Why does this matter? 2016 • Changes to the composition of tree species within the forest has an impact on other plants and wildlife, benefiting some while negatively affecting others. For example, American Beech produce beechnuts, an important food source for many species of wildlife (such as Wild Turkeys, Blue Jays and small mammals). With many beech dying from Beech Bark Disease, the reliability of this food source declines. At the same time, cavity nesting birds (such as woodpeckers, chickadees and nuthatches) may become more abundant as the availability of nest sites in dead trees increases. Combining monitoring information on many species groups (i.e. trees, ground vegetation, birds, salamanders) helps us to understand the interactions at play within the forest ecosystem. • Conservation Halton provides our records of species at risk to the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests, who oversee efforts to protect and recover these species. Take action and be part of the solution! What can you do? Be a good neighbour…Be a steward of your land. Forest Health • Learn to identify Butternut trees. If you find Butternut trees on Collectively, private landowners own the majority of natural areas in Conservation your property or while walking in a forest, report its location to the Halton’s watershed. Each parcel of land and each individual action can make a real MONITORING OMNRF, especially if it appears healthy. difference to the health of our natural environment. Whether you own or live close to • If you go camping, buy your firewood at the campground. Moving a forest, wetland, meadow, or stream, what you do on your property can benefit or firewood from one location to another can spread invasive insects and impact these features. Good stewardship practices on your own property benefit you, diseases. your community, and the watershed. Conservation Halton’s Long-term Environmental Monitoring Program • Learn to identify Gypsy Moths and visit www.conservationhalton.ca/ Conservation Halton’s Watershed Stewardship Program encourages and assists with gypsy-moth to learn more about this species and what you can do to stewardship initiatives towards the protection, improvement, or rehabilitation of Conservation Halton’s Long-term Environmental Monitoring Program control it around your home. natural areas, streams and groundwater resources on private lands. Our stewardship (LEMP) was developed in 2005 to assess the long-term health of the program can provide technical assistance, advice and guidance, and may be able Conservation Halton watershed. The results of the program will help • Get familiar with forest birds! There are a variety of apps available to to provide financial and volunteer assistance to private landowners for restoration, guide environmental protection efforts to ensure that the watershed’s help you learn to identify birds by sight and sound. naturalization, and environmental activities on your property. To find out more about health will be maintained or enhanced while meeting the current and Conservation Halton’s Stewardship Program projects and initiatives, or to arrange a future needs of local communities. site visit on your property with one of our Watershed Stewardship Technicians, please Ecological monitoring conducted as part of Conservation Halton’s call 905.336.1158 ext. 2263. Long-term Environmental Monitoring Program is completed across the entire Conservation Halton jurisdiction including the major watersheds of Grindstone Creek, Bronte Creek and Sixteen Mile Creek as well as fourteen smaller watersheds. It focuses on both the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems using biological, physical and chemical indicators of watershed health. This factsheet provides the details and results of the forest health monitoring completed by Conservation Halton over the 2016 field season.
2596 Britannia Road West Burlington, Ontario L7P 0G3
White-breasted Nuthatch conservationhalton.ca a non-native fungus that kills most of the Butternut FOREST BREEDING BIRDS trees that it infects. It has killed so many Butternut Why do we monitor forest health? Breeding birds are a useful indicator of overall forest health because they are trees in Ontario and is such a threat to the ongoing relatively easy to sample in a passive manner (i.e. point counts). The species present in, or Forest health is monitored in order to document current forest persistence of the species that Butternut was designated absent from, a forest can provide insight into the quality of the habitat for birds, as conditions and to measure changes in the forest environment over Endangered in Ontario in 2004, and is protected under well as other organisms that tend to be more difficult or time consuming to sample. time and at different locations within the watershed. Tracking the Endangered Species Act (2007). selected target indicators, such as tree health, invasive species • Beech Bark Disease (BBD), a non-native insect-fungus What we did in 2016: and ground vegetation, helps us to better understand our forest complex caused by a scale insect and canker fungus, is A total of 34 breeding bird point counts were conducted across the 11 long-term Beech Bark Disease ecosystems and what may be impacting these habitats. present throughout the 1 ha plot. This disease affects monitoring sites in 2016. A point count is a 10 minute period of listening and American Beech trees and many large beech trees at watching for birds, from a central point within a 100 m radius circle. This allows us this site are dead or dying. to repeat the survey in the same location and for the same amount of time each • Gypsy Moth egg masses were encountered on numerous year in order to compare results over the long-term. deciduous trees within the monitoring plot. This is an VEGETATION invasive species that can cause drastic defoliation during What we found: outbreaks which occur about every 7-10 years. Their • An Acadian Flycatcher was recorded during a point count survey for the first What we did in 2016: populations are usually kept in check by a fungus that time. This is an Endangered species in Ontario and its population in the province • Forest health monitoring was undertaken at Rattlesnake Point Conservation thrives in spring rains but the 2016 drought provided an is small. The species generally nests in large mature forests. The 2016 record was
Area in 2016. This site contains a 1 hectare monitoring plot (made up of 25 advantage to the Gypsy Moth. Healthy Beech Bark a singing male in a small forest patch in a built up area. No further breeding smaller 20 x 20 m plots). In 2016, we undertook our full suite of forest vegetation Speyside • Overall Red-backed Salamander^_ numbers were higher evidence was found so it is not known if the species was actually breeding in the monitoring protocols at this location; ground vegetation quadrat surveys, timed area. It will be a species to watch for at this location in future years. in 2016 than in 2015. In 2016, conditions were cooler 407e ground vegetation inventories, shrub and sapling regeneration surveys, tree 401e and there was more precipitation during the time when • A Red-headed Woodpecker was recorded during point count surveys for the first health surveys, and downed woody debris surveys. ACOs were monitored providing ideal conditions for the Drumquin time. This species is designated Special Concern in Ontario. It nests in tree cavities • One of the main undertakings, tree health surveys, involved revisiting 432 trees, salamanders (as they Hiltonare mostFa^_lls abundant under the ACOs so dead and dying trees are important to this species. both alive and dead. Each tree is tagged with a unique number so it can be when it is moist and not too hot). 403e • Two other species at risk were observed and both are common in the watershed. tracked over a long period of time. The trees were measured and their condition Wood Thrush and Eastern Wood-pewee are both designated Special Concern assessed. This allows us to track tree mortality rates, the number of dead snags Burns ^_ ^_Wildflower ^_ Iroquois provincially. These species, while still common, have experienced large declines (an important habitat feature), population declines or increases in individual tree Yaremko Rattlesnake Point ^_^_ and so are identified as Special Concern because they could become Endangered Mountsberg_ ^_ Gyspy Moth Eggs North Oakville species, the distribution of sizes of trees, and identify potential stressors. ^^_^_ ^_^_ ^_ ^_^_ or Threatened due to ongoing threats. • A permanent training site for Asian Long-horned Beetle detection was Glenorchy • Red-eyed Vireo continues to be the most common species watershed wide. Its Speyside ^_ 407e developed with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at Kelso Conservation ^_ ^_ Twiss song is a ubiquitous sound in our forests. It was recorded at 30 of the 34 point
7 40 Area. While the species has never been detected in our watershed, it remains 1 e 40e count stations a potential significant threat and early detection is imperative in minimizing its Drumquin Park © ^_ impact should it make its way here. Hilton Falls 6MN ^_ 3 Bronte-Burloak 40e • Hemlock Woolly Adelgid, an invasive insect that attacks Eastern Hemlock, has ^_ 6MN ^_ Iroquois ^_ ^_ Wildflower Woods been reported in Niagara and Mississauga. Forestry staff joined a working group ^_ Shoreline ^_ Robert Edmondson Rattlesnake Woods Yaremko ^_ Point ^_^_ to track the Adelgid across Ontario and will begin surveys for this species in Mountsberg ^_^_ ^_^_ ^_ ^_ Neyagawa Woods March 2017. ^_ Glenorchy
7 ^_ 40e ^_FuciareTwiss lli ^_ • Red-backed Salamanders were monitored at artificial cover objects (ACOs) set Waterdown ^_ up at three of our forest health monitoring sites. The ACOs mimic naturally 403e occurring woody debris in the forest and allow for standardized monitoring of 6MN 6 W MN Clappinson Woodse
BrQEonte-Burloak GRN-65 7
salamander abundance. Woods
40 e ^_ Red-backed Salamanders e What we found: GRN-66 Waterdown Woods ^_ GRN-22 • Poke Milkweed, rare in the Region of Halton, was recorded during timed ^_ GRN-20 GRN-27 GRN-73 inventories at Rattlesnake Point. 3 40e GRN-49 M6N © • The most common ground vegetation species encountered during quadrat Lake Ontario
surveys was Trout Lily. This is a spring ephemeral - a species that emerges early in GRN-7 GRN-16 the spring to take advantage of the full sunlight reaching the forest floor before GRN-60 the trees leaf out, but disappears by mid-summer. ^_ EMANEMAN M onitMonitoringoring Sites SitesEcological Site District Area 2 Watercourse Municipal Boundary © GRN-28 Conservation Halton Conservation Halton ^_ Forest Bird Monitoring Sites Area 1 Area 3 • There were three live Butternuts when the 1 ha plot was first established in 2007 Forest Bird Monitoring Sites Land Holdings Watershed Areas 3 and all are now dead. The trees succumbed to Butternut Canker, 40e GRN-47 ^_ Forest Bird Monitoring Sites Watercourse Municipal Boundary Slug and Fungi Puffball mushrooms releasing spores Conservation Halton Land Holdings Conservation Halton Watershed Areas ^_ Forest Health Monitoring Sites MN6 This mapping was produced by Conservation Halton and should be used for information purposes only. Data sources used in its production are of varying quality and accuracy and all boundaries should be 010.75 .534.567.5 considered approximate. Conservation Halton disclaims all responsibility for any and all mistakes or inaccuracies in the information and further disclaims all liability for loss or damage, which may result from GRN-50 the use of this information. This mapping is provided as a public service and does not constitute advice or endorsement by Conservation Halton of any specific product, service, organization or agency. This map is Kilometres protected by copyright (© 2014) and may not be reproduced without written consent from Conservation Halton. Any copying, redistribution or republication the content thereof, for commercial gain is strictly prohibited. GRN-101 Produced by Conservation Halton GISP under license with Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Copyright © Queens Printer 2016.
This mapping was produced by Conservation Halton and should be used for information purposes only. Data sources used in its production are of varying quality and accuracy and all boundaries should be 024681 10 considered approximate. Cons ervation Halton disclaims all responsibility for any and all mistakes or inaccuracies in the information and further disclaims all liability for loss or damage, which may result from the use of this information. This mapping is provided as a public service and does not constitute advice or endorsem ent by Conservation Halton of any specific product, service, organization or agency. This map is Kilometres protec ted by copyright (© 2017) and may not be reproduced without written consent from Conservation Halton. Any copying, redistribution or republication the content thereof, for commercial gain is strictly prohibited. Produced by Conservation Halton GISP under license with Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Copyright © Queens Printer 2017.
Benthic Sampling Station 2015 - Grindstone Creek Water Quality Association
(! Good (! Poor Conservation Halton Watershed Areas
(! Fair Watercourse Municipal Boundary
This mapping was produced by Conservation Halton and should be used for information purposes only. Data sources used in its production are of varying quality and accuracy and all boundaries should be considered approximate. Conservation Halton disclaims all responsibility for any and all mistakes or inaccuracies in the information 0120.5 34 and further disclaims all liability for loss or damage, which may result from the use of this information. This mapping is provided as a public service and does not constitute Kilometres advice or endorsement by Conservation Halton of any specific product, service, organization or agency. This map is protected by copyright (© 2014) and may not be reproduced without written consent from Conservation Halton. Any copying, redistribution or republication the content thereof, for commercial gain is strictly prohibited. Produced by Conservation Halton GISP under license with Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Copyright © Queens Printer 2013.