Haldimand County Forest Strategy
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May 2016 By 2016 Haldimand County Forest Strategy TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary .......................................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................................................... vi Preface ................................................................................................................................................................................... vii 1.0 STRATEGY ........................................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Defining the Urban Forest ....................................................................................................................................... 1 2.0 Purpose, Vision, Principles, Goals ............................................................................................................................. 2 2.1 Purpose ............................................................................................................................................................................ 2 2.2 Policy Support for this Strategy ............................................................................................................................ 3 2.3 Vision ................................................................................................................................................................................ 3 2.4 Guiding Principles ....................................................................................................................................................... 4 2.5 Goals ................................................................................................................................................................................. 5 3.0 Strategy Background ...................................................................................................................................................... 6 3.1 The Context for Haldimand County’s Forest .................................................................................................... 6 3.2 Current Policy and Regulatory Status of Forestry in Haldimand County ............................................ 8 3.2.1 County Policy ........................................................................................................................................................ 8 3.2.2 By-laws and Related Legislation ................................................................................................................... 9 3.2.3 Other Regulatory Environment .................................................................................................................. 11 3.2.4 Supporting the Forest: Education, Outreach and Stewardship ..................................................... 12 3.3 Current standards and practice in Haldimand County .............................................................................. 13 3.3.1 Program Management .................................................................................................................................... 13 3.3.2 Tree inventory.................................................................................................................................................... 13 3.3.3 Tree Establishment .......................................................................................................................................... 14 3.3.4 Tree Maintenance ............................................................................................................................................. 14 3.3.5 Risk management ............................................................................................................................................. 16 3.3.6 Tree Protection .................................................................................................................................................. 16 3.3.7 County Forests ................................................................................................................................................... 16 3.4. Benefits, Threats and Challenges ....................................................................................................................... 17 3.4.1 The Benefits of the Urban Forest................................................................................................................ 17 3.4.2 Threats and Challenges .................................................................................................................................. 19 3.4.3 Climate Change Threats ................................................................................................................................. 25 4.0 Community Engagement Process ............................................................................................................................ 27 Page i 2016 Haldimand County Forest Strategy 4.1 Presentation to View and Respond to Draft Forest Strategy and Management Plan Content .. 28 4.2 Summary of Community Engagement .............................................................................................................. 28 5.0 Sample Inventory - Summary ................................................................................................................................... 30 5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................. 30 5.2 Sample Inventory Procedure ................................................................................................................................ 30 5.3 Sample Inventory Results ...................................................................................................................................... 33 5.4 Summary and General Observations ................................................................................................................. 37 6.0 Criteria and Indicators for Haldimand County Urban Forest. ..................................................................... 38 7.0 Summary (What does all this mean?) .................................................................................................................... 38 8.0 Next steps .......................................................................................................................................................................... 40 Glossary of terms ................................................................................................................................................................... 42 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................................................ 44 References ................................................................................................................................................................................ 45 Appendices ............................................................................................................................................................................... 48 List of Figures Figure 3.1. County map showing Conservation Authority boundaries, settlement areas, County lands and woodlots…...6 Figure 5.1. Main tree species on streets, in parks and cemeteries in five County urban areas. ................................... 34 Figure 5.2. Number of trees by diameter distribution of most common species and black walnut. (n=1487)............. 35 Figure 5.3. Number of street trees by common species with wire conflict. (n=521) ................................................... 36 Figure 5.4. Risk categories of common species (n=994). ............................................................................................ 37 List of Tables Table 3.1. Land class, numbers of properties and area of Haldimand owned land. ....................................................... 7 Table 3.2. Province of Ontario Statutes and Policies affecting the urban forest. ......................................................... 11 Table 3.3. Chart of costs related to the urban forest and tree removal 2013 to 2016. .................................................. 15 Table 5.1. Location of sample inventory in the five urban areas. ................................................................................ 31 Table 5.2. Haldimand tree inventory variables collected with description. ................................................................. 32 Table 5.3. Number of trees surveyed by site and urban area. ...................................................................................... 33 Appendices A. Haldimand County. 2015. Haldimand County Tree Management. Report PED-GM-02-2015). B. Haldimand Contract with Norfolk County for Forestry Conservation and Management Services C. Haldimand Tree Inventory. Selected variables collected with description. D. Criteria and Indicators for Haldimand County urban forest. E. Summary of Public Engagement Page ii 2016 Haldimand County Forest Strategy EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In March 2015 County Council adopted a staff report “To seek