Upper Welland River Watershed Plan - Niagara Peninsula ...

UPPER WELLAND RIVER WATERSHED PLANNatural Heritage Resources“One of the most fundamental principles of conservation is that there should be a system ofnatural corridors across the landscape, interspersed with large core natural areas” (Federationof Ontario Naturalists No Date). Not only does a natural heritage network provide a web ofnatural habitats that is crucial to the long-term survival and sustainability of biological diversitybut this natural complex is critical in the maintenance of a healthy functioning ecosystem.In southwestern Ontario, the Carolinian Life Zone is a rich and diverse network of cores andcorridors that stretches from Toronto to Grand Bend extending southward to Lake Erie. Alsoknown as the Eastern Deciduous Forest Region, this unique ecosystem boasts roughly onethirdof Canada‟s rare and endangered species. Even though the Carolinian Life Zone makes upless than one percent of Canada‟s total land area, it contains a greater number of species thanany other ecosystem in Canada and many of these species are not found anywhere else in thecountry (Johnson 2005). As part of its Big Picture project, Carolinian Canada identifiedconsiderable lands within the Upper Welland River watershed as a “Carolinian Core NaturalArea” (Figure 11).A core natural area is defined as: “an intact natural area with larger habitat blocks; regions witha high overall percentage of natural vegetation cover; viable occurrences of globally rarespecies and vegetation community types, and concentrations of rare species and vegetation;should exceed 200 hectares where possible with smaller high-quality sites in areas with loweramounts of natural vegetation cover; as well as having minimum corridor widths of 200 metresplus any adjacent areas of natural cover” (Riley et al 2003).Corridors provide an increase in functionality of core areas, even smaller or fragmented areas,by not only facilitating in the movement of larger mammals between natural areas, but “they arealso essential for the movement and maintenance of genetic diversity for virtually all speciesregardless of size or species-pollen and seeds and other genetic material are passed alongcorridors” (Pim No Date).In Ontario the PPS (MMAH 2005) calls for the wise use and management of resources,accordingly Section 2.1.2 of the PPS states: “The diversity and connectivity of natural featuresin an area, and the long-term ecological function and biodiversity of natural heritage systems,should be maintained, restored or, where possible, improved, recognizing linkages between andamong natural heritage features and areas, surface water features and ground water features.”The Upper Welland River Watershed Plan Restoration Strategy acknowledges and addresseslinkages and potential corridors that extend outside of the study area. Large core areas that arepresent within and outside of the study area play an integral role in the formation orenhancement of corridors.Upper Welland River Watershed Study Area Natural Heritage ResourcesThe percentages of upland forest cover, wetlands, and riparian habitat in Upper Welland Riverwatershed are recorded in Table 2. These figures will be assessed based on the guidelines setby Environment Canada (2004c) as part of the restoration strategies in the watershed plan.These statistics were generated from the data produced through the NPCA Natural AreasInventory project and from the MNR‟s Ontario Wetland Evaluation System wetland layer. All of30