Look around!  You have an excellent view of both the plantations and mature forest of Joany’s Woods. The area around you was once old growth forest, but it was cleared to make way for agriculture. Thomas Doherty of Sarnia had the vision to purchase this land in 1986 and start planting it with trees. What was once forest, and was converted to farmland, is now becoming forest again. 

The Lookout Hill is part of a delta formed at the end of the last ice age. Geologists tell us that about 10,000 years ago, this area was covered by glacial Lake Warren. The shoreline of this vast lake was upstream from here, about where modern-day Sylvan now stands. Silt-laden melt-waters from the ice sheets spilled into the lake, dropping their load of sand and gravel and forming a delta that stretched for several kilometers. Down on the flats below you, under the deep still waters of the lake, the lakebed was covered in finer silts and clay. These denser soils drain more slowly and can hold water later into the year.  This is where wetlands occur.