Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News
The Newsletter of the Great Lakes
Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund
The Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News is the newsletter of the Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund, published five times per year. The News is intended to provide a forum for the free exchange of ideas among citizens and organizations working to protect aquatic habitats in the Great Lakes Basin.
Volume 15, Number 3 • Fall 2007
Lake Erie
Basin Update - Ontario Side
Natural Heritage Inventory
By Cherish Elwell, Niagara Restoration Council
Last summer, natural areas in the Port
Colborne and Wainfleet areas along the
Lake Erie shoreline received some special
attention. These areas where among the
first surveyed under the Peninsula Field
Naturalists and Niagara Peninsula
Conservation Authority (NPCA)’s
three-year Natural Heritage Areas
Inventory project.
There are many Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs) within the
Niagara Watershed that support a rich diversity of significant
habitats and geological formations, rare plants and animals, and
important wildlife corridors. The Natural Heritage Areas Inventory
involves using industry standard, scientifically defensible protocols
to inventory natural areas in the Niagara Region. The inventory will
provide invaluable information for developing environmental
awareness within communities, prioritizing restoration opportunities
and protection activities, and guiding planning decisions and
policy development. It is especially exciting because there has never
been a comprehensive inventory of these natural areas, and the only
formal documentation for planning purposes is over 25 years old.
In 2006, support and property access was requested of landowners
whose properties include natural areas, and the response was
overwhelmingly positive. In mid-august the NPCA, in partnership
with the Peninsula Field Naturalists, began inventorying properties
in Port Colborne and Wainfleet. Staff have inventoried close to
150 properties in these areas, primarily under private ownership,
totaling more than 2,000 acres of land.
Using the Ecological Land Classification (ELC) System Protocol,
workers have documented over 35 plant communities and many
significant species such as Pumpkin Ash and Purple Milkwort. The
most common plant community inventoried in 2006 was the Red
Maple Mineral Deciduous Swamp Type, and the most common
shrub dominated communities were the Grey Dogwood Cultural
Thicket Type and Meadowsweet Mineral Thicket Swamp Type.
Species of interest include Four-flowered Loosestrife and Cutleaf
Grape-fern. Also noteworthy, remnants of unique alvar-type
vegetation communities were found on limestone outcroppings
along the north shore of Lake Erie.
By employing the Ecological Land Classification protocol, the
Natural Heritage Areas Inventory will identify, categorize, and
organize ecosystems based on vegetation, soils, geology, landform
and climate. These data will then be used to establish and
understand ecosystem patterns and processes, and to inform
planning and regulations, ecosystem management, and
conservation objectives.
Currently, field crews are inventorying areas in Wainfleet,
South Niagara Falls and Haldimand. The Niagara Peninsula
Conservation Authority plans to make the final report available
on its website.
For more information of the Natural Heritage Inventory,
please contact: BrianneWilson,
Project Coordinator (905) 788-3135, Ext. 237,
bwilson@conservation-niagara.on.ca.
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