Lower Grindstone Heritage Lands
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Lower Grindstone Heritage Lands INVENTORY, ISSUES AND OPPORTUNITIES Prepared for Cootes to Escarpment EcoPark System November 2019 Cootes to Escarpment EcoPark System Partners Funding for the preparation of this report was generously provided by the Ontario Trillium Foundation. The Ontario Trillium Foundation is an agency of the Government of Ontario. Lower Grindstone Heritage Lands Management Plan: Inventory, Issues and Opportunities page i Project Study Team North-South Environmental Inc. Mirek Sharp: project manager, report author and editor, natural heritage expertise Melissa Tonge: primary report author, natural heritage research Jennifer Lau Balsdon: editor Issues & Opportunities Report and Classification and Zoning Report, primary author Management Plan Pauline Catling: data management, contributing report author Richard Czok: GIS analysis, mapping Lura Consulting Susan Hall: public consultation, facilitation Ryan Adamson: public consultation Schollen & Company Inc. Markus Hillar: recreation expertise, contributing report author Cecelia Paine: cultural heritage expertise, contributing report author Andlyn Ltd. Ken Dakin: planning and policy expertise, contributing report author Project Steering Committee Tomasz Wiercioch, Cootes to Escarpment EcoPark System Coordinator Nigel Finney, Conservation Halton Lindsay Barr, Royal Botanical Gardens Tys Theysmeyer, Royal Botanical Gardens Ingrid Vanderbrug, City of Burlington Cover Photograph: Hendrie Valley by Markus Hillar, 2019 Lower Grindstone Heritage Lands Management Plan: Inventory, Issues and Opportunities page ii Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction 1 1.1 Study Context 1 1.2 Purpose and Scope of Work 4 1.2.1 Purpose of the Management Plan 4 1.2.2 Scope of Work 4 1.3 General Overview 6 1.4 Study Methods 6 1.4.1 Project Governance and Study Team 6 1.4.2 Community Engagement 7 1.4.3 Data Collection and Analysis 9 1.4.4 Method for Planning Inventory 9 1.4.5 Method for Recreation Inventory 10 1.4.6 Method for Natural Heritage Inventory 12 1.4.7 Method for Cultural Heritage Inventory 12 1.4.8 Method for Management Issues Inventory 13 2.0 Land Use 13 2.1 Existing Land Uses 13 2.1.1 Utilities Adjacent and Within Current EcoPark System Lands 13 2.2 Future Planned Uses 15 2.2.1 City of Burlington Development Applications 15 2.2.2 Environmental Assessments 15 2.2.3 RBG Masterplan 16 3.0 Planning Policy and Regulatory Framework 16 3.1 Planning Inventory Summary 16 4.0 Recreation Inventory 17 4.1 Study Area Recreational Resources 17 4.1.1 Trails 17 4.1.2 RBG Gardens 23 4.1.3 Parking and Access Points 24 4.1.4 Recreational Uses 25 4.1.5 Existing Infrastructure Summary 28 4.2 Adjacent Recreational Resources 29 4.2.1 Trails 29 4.2.2 Access Points 29 4.2.3 Recreational Uses 29 4.2.4 Existing Infrastructure 30 5.0 Natural Heritage Inventory 30 5.1 Physiography and Surface Geology 30 5.2 Surface Water 30 5.3 Vegetation Communities 31 5.3.1 Inventory 31 5.3.2 Significant Vegetation Communities 38 5.4 Flora 41 5.4.1 Inventory 41 5.4.2 Invasive Flora Species 42 Lower Grindstone Heritage Lands Management Plan: Inventory, Issues and Opportunities page v 5.4.3 Significant Flora 44 5.5 Fauna 46 5.5.1 Inventory 46 5.5.2 Significant Wildlife Habitat 51 5.6 Other Natural Heritage Designations 51 5.7 Natural Heritage Connections and Linkages 52 5.8 Natural Heritage Inventory Summary 53 6.0 Cultural Heritage Inventory 55 6.1 Overview 55 6.1.1 Early Settlement History 55 6.1.2 Twentieth Century Context and Local Cultural History 57 6.2 Lower Grindstone Cultural Heritage Inventory 58 6.2.1 Milling 58 6.2.2 Extraction 58 6.2.3 William Hendrie and Valley Farm – Entrepreneur and Breeder 60 6.2.4 RBG Lands in the Lower Grindstone 61 6.2.5 Royal Botanical Garden Centre Cultural Heritage Resources 62 6.2.6 Hendrie Park Cultural Heritage Resources 62 6.2.7 Laking Garden 63 6.2.8 Other RBG Cultural Heritage Resources 64 6.2.9 Hidden Valley Park 66 6.3 Cultural Heritage Resources on Adjacent Lands 66 6.3.1 National Fireproofing Company 66 6.3.2 “Around the Bay” Marker 66 7.0 Management Issues and Opportunities 66 7.1 Overarching Cootes to Escarpment EcoPark System Management Issues 68 7.1.1 Issues 68 7.1.2 Opportunities 72 7.2 Access, Parking and Infrastructure Issues 73 7.2.1 Issues 73 7.2.2 Opportunities 75 7.3 Recreation Issues 76 7.3.1 Issues 76 7.3.2 Opportunities 81 7.4 Encroachment Issues 83 7.4.1 Issues 83 7.4.2 Opportunities 84 7.5 Hydrologic Impacts 85 7.5.1 Issues 85 7.5.2 Opportunities 87 7.6 Ecosystem Management 88 7.6.1 Issues 89 7.6.2 Opportunities 93 7.7 Cultural Heritage Issues 99 7.7.1 Issues 99 7.7.2 Opportunities 100 8.0 Next Steps 101 Lower Grindstone Heritage Lands Management Plan: Inventory, Issues and Opportunities page vi 9.0 References 102 List of Tables Table 1. Key Engagement Components. ....................................................................................................... 8 Table 2. Fieldwork dates and locations. ........................................................................................................ 9 Table 3. Vegetation communities of Current EcoPark System Lands in Lower Grindstone Heritage Lands ............................................................................................................................................................ 33 Table 4. Vegetation communities of Current EcoPark System Lands in Lower Grindstone Heritage Lands per management unit ........................................................................................................................ 36 Table 5. Floristic Quality of the Lower Grindstone Heritage Lands. ........................................................... 42 Table 6. Major invasive flora species found within Lower Grindstone Heritage Lands.............................. 43 Table 7. Provincially significant flora species in Lower Grindstone Heritage Lands ................................... 44 Table 8. Significant fauna species recorded from Lower Grindstone Heritage Lands ................................ 48 Table 9. Summary of natural heritage inventory findings for Lower Grindstone Heritage Lands. Species considered to be extirpated from Lower Grindstone Heritage Lands have not been included. ....... 53 List of Figures Figure 1. Cootes to Escarpment EcoPark System ......................................................................................... 3 Figure 2. Current EcoPark System Lands within Lower Grindstone Heritage Lands .................................... 5 Figure 3. Trails, Parking and Access Locations at Lower Grindstone Heritage Lands ................................ 11 Figure 4. Royal Botanical Gardens’ Hendrie Valley Trails Map .................................................................. 20 Figure 5. Ecological Land Classification of Current EcoPark System Lands in Lower Grindstone Heritage Lands .................................................................................................................................................. 32 Figure 6. Distribution of Provincially Rare Flora, Fauna and Vegetation Communities in the Lower Grindstone Heritage Lands ................................................................................................................. 40 Figure 7. Cultural Heritage Locations in Current EcoPark System Lands .................................................... 59 Figure 8. Examples of Management Issues in Current EcoPark System Lands ........................................... 70 List of Appendices Appendix 1: Data Sources ......................................................................................................................... 110 Appendix 2: Planning Characterization Matrix and Detailed Planning Policy and Regulatory Framework .......................................................................................................................................................... 113 Appendix 3: Natural Heritage Data Gap Analysis ..................................................................................... 129 Appendix 4: Information Gathering Session Participants ......................................................................... 132 Appendix 5: Flora Species at Lower Grindstone Heritage Lands .............................................................. 134 Appendix 6: Carolinian, Prairie and Savannah Indicators at Lower Grindstone Heritage Lands .............. 158 Appendix 7: Fauna species at Lower Grindstone Heritage Lands ............................................................. 161 Appendix 8: Summary of Management Issues ......................................................................................... 176 Appendix 9: Recreation Management Issue Photographs and Index ....................................................... 180 Lower Grindstone Heritage Lands Management Plan: Inventory, Issues and Opportunities page vii 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Study Context Between 2007 and 2009, a group of public agencies and organizations consisting of the Royal Botanical Gardens1(RBG), Hamilton Conservation Authority, Conservation Halton, City of Hamilton, City of Burlington, Halton Region, Bruce Trail Conservancy, Hamilton Naturalists’ Club, and Hamilton Harbour Remedial Action Plan, undertook to develop a strategy to protect, connect and restore natural lands and open space between the Niagara Escarpment and Cootes Paradise in Hamilton Harbour2. The initiative resulted in the “Cootes to Escarpment Park System Conservation and Land Management Strategy Phase II Report” (October 2009). This