If we don't have the land, what's left?

When the Speck brothers dug a pond in the middle of their first vineyard in the early 1980s, environmental stewardship wasn't at the top of their minds.

"We needed a holding tank to put our drainage water (in)," said Matthew Speck, co-owner of the family-run Henry of Pelham Winery in St. Catharines.

Last summer, that changed. Runoff from the vines is now filtered through a series of trenches, which cleans the water before spilling it into a shallow, biodiverse wetland - surrounded by bullrushes and natural plants.

The water later flows into nearby Richardson's Creek, reducing phosphates, which cause algae blooms in lakes.

"We're in the mode right now of looking at all the things we can do (to help the environment)," Speck said of the winery's pledge to make sustainable wine.

On Wednesday morning, the winery was highlighted as a shining example of how to treat the land and lessen environmental impact.

The Specks' story is one of many featured in a new eight-page factsheet produced by the Carolinian Canada Coalition, a London, Ont., based organization that connects people who care about the environment and live in southwestern Ontario's Carolinian forest zone.

The pamphlet, launched Wednesday at Henry of Pelham, offers local landowners and farmers ways of protecting the ecosystem and information on Niagara environmental organizations. The group mailed the booklet to 24,000 rural homes in Niagara this week.

Nikki May, program co-ordinator for the Carolinian Canada Coalition, said she hopes residents read the factsheet and become inspired to adapt some of the eco-friendly ideas to their own properties.

"They're respecting and preserving the land," May said of landowners such as the Speck brothers. "If we don't have the land, what's left?"

Mike Rose, stewardship co-ordinator with Land Care Niagara, an incorporated organization that is part of a not-for-profit network that promotes wise land management, said people need as much information as possible about protecting the land.

"The more they know about Niagara, the more likely they'll go out and experience the land," Rose said.

"The more they experience the land, the more likely they're going to want to care for it."

Speck said the winery didn't hesitate when approached by Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority to create the wetland last year.

They'd already subscribed to such ideas as the Environmental Farm Plan and Sustainable Winemaking Ontario, spearheaded by the Wine Council of Ontario. Now, Speck said he hopes other landowners are inspired to make changes to their properties.

The organizations, and the grants to help pay for changes, are out there, Speck said. There are 14 regions in the Carolinian Life Zone of southwestern Ontario.