
Ontario Nature is pleased to announce that conservation work on Pelee Island will continue through 2026. A multi-partner collaborative with land trusts and researchers will focus on monitoring and restoring important habitat for at-risk snakes on conservation lands across Pelee Island – including Ontario Nature’s Stone Road Alvar Nature Reserve.
Ontario Nature’s Stone Road Alvar Nature Reserve is a 43-hectare (103 acre) property that protects some of Ontario’s rarest habitat. It provides habitat for 44 provincially rare and 33 regionally rare plant species. The nature reserve is part of the larger Stone Road Alvar Complex, owned and managed by Nature Conservancy of Canada and Essex Region Conservation Authority.
Alvars are globally rare habitats that are naturally open and are home to a high number of at-risk plants and animals, many of which are not found elsewhere. The collaboration will undertake habitat restoration as a response to woody shrub encroachment, which threatens to change alvar habitats by increasing shade and outcompeting alvar species.
This work will improve existing alvars and create new habitat for at-risk snakes and other rare species that are found on alvars including broad-banded forestsnail, snail-nesting bees and climbing prairie rose.
The collaboration will employ various habitat restoration techniques including mechanical shrub removal at several locations across Pelee Island and a prescribed burn at Stone Road Nature Reserve in late summer 2024, pending suitable wind and weather conditions.
Following habitat restoration, partners will monitor conservation lands to determine the impact on species at risk. Using this information, a best management practices brochure will be made available for the public who want to maintain or improve snake habitat on their properties.

Pelee Island is home to several at-risk snakes, including the endangered Blue Racer (Coluber constrictor foxii) and threatened Eastern Foxsnake (Pantherophis vulpinis).
Partners will monitor for the presence of snakes across Pelee Island in addition to monitoring known hibernation and nesting sites, collecting population data, and survey roads for mortality. This will help us produce up-to-date information on population size and threats, which will inform future conservation work.
Pelee Island landowners will be provided with opportunities to connect with project partners through a community event and feedback provided to the mayor and council.
Click here to learn more about the Stone Road Alvar Nature Reserve on Pelee Island.