Sandbanks Draft Veg Mgmt Plan - Ontario Parks

1.0 Introduction
This vegetation stewardship plan is intended to provide direction for management and
stewardship activities at Sandbanks Provincial Park. It begins with the ecological and
planning context for vegetation stewardship. The main community types found in the
park, as well as the relevant successional processes, are described. An overview of
general policies is provided before detailed policies are described for specific vegetation
management units.
1.1. Location and Setting
Sandbanks Provincial Park is an approximately 1600 ha Natural Environment class
provincial park located in Prince Edward County (Figure 1), about 15 km southwest of
the town of Picton. Sandbanks encompasses most of the county’s southwestern
shoreline between the village of Wellington and Salmon Point. The park is a popular
summer destination, with over 500,000 visitors for the 2005 operating season.
The park is composed of three distinct land areas (Figure 2 – see insert): two large
coastal baymouth bar formations joined by an intervening area of scenic rural land on a
limestone peninsula. These three areas will be referred to as the West Lake Dunes,
Woodlands/Agricultural, and Outlet sectors throughout this document in order to
minimize confusion and remain consistent with the 1993 park management plan.
1.2. Regional Ecology & Sandbanks Overview
Located in Ecodistrict 6E-15 (Picton), Sandbanks Provincial Park is situated at the
southern edge of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Forest Region. The forest zone
represents a transitional zone between the principally deciduous tree species to the
south, west, and east and the coniferous forests to the north. The park’s vegetation is
characteristic of this region, but some species are more commonly associated with the
Deciduous Forest Region. The park is home to an extremely diverse range of other
plants in a variety of ecosystems.
Ecodistrict 6E-15 encompasses all of Prince Edward County, its archipelago of islands,
and areas extending east along the Lake Ontario shoreline to the Kingston area. The
ecodistrict is a shallowly covered plain of Ordovician limestone. Prince Edward County
is essentially an island in Lake Ontario; its southern position and lake-buffered climate
allow it to support many Carolinian species as well as a successful wine industry.
The park encompasses significant coastal ecosystems and earth science features. The
West Lake dunes (also referred to as the Sandbanks Coastal Sand Bar Dunes)
comprise a provincially significant ANSI 1 , while the forested dunes and pannes 2 of the
1 ANSI – Area of Natural and Scientific Interest: a systematically selected area containing landscapes or
features identified as having values related to protection, natural heritage, scientific study, or education.
Provincially significant ANSIs contain the best examples of landform or vegetation features of each
ecodistrict.
2 panne: also referred to as Great Lakes coastal meadow marshes or shoreline fens, these are specialized
habitats restricted to near-shore areas of the Great Lakes. Their low nutrient levels and extreme water level
fluctuations limit their flora to mainly sedges and rushes.
Sandbanks Vegetation Management Plan 1 of 28
Ontario Parks, SE Zone
2009