Nature needs a helping hand

“Thanks to Erling and Ducks Unlimited who found a way to make it happen.”

Networking for nature

That’s why, over the next 30 years, Deshane became a proficient networker, bringing people and groups together to help him realize his two passions: involving the next generation of conservationists and restoring his own land for wildlife. In his book, he recounts how his daughter—a teacher—introduced him to a fledgling outdoor education program for youth called Envirothon, which he then helped endorse and organize throughout the county. The ripple effect of the program led him to work with more youth via the Outdoor Rangers, Pikwakanagan Earth Walkers and Renfrew County Stewardship Rangers, each contributing services to enhance wildlife habitat like planting trees and installing wood duck nest boxes.

During this time, Deshane was focused on restoring the original log home on his acreage before turning his attention to the land itself. It wasn’t good farmland, he writes, but “it was a great fringe habitat: plenty of wetlands and fields on the edge of being taken over by ground cedar. There were a hundred acres of forest along the back of the property 200 feet higher.”

Experience had taught Deshane that “with a little thought and careful planning, we can improve our forests, wetlands, and marginal lands into areas where many forms of nature can prosper.” Still, he needed advice from experts.

Calling in the experts at Ducks Unlimited Canada

He enlisted the wetland restoration expertise of Ducks Unlimited Canada conservation specialist Erling Armson, who helped him create the right conditions on several wetlands to attract and benefit waterfowl and other wildlife. With support from other partners and youth groups, by 2009, Deshane had transformed his property into an oasis for a variety of flora and fauna.

Then, he was able to enjoy the fruits of his labour from a window overlooking a restored pond in front of his log home. From April to November 2009, he photographed the many wild visitors passing through, starting with a pair of wood ducks and ending with a common snipe grabbing a quick lunch on its way south. In between, he recorded herons, muskrats, bitterns, deer, cedar waxwings, mallards, mergansers and geese. All are photographed and their stories documented in his book, with one chapter devoted to visiting Blanding’s and snapping turtles.

Deshane sold the property in 2014, and now lives only 10 minutes away, in Renfrew. He calls his self-published, hardcover book “a photolog,” and has distributed his book to local libraries and interested organizations and agencies. It’s a passion project that he says he’ll continue to champion. “Complacency and life in a rocking chair never did appeal to me,” he says, joking that “as long as I can see the green on the ground, I know I’m still above it.”

“My book is designed to stir up interest in what wetlands can do for inhabitants. I don’t want it to sit on a coffee table, but rather act as a guidebook to living mindfully, to let ordinary citizens know what we should be doing for our environment before it’s too late. We can stop wasting our future, because we know that there are things we can do now to prevent that from happening.”

His book is a personal and poignant reminder of all the reasons we need to try.