Lake Erie North Shore Watershed Plan - Niagara Peninsula ...

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LAKE ERIE NORTH SHORE WATERSHED PLAN Name: Point Abino (Brady 1980) Site I.D. FE-11-00-00-00-00 Municipality: Town of Fort Erie Subwatershed: Point Abino Drain Approx. Size: 639 hectares General Summary: This site is bounded by Pleasant Beach Road to the west, Willowood Avenue to the east, Sherkston Road and Michener Road to the north and Lake Erie to the south. Along the lake there are high dunes with good drainage, while behind these dunes the area is very low and consists primarily of marsh and swamp communities. The sand dunes at Point Abino support a mature virgin forest and are considered a unique geomorphological and biological feature in Ontario. The foredune and beach community adjacent to Lake Erie is also significant since it is one of few examples of a natural, relatively undisturbed beach at the eastern end of Lake Erie. A mature Silver Maple Deciduous Swamp lies north of the deciduous dune forest and is a high quality, mature and undisturbed forest community. The Shallow Marshes or backdune wetlands are characterized by Broad-leaved Sedges and deep organic soils. The Point Abino Drain runs along the north and west of this study site and has lead to a drastic drying of the once dominant wetland communities and swamp forests. In places there are 120 cm of organics but they are mostly dry. The deep open water channel of the drain supports a continuous mat of Lesser Duckweed. There are a total of 448 recorded taxa for this study site. This site is also in part designated Point Abino Wetland Complex PSW, Point Abino Peninsula Sandland Forest Life Science ANSI and Old growth forest Marcy’s Woods and Philips Sugar Bush Grove. This site also encompasses Baird Estate Conservation Area. Name: Humberstone Marsh (Brady 1980) Site ID: PC-03-00-00-00-00 Municipality: City of Port Colborne Subwatershed: Black Creek, Indian Creek Drain and Beaver Dam Creek Drain Approx. Size: 895 hectares General Summary: A small area of this large site was visited by NAI Field Crews. The following is a summary of the notations taken in the field. The dominant community noted is Deciduous Swamp with Red Maple, Green Ash, and Swamp Maple as the dominant species. The higher ground between wet depressions in the swamps was categorized as Deciduous Forest dominated by Red Oak, White Oak, and Shagbark Hickory. The marshes for which this area is named were categorized as Sedge Marshes or Cattail Marshes. The Broad-leaved Sedge Marshes were dominated by a variety of sedges including Fox Sedge, Porcupine Sedge, and Bladder Sedge with Three-lobed Beggar-ticks, Spotted Touch-me-not and Sensitive Fern. The Shallow Marsh community dominated by Broad-leaved Cattails and Rice Cut Grass included Narrow-leaved 72
LAKE ERIE NORTH SHORE WATERSHED PLAN Meadowsweet, Three-lobed Beggar-ticks and Porcupine Sedge. There are a total of 286 recorded taxa for this study site. This site is also in part designated as Humberstone Marsh PSW and Humberstone Muck Basin Swamp Forest Life Science ANSI. As previously indicated, only a portion of this site falls in the Lake Erie North Shore Watershed Plan study area. In 1979 and 1980, Brock University undertook a field study that involved inventorying and evaluating remnant natural areas in the Niagara Region. A remnant natural area is best defined as “areas which maintain a forest ecosystem that appears unaltered by urban or agricultural activities at this time” [time of study] (Brady 1980). Through the study, numerous significant natural areas were documented throughout the Niagara Region. „Significant‟ in regards to natural heritage features and areas, is defined in the RMN Environmental Policies as “ecologically important in terms of features, functions, representation or amount, and contributing to the quality, diversity, ecological health and integrity of the Core Natural Heritage System” (Section 7.36.c). For this inventory, significance was based on numerous criteria borrowed from previous studies done by Eagles and Adindu (1978). Examples of the criteria used include: the ecological function is vital to the healthy maintenance of a natural system beyond its boundaries (e.g., water storage/recharge area); the area is an unusual habitat with limited representation, or a small remnant of a particular habitat which have virtually disappeared within the Region; area provides habitat for rare or endangered species; and the area has an unusually high diversity of biological communities and associated plants and animals. The following descriptions of the following remnants natural areas have been provided by this report; Regional Municipality of Niagara Environmentally Sensitive Areas (Brady 1980). It is important to note that some of the identified remnant natural areas have also been designated as Areas of Natural and Scientific Interest or provincially significant wetlands and therefore have already been described above, or may have been described through the Natural Areas Inventory. Shisler Point Woods is a 77 hectare woodlot located in Port Colborne. This site borders the Lake Erie shoreline and contains forested dunes and low lying swampy areas which are a result of the woodlot being at a lower elevation that the lake. This area, in part, is also designated Empire Beach Backshore Forest Basin ANSI and PSW. The Burnaby Bush is a 59 hectare woodlot that is bisected by the Canadian National Railroad. The poor drainage of the Welland Clay soils contributes to the wet condition of the site. The vegetation association of the woodlot consists of maple/american beech and maple spp./red ash/oak spp. Game birds and deer have also been noted in the woodlot. The Fence-Line Woodlot is a 30 hectare woodlot overlain by dark grey loam soil. Drainage varies from good in the southern section with intermittent sloughs and very little standing water, while the north section has poor drainage and contains an intermittent stream. The vegetation association of the woodlot consists of red ash/willow spp in the south and eastern cottonwood/trembling aspen/willow spp in the north. 73
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