May 31, 2024

County Natural Heritage Systems Plan: A Workshop

A critical systems step in protecting natural systems—for all values, especially their climate adaptation and mitigation values—is to have the protection of natural systems embedded in the official plan of the County.

The Province of Ontario requires upper and lower tiers to identify Natural Heritage Systems (NHS) in their Official Plans and preserve the diversity and connectivity of these features.

How do we balance nature with development? 

An NHS plan is an effective tool that does just this. CNL organized a workshop for County councillors and staff to provide an “NHS 101.”

The purpose of the workshop, held May 8th at the County building, was to provide councillors and staff with insights into the unique natural systems of Lanark County and their importance in addressing climate change across the landscape and gain a practical understanding of how a Natural Heritage Systems plan is an effective tool for protecting natural systems and enabling smart development.

A Natural Heritage System is an interconnected network of natural features and areas such as forests, lakes, rivers, agricultural lands, and wetlands. Natural heritage features help conserve biological diversity, maintain ecological functions like flood control, sequester carbon, and are places for recreation.

  • Introduction

    1:17-11:25

  • Natural Assets as Valuable Municipal Assets

    13:11-31:48

  • Working Together – Leveraging Resources

    33:15-50:45

  • Natural Heritage Systems

    51:35-1:00:29

  • Natural Heritage Protection in Frontenac County

    1:01:28-1:23:48

  • Connected Landscapes: Two Counties Natural Heritage System

    1:24:26-1:54:45

Timestamps:

The workshop was well attended by municipal councillors, staff, and local environmental organizations, along with the excellent presenters. The councillors were attentive and engaged with the presenters. CNL is extremely happy with the response we received.

Here is a brief summary, with the main highlights, of the CNL May 8th Workshop:

Introduction

Gord Harrison: Co-Founder, Climate Network Lanark

Often there is division or pushback when municipal governments talk about NHS plans—we need to do a better job of finding common ground—whether it’s a kayaker, a hunter, a farmer, or a dog walker, we all depend on and value nature and we can come together to protect it for its own sake and for the many benefits it provides—a robust NHS plan can facilitate this, this coming together.

The 2017 Vital Signs report published by PDCF underscores the we part of the equation “Our survey respondents stated that the environment & access to nature is one of the reasons they love living here.”

We cannot pit development versus environment or development versus nature — to do so, threatens not only the intrinsic values of natural systems and their many benefits but erodes the very reason people want to live here.

There is an intrinsic value in the natural world that requires we all be good stewards. The Indigenous worldview of All My Relations, all plants and animals, all interconnected—must inform us.

Natural Assets as Valuable Municipal Assets

  • Laid out the costs of extreme weather events - it is a good reminder

  • But, in contrast to the costs of weather – nature now supports the economy (roughly 1/2 of GDP)

  • Ontario requires municipalities to have a Natural Asset Management Plan

  • Natural assets are being factored into municipal budgets, their budgets reflecting the actual dollar value of these services—the dollar value for Calgary is a staggering 1.4 – 2.5 billion!

Joanna Eyquem: Managing Director, Climate Resilient Infrastructure, Intact Centre for Climate Adaptation

Working Together - Leveraging Resources

  • RVCA initiated a land cover classification program in 2009 to gain a better understanding of the spatial distribution of nine different land cover classes across the watershed

  • The land cover classification program and The Watershed Model are sophisticated tools to map and gather natural systems information

  • They have extensive Digital Raster Acquisition Project Eastern Ontario (DRAPE) imagery available for use

  • With the mapping, expertise/data that RVCA—and MVCA—would bring to the table would make the County’s work to develop an NHS plan much easier

Sommer Casgrain-Robertson: General Manager, Rideau Valley Conservation Authority

Natural Heritage Systems

Koren Lam & Mike Dwyer: Senior Planner & Planning Manager, Lanark County

  • The county has a Sustainable Communities Official Plan (2012) that identifies natural features and includes 5 Strategic policy objectives for local natural heritage features

Natural Heritage Protection in Frontenac County

Joe Gallivan: Director of Planning and Economic Development, County of Frontenac

  • Frontenac, which is similar to Lanark, did an NHS plan in 2014—and has learned a lot since then on how to do it, which enabled Joe to learn what to do differently from the first NHS plan [This note made by Joe is significant]

  • “a new approach that better reflects the reality of the natural environment in Frontenac” [this resonated well with key attendees]

Conected Landscapes: Two Counties Natural Heritage Systems

Alison McDonald: Managing Director of Approvals, South Nation Conservation

  • • A Natural Heritage System (NHS) is a network of connected natural features such as forests, rivers, wetlands, and agricultural lands.

    • These systems are made up of core natural areas and natural linkages that support wildlife movement and natural processes.

    • It allows us to focus our policies, programs, and grants on an area that has the most impact.

  • • Natural systems and agricultural lands provide habitat for different species.

    • Agricultural lands are working landscapes that provide valuable ecosystem services such as pollination, atmospheric regulation, soil retention, and habitat.

    • Locally, agriculture is the predominant land use on the rural landscape.

    • Nearly all the province’s prime agricultural lands are located in Southern Ontario.

  • Natural corridors that provide connectivity and are necessary to maintain biological diversity, natural functions, and viable populations of Indigenous species and ecosystems

  • NHS plan work South Nation Conservation Authority did for/with Prescott-Russel County and Stormont, Glengarry, and Dundas County

  • They worked with agricultural groups in order to include agricultural lands in their NHS Plan, labelling them as working landscapes to avoid harsh restrictions

  • Alison, with the partners, completed this NHS Plan when there was less data than there is now, so it should be easier and quicker for Lanark County, reinforcing what Sommer said about it being a less daunting approach

  • A “new approach,” A Systems Approach - the detailed walk-through, with the steps, and maps, of identifying core areas, then linkages between the areas (and beyond SN borders)

  • Alison shared a story of Alice the moose, how far wildlife needs to travel to meet their instincts, and the obstacles in their way

  • It’s critically important not just to identify the features but to understand their functions as well

The key thing about South Nation’s NHS Plan, and it highlights the success of the May 8th workshop, is that both Joe and Alison have done an NHS plan at a county level—county staff suggested they want to learn from this in doing Lanark County’s Plan.

“Linked natural features are more likely to function long-term than those that are fragmented”
— Systems-Based Planning Principle
Climate Network Lanark would like to thank Nature Canada for their generous monetary donation towards making the May 8th Workshop possible.