC17MTQ” - a tragic reminder that we should all use our bicycles a bit more often when heading out caching – right ?
Fletcher Creek Quarry has a rather promising conclusion however. This area was extensively quarried in the nineteenth century until it was eventually abandoned in the 1930’s. It was left dormant until the 1990’s when the Hamilton Conservation Authority acquired the land. Researchers from McMaster University rehabilitated the site and it now contains a number of distinct ecosystems. When visiting this cache, you will pass through the Fletcher Creek Swamp Forest, the open sedge meadow fen, mixed upland forest, meadows, and the rare, calcareous fen at the quarry pit itself. Together these ecosystems provide diverse habitats which support up to 500 species of animals, birds, insect and fish.
More importantly, the success of this site resulted in a Rehabilitation Protocol being created for the restoration of other abandoned aggregate sites in the future.
The Romance with Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock consisting mainly of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). In Southern Ontario it is present predominantly in the form of calcite, but other minerals such as aragonite can also be present. It is grainy in nature , with the grains being formed by the fossil fragments of undersea corals and other ancient marine organisms. Limestone can also contain other particles such as silica, clay, silt and other forms of sand.
In other parts of the world limestone is formed by the precipitation of calcites in subterranean caverns where it forms stalagmites and stalagtites. Geodes of calcite, quartz or dolomite can form within limestone pockets. However limestone formed in submarine environments were usually from ancient shallow seas, as coral reefs don’t form at great depths in the ancient or modern oceans and calcite can’t precipitate under the pressures experienced a few hundred metres below the surface. Impurities in limestone, such as iron oxides, can frequently give the stone different colours, especially on the exposed weathered surfaces.
A third and relatively rare example of limestone deposition is travertine which forms by evaporation of calcium carbonate rich water along streams as well as at the base of waterfalls and near hot springs.
If limestone is exposed to the combined metamorphic factors of heat and pressure it re-crystallizes as marble, which has been prized by sculptors for centuries as an artistic medium. In the Middle Ages it was used as building material in a great number of churches and castles in Europe. It was only in the nineteenth century that quarrying techniques improved to the point that more mundane structures such as banks and train stations could be constructed due to the lower prices of limestone. Hence the Fletcher Creek Quarry’s existence.
Because limestone is a carbonate based mineral it is susceptible to dissolving in weak acid solutions … like acid rain. For the first time in centuries, buildings constructed from one of the most durable materials known to man, are now under threat.
Other uses for limestone include …..
- Quicklime for use in cement and mortar
- Soil conditioner for use in acidic soils
- Aggregate (reread my soapbox rant above)
- Glassmaking
- Toothpaste, paper, plastic, paint and tile industries
- Livestock feed supplementation. (yes, your chicken was fed rocks ! Good source of calcium.)
- Bread and cereal supplementation (You eat it too)
- Medicines and cosmetics
- Sculpting
Logging requirements
In order to log this earthcache, please email me via my profile page, the answers to the following TWO questions, as well as your results for the following TWO recorded measurements.
If I suspect that you didn’t visit the site, your log will be cheerfully deleted. You can always submit an optional photo, if you are concerned. No spoilers in the logs please.
Q1. What is another (local) name for the Fletcher Creek Swamp Forest
Q2. How many licensed aggregate sites were there in Ontario when the plaque was produced ?
Q3. What was the quarry depth as measured from the boardwalk down at the water level to the published coordinates (also known as waypoint 1) ?
Q4. What is the diameter of the quarry as measured from the boardwalk to waypoint 3 ?
This Earthcache involves a round trip walk of approximately 4km. Don’t forget to log some of the other geocaches in the Fletcher Creek Preserve. At the time of publication they were …..
Hockey/Baseball Hall of Fame #5 No key required (GCVHFD)
Bouncy Bunny searches for Rainbows (GC17015)
GHMGC A Cache a Day – February – mini challenge (GC222HG)
Like a Rock (GC2FQ84)
Fletcher Creek Ecological Preserve 2 (GC2W6M1)
****** Congratulations foam follower on the FTF !!!!******
Material from the following sources was used
1. (visit link)
2. Hamilton Region Conservation authority
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Rawbl gur jnyx !
Treasures
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