Category:Woodlands

Southern Ontario has had a long history of intensive land settlement and deforestation. Approximately 80 per cent of southern Ontario’s original woodland cover has been lost. Much of the land in this part of the province is held privately or by municipalities. Today, a substantial amount of the forest cover in southern Ontario exists because private landowners maintain woodlands, and municipalities and conservation authorities maintain forested sites.

Forest cover in urban and developed areas is vital for a number of reasons. The canopy of trees can intercept falling rain, slowing the rate of storm run-off and thus reducing soil erosion and water quality problems. Trees in urban areas provide natural cooling in summer when the urban heat island effect and the demand for space cooling is greatest. Trees also draw pollutants and carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, from the atmosphere, thereby buffering climate change and improving local air quality. Strips or bands of extensive tree cover running through urban areas can provide both habitat and migration corridors for wildlife.

The loss of forest cover can lead to faster storm drainage, less moisture retention, less shade for natural cooling, less habitat for wildlife and poorer air quality. Furthermore, the forests in the urban areas of southern Ontario may have – or support – tree species that are not commonly found anywhere else in Canada, which is a significant consideration for the conservation of Ontario’s biodiversity.

Despite the importance of urban forest cover, there is little direct regulation by the provincial government in this area. The make-up and maintenance of virtually all urban forests are handled either by the local municipality, conservation authorities, or thousands of individual landowners. The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH) has some authority over forests and natural heritage under the Municipal Act, the Planning Act and the Provincial Policy Statement (PPS). MNR has a great deal of regulatory involvement in forestry matters on Crown land in Ontario, but has only a very small staff with forest expertise that could be applied to urban areas. It has also been suggested that the Ministry of Culture could play a greater role, under the Ontario Heritage Act, by ensuring key representative trees are given greater protection.

The PPS provides an open-ended definition of significant woodlands, and lacks an explicit requirement to protect significant woodlands. Unlike provincially significant wetlands, it is the municipality’s discretion to evaluate or identify significant woodlands, as the Ministry of Natural Resources has no formal role. Although MNR’s Natural Heritage Reference Manual includes recommended criteria for municipalities to identify significant woodlands, municipalities may choose to develop their own. The result is that, typically, only larger municipalities with ample planning staff devote more than a passing mention to addressing significant woodlands in their official plans.

Moreover, MMAH does not track the actual number of significant woodlands designated in municipal official plans. MMAH interprets its role as only checking to see if official plans give mention to significant woodlands, not whether any are actually protected on the ground. The PPS does not provide sufficient safeguards to protect the province’s significant woodlands. The ECO has recommended that MMAH’s 2010 review of the PPS introduce effective mechanisms for protecting significant woodlands, including mechanisms for woodland evaluation, designation, tracking and reporting.