APPLYING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

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(No Transcript)
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APPLYING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN MUNICIPAL
DECISION MAKING
AN APPROACH TO IDENTIFYING SIGNIFICANT
WOODLANDS IN EASTERN ONTARIO
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WOODLAND VALUATION SYSTEM VERSION 2.0 METHODS
RATIONALE FOR ASSIGNING WOODLAND VALUE AT THE
PATCH SCALE FOR CONSIDERATION IN PLANNING AND
CONSERVATION IN EASTERN ONTARIO
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Natural Heritage Features for Municipal Planning

• The Planning Act sets out the ground rules for
  land use planning in Ontario. It describes
  possible land uses and constraints through
  provincial policy statements.
• Section 2.3 of the Provincial Policy Statement
  deals with protecting significant natural
  heritage features from negative impacts
• Woodlands
• Wetlands
• Wildlife Habitat
• Natural Connections
• Fish Habitat
• Valleylands

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Eastern Ontario Natural Heritage Working Group
Comprised of organizations (non-profit,
government, schools) with expertise in
conservation biology, geomatics, and
communications. The GOAL was to assist
municipalities in meeting the natural heritage
conservation requirements of the Planning Act.
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Natural Heritage Features for Municipal Planning
Natural Heritage Components
WOODLANDS
WETLANDS
WILDLIFE HABITAT
NATURAL CONNECTIONS
These components are equally important and as
such should be used together when making land use
decisions
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Natural Heritage Features for Municipal Planning
Ottawa
Cornwall
Gananoque
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Woodland Valuation System V2.0
Woodlands are treed areas that provide
environmental and economic benefits such as
erosion prevention, water retention, provision of
habitat, recreation and the sustainable harvest
of woodland products. Woodlands include
treed areas, woodlots or forested areas and vary
in their level of significance.
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Woodland Valuation System V2.0

• Significant Woodlands
• important in terms of features, functions,
  representation or amount, and contributing to the
  quality and diversity of an identifiable
  geographic area or natural heritage system.
• - Natural Heritage Policy

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Woodland Valuation System V2.0
Unlike other natural heritage features
(wetlands, wildlife habitat, etc.), significant
woodlands are NOT identified by the Ontario
Ministry of Natural Resources. The MNR
encourages municipalities to determine which
woodlands are significant on their own.
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Woodland Valuation System V2.0
Approach Place a relative value on natural
heritage features based on several criteria
using a Geographic Information System
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Woodland Valuation System V2.0

• Methodology
• Determine ecological criteria that represent
  the value of each natural heritage feature
• Develop a ranking scheme to quantify the
  thresholds for each criteria
• Model each criteria based on the ranking scheme
  using good data and GIS
• Synthesize a value layer from criteria themes

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Woodland Valuation System V2.0

• Criteria
• Woodland Area
• Forest Interior
• Proximity to Woodlands
• Slope
• Islands
• Proximity to Water

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Woodland Valuation System V2.0
All woodland patches are given a value between 0
(low) and 3 (high) relative to the criteria
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Woodland Valuation System V2.0
Smaller patches given low value
Large patches given high value
PATCH SIZE Important for wildlife habitat
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Woodland Valuation System V2.0
Smaller patches given low value
Large patches given high value
FOREST INTERIOR Large core areas promote species
diversity
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Woodland Valuation System V2.0
Patches close together get higher value
Isolated patches get low value
PROXIMITY TO OTHER WOODLANDS Connected landscapes
are healthier
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Woodland Valuation System V2.0
SLOPE Woodlands on steep slopes reduce soil
erosion and mass movement
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Woodland Valuation System V2.0
Patches on islands get high value
ISLANDS Islands have unique habitat due to
transition between water and land
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Woodland Valuation System V2.0
Patches further from water are given low value
Patches close to water are given high value
PROXIMITY TO WATER Woodlands moderate stream
temperature and filter pollutants
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30 FOREST COVER BY WATERSHED TARGET
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Woodland Valuation System V2.0
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Woodland Valuation System V2.0
FINAL LAYER Large connected woodlands that
protect water and soil are deemed significant
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Woodland Valuation System V2.0

• A SUCCESS STORY
• EFFECTIVE
• Results generated for over 25 municipalities
• TRANSFERABLE
• Simple methodology developed using common
  software
• and provincial data
• SCIENCE
• Criteria based on published reports rooted in
  science
• FREE
• Report, methodology, and data freely available
  for
• download at www.eomf.on.ca/mapping
• INTEGRATED
• Part of larger natural heritage package

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For more information about the Woodland Valuation
System V2.0 http//woodlandvaluation.eomf.on.ca/
or contact Mark Rowsell Geographer Mapping
Information Group Eastern Ontario Model
Forest P.O. Bag 2111 Kemptville, Ontario K0G 1J0
Canada Tel. [phone] Fax (613)
258-8363 www.eomf.on.ca/mapping
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• All material from the Eastern Ontario Natural
  Heritage Working Group
• is available online at
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• http//www.cpaws-ov.org/naturalheritage
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• Significant Woodlands
• Significant Wetlands
• Significant Wildlife Habitat
• Natural Connections
• 2. To request the above info on CD, or for the
  Greater Park Ecosystem Atlas
• for St Lawrence Islands National Park (May 2004),
• contact CPAWS Ottawa Valley at
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• info_at_cpaws-ov.org
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• [phone]