Natural
Areas and the Ecological Network in the City of Edmonton: What Do We Know?
Written by Patsy Cotterill
Written by Patsy Cotterill
In the mid and late 1990s I was paying
close attention to the City’s developing policies on natural areas and I even
advocated for the preservation of some of them. After I had finished my
three-year term as a citizen-at-large on the newly constituted Natural Areas Advisory Committee (still
in existence, by the way) in 2005, my interest faded a bit. I switched to
spending my time in the back-breaking but relatively less frustrating pursuits
of salvaging native plants and learning how to grow them, in an alternative
approach to preserving vegetation diversity. However, in 2012 a couple of
events conspired to attract my attention again. One was the coming on stream of
the Horse Hill Area Structure Plan,
which contains several natural areas, and a move by the City’s Office of Biodiversity (OoB) to engage various environment-oriented
organizations within the city to cooperate with each other and with the OoB as
part of a Community Biodiversity Network.
(See the article in the spring issue of the Parkland
Naturalist by Harry Stelfox, the Edmonton Nature Club (ENC)’s
representative on this initiative.) I quickly realized that the City had made
great progress with its policies and even with some on-the-ground retention of
natural areas since I last looked. Having been aware for a long time that the
general public – even the interested public,
such as naturalists, knows even less about these issues than I do, I invited
Angela Hobson, an ecological planner with the OoB and coordinator of the City’s
Master Naturalist Program, to talk
to the ENC’s Plant Study Group. In March
she gave an excellent presentation entitled, Protecting and Managing Biodiversity in an Urban Centre: Challenges and
Opportunities, which was well attended and engendered some lively
commentary. This prompted me to go back to the City’s website to check out some
of the many relevant documents available online. Reading these documents is essential for a
thorough understanding of the City’s vision and policies regarding the
environment and what it calls “natural area systems.” However, for those whose interest is closely
tied to field experiences, of particular interest will be the information on Natural Area Parks, which (unlike many
of the natural areas proper) are accessible to the public. These were
designated as such in the Urban Parks
Management Plan of 2006, and the Parks Branch states that it has been
“educating residents living near natural areas about their structure, function
and value. “ The Natural Area Parks consist predominantly of remnant woodlots
and wetlands in developed neighbourhoods. A list of these parks can be accessed
at http://www.edmonton.ca/environmental/natural_areas/Natural-area-parks.aspx complete with a photo of each site, a map ,
and a basic description of its features. The Edmonton Naturalization Group (ENG) intends
to organize informal field trips to several of these sites during the coming
season, and will advertise them on their website. Some sites already have local groups as
caretakers or stewards, and in the future ENG may have a role in assisting with
vegetation management in these sites.
As I mentioned, the City has advanced in its policies, moving towards more science-based protection and incorporating conservation theory. Its initial approach in the ‘90s was to earmark for conservation the larger natural areas in different sectors of the city representing different types of landscape, for example, the parklands of the northeast, the knob-and-kettle topography of the southeast, and some of the sand dunes-mixed woodlands of the southwest. All these were in the tablelands, the land within City boundaries but outside the intensively developed areas. The river valley and ravines were excluded from consideration because they fell under the North Saskatchewan River Valley Area Redevelopment Plan (Bylaw 7188). Thus tableland natural areas, considered in isolation from each other and the river valley system, were the target of the first (1995) Natural Areas Policy, C-467. Now the City’s new (2007) Natural Area Systems Policy (C-531) is accompanied by a Natural Connections Strategic Plan (2007) which not only integrates the river valley and ravine system with the tablelands natural areas conceptually but also requires that they be connected to form a functioning ecological network using core biodiversity areas, stepping stones and linkages via natural corridors and semi-natural spaces. This is in recognition of ecological theory that holds that small, isolated natural areas can become “sinks” for biodiversity rather than renewable sources. The key goals of the Plan are to secure and manage such a network. The City envisages that the public will be involved in management though volunteer stewardship; it wants to “work with the community to support conservation goals, and … form partnerships with conservation leaders in the community.” This should provide some interesting opportunities of special interest to ENG and ENC members.
As I mentioned, the City has advanced in its policies, moving towards more science-based protection and incorporating conservation theory. Its initial approach in the ‘90s was to earmark for conservation the larger natural areas in different sectors of the city representing different types of landscape, for example, the parklands of the northeast, the knob-and-kettle topography of the southeast, and some of the sand dunes-mixed woodlands of the southwest. All these were in the tablelands, the land within City boundaries but outside the intensively developed areas. The river valley and ravines were excluded from consideration because they fell under the North Saskatchewan River Valley Area Redevelopment Plan (Bylaw 7188). Thus tableland natural areas, considered in isolation from each other and the river valley system, were the target of the first (1995) Natural Areas Policy, C-467. Now the City’s new (2007) Natural Area Systems Policy (C-531) is accompanied by a Natural Connections Strategic Plan (2007) which not only integrates the river valley and ravine system with the tablelands natural areas conceptually but also requires that they be connected to form a functioning ecological network using core biodiversity areas, stepping stones and linkages via natural corridors and semi-natural spaces. This is in recognition of ecological theory that holds that small, isolated natural areas can become “sinks” for biodiversity rather than renewable sources. The key goals of the Plan are to secure and manage such a network. The City envisages that the public will be involved in management though volunteer stewardship; it wants to “work with the community to support conservation goals, and … form partnerships with conservation leaders in the community.” This should provide some interesting opportunities of special interest to ENG and ENC members.
Over the last few years the City’s Office
of Biodiversity (formerly Office of Natural Areas) has concentrated on
developing high-level policies and plans and on liaising with other City
departments. It has at the same time worked to acquire natural areas, since at
the rate Edmonton is developing this is a matter of fast-diminishing
opportunity and hence urgency. According to The Way We Green strategic plan (page 21), “Between 2000 and 2007,
31% of Edmonton’s Priority Natural Areas on the tablelands were lost to
development.” Further, Edmonton’s opportunity to protect its remaining natural
habitats will be gone in 15 years, at projected rates of development. (The City currently protects just under 4,000
hectares of natural land, including the river valley and ravine system.)
This approach is logical enough, but I have
long complained that the City needs to do a concomitant job of communicating to
the public its policies, practices, and particularly, challenges, with respect to preservation of natural areas. Two
questions bear investigation, then; why has the City been relatively
unsuccessful in saving natural areas; and why is it so important that the
public be acquainted with what it is trying to achieve?
Despite more enlightened policies and more
staff working on them, the City has only the same statutory tools for natural
area acquisition that it had when its first natural areas policy, C-467, was adopted:
municipal reserve and environmental reserve. Bear in mind
that natural areas are not owned by the City; they are mostly private, even in
the river valley, the property of homeowners, farmers or developers. According
to the provincial Municipal Government
Act, developers must give up for free 10% of the land in a development area
for city use, usually for schools and parks. Sometimes this municipal reserve can
be used to set aside portions of natural areas, however, or parlayed into money
that can be used to purchase natural areas or parts thereof.) The other option
is land purchase by the City. There is now a Natural Areas Reserve Fund, from
which $20 million was recently dedicated for the purchase of natural areas.
Given the high value of land within the City, this figure is of course not
nearly enough. Nor has the Edmonton and Area Land Trust (EALT, set up in 2007)
had sufficient funds to acquire natural areas within the City. It relies on
donations of land and brokering of conservation easements, and these to date have
taken place outside city boundaries. (I understand it is now working on a
conservation easement within the city.) (However, don’t let that deter you from
making a generous donation to EALT; it requires funds to manage these acquired
properties, which are accessible to Edmontonians and contribute to a regional
natural area network.) Non-profit organizations (which the City no doubt
considers “partners”) that are in the land acquisition business, such as the
River Valley Alliance and the North Saskatchewan River Valley Conservation
Society, must be large and influential enough to mount huge fund-raising
campaigns. The competition for money is fierce!
So, on the ground, with its limited tools, it
is not surprising that the City has had limited success in saving its tableland
natural areas. Only 2.3% of the overall protected area is represented in the
tablelands (The Way We Green, page 21). Given
that lack of financial resources is the stumbling block (in turn perhaps a
function of priorities) it is imperative that the general public know about and
appreciate the value of these natural systems. Considerable public support will
create the political will to expend money on acquisition and management of
natural systems (not to mention possibly attracting private donations of a
substantial nature). Despite some slight counter-evidence, the conventional
wisdom among our leaders and citizens persists that the city is a built
environment, and the only contribution to the economy comes therefrom. Anyone
interested in nature needs to work to change that paradigm.
Below, I have tried to introduce some order
into relevant literature available on the City’s website.
The
base plan is The Way We Green, which
is a sub-plan of the City’s latest (November 2008) Municipal Development Plan called The Way We Grow. Visit and browse The Way We Green at http://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/documents/TheWayWeGreen-approved.pdf
Some of the other relevant plans worth
reading are: Biodiversity Plan, Urban Parks Management Plan, Urban Forest
Management Plan, North Saskatchewan Watershed Alliance’s Integrated Watershed
Management Plan, Integrated Pest Management Strategy and River Valley Alliance
Action Plan. In addition, the Wildlife Passage Engineering Design Guidelines
(2010) should be of interest to naturalists. All are available online. There is
also another plan, The City-wide Natural
Area Management Plan, which is very relevant to ENG’s interests and activities.
The 2012 version isn’t online yet, but I have a digital copy if anyone wants
it.
Also check out the City of Edmonton Biodiversity Report, 2008 at http://www.edmonton.ca/environmental/documents/BIO_DIVERSITY_REPORT_-_high_res_August2008.pdf
For a good, quick overview of the City’s
natural area activities, visit Natural Areas and Urban Biodiversity at http://www.edmonton.ca/environmental/natural-areas.aspx
and click on the links in the left-hand column, as well as the sub-links in the
body of the text. Contact information for the Office of Biodiversity is also
there.
ENG and Edmonton Nature Club members
wishing to get a broader understanding of local nature and biodiversity may
also like to register in the Master Naturalist Program, http://www.edmonton.ca/environmental/natural_areas/master-naturalist-program.aspx The program of lectures and field trips is
free in exchange for volunteer service. Applications are being taken until
April 21.
The City envisages that Master Naturalists
will play an important role in the site-specific management of natural areas
and natural area parks in the future.
There are a number of other policies and
bylaws as well as government acts, such as the provincial Water Act and Public Lands
Act, which relate to water bodies, and the new Weeds Act, together with the federal Migratory Birds Convention Act, all of which citizens with an interest in
natural land and preserving biodiversity should be aware of. Some City bylaws
are germane to our understanding of provisions for protection or lack of it,
including the North Saskatchewan River
Valley Area Redevelopment Plan (Bylaw 7188) and the Zoning Bylaw (12800), as well as the City’s Top-of-Bank policy
(C-542). All these can be chased down on the City’s web.
I see ENG, with its knowledge of the
growing of native plants, having a vital role to play as a City partner in the
creation and maintenance of the city’s ecological network as well as the
stewardship of some of the core areas. Likewise I see an important role for the
ENC in the assessment and monitoring of biodiversity in this network. And both organizations
will have large parts to play in educating the general public on the value of
natural ecosystems and their components.
For more information on the City’s earlier
initiatives, check out the relevant chapters in the ENC’s own history book, Preserving the Natural Environment:
Celebrating the Centennial of the Edmonton Nature Club, edited by Brian
Hitchon (2009).
In the Natural
Connections Strategic Plan http://www.edmonton.ca/environmental/documents/Natural_Connections_-_Strategic_Plan_JUNE_09.pdf
it is stated (page 19): “Edmonton is fortunate to still contain all the
elements of a functional ecological network….”
Is this true? Can the City develop a functional ecological network and
can it maintain it? Perhaps the next 15 years – of work by the City and its
partners – will tell!
Written by Patsy Cotterill
Written by Patsy Cotterill