Frontenac County Natural Heritage Study

Jeff Green | Jan 19, 2022

As part of their 2022 budget, Frontenac County provided $110,000 for its planning department to update a Natural Heritage Study that was completed in 2012.

The study that was done in 2012 was, for the most part, based on information that was provided to the county by the province, and territories that have been identified by the province as “areas of natural or scientific interest” (ANSI). Fish habitat, wetlands, significant wildlife habitat and endangered species were flagged by the study, as needing to be identified in the Frontenac County Official Plan in order to be protected under the various township official plans.

In his presentation to Frontenac County Council during is budget deliberations in October of 2020, Frontenac County Director of Planning and Economic Development, Joe Gallivan, pointed out how extensive and important natural heritage features are to the work of his planning department, which is the contract planner for North and Central Frontenac and Frontenac Islands, as well as the South Frontenac Planning department.

Seventy three percent of Frontenac County, 2920 square kilometres out of 4,000, are natural heritage features, Gallivan said. And these lands include Crown Land, lakes and wetlands, which have natural heritage value as well as cultural and social value for Frontenac County residents.

“They form a big part of who we are as a community.”

From a planning perspective, almost 90% of the planning “approvals that we do in Frontenac County have a natural heritage component,” he said.

The 2012 study used a “features” approach, according to Gallivan, but in order to provide a 100 year vision for the protection of the natural heritage of Frontenac County, which is the county's ultimate goal, a 'systems approach' is required.

Instead of basing all of the environmental protections on information provided to all Ontario municipalities, by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, the new study is intended to look more specifically at what is on the ground and in the water in Frontenac County.

In some cases the current approach misses important features, and permits development that could damage the natural heritage, and in some cases it is too restrictive, according to Gallivan.

“It works well in places like Grey County, which have only pockets of forest, which need protecting, but not in Frontenac, which is mostly undisturbed by development.”

He pointed out that the Kennebec Wetlands complex in North and Central Frontenac, 6,000 acres at the headwaters of the Salmon River, a “natural sponge that delays flooding all through the Salmon River”, Gallivan said, is not identified in the current Natural Heritage Study, and is not defined by Frontenac mapping. The Frontenac Arch Biosphere, a UNESCO Heritage site that runs through most of South Frontenac, and Big Sandy Bay complex on Wolfe Island, are also not included in the current study, or county mapping, as natural heritage features.

The impacts of climate change and the need to protect water sources, since 95% of Frontenac County residents get their drinking water from private wells, are also major aspects of the new study.

While presenting the proposal for budget approval, Gallivan said that in a project overseen by Community Planner Sonya Bolton, a group of Queen's University masters students in urban planning, have been doing some of the background research which will form the basis of the request for proposal for the completion of the study.

On December 15, those students presented their findings to Frontenac County Council.

The students interviewed local experts, including Grey Merriam from Kennebec Lake and Barrie Gilbert from Wolfe Islands, as well as the four conservation authorities, representatives from Land Conservancy, as part of their work.

Their 6 recommendations are that the new study include: enhanced legal protection for locally identified heritage features, an Indigenous component, protection of critical ecosystems, build opportunities for stewardship, connect people to the landscape, and an investment in map overlays which would identify ecological, historical and cultural knowledge.

The presentation by Queen's students was enthusiastically received by members of Frontenac County Council.

In phone interviews last week, both Joe Gallivan and Sonya Bolton said that the timing is right for Frontenac County to take a long term approach to natural heritage, because development pressures are very strong right now.

“We have definitely been found out,” said Sonya Bolton.

The request for proposal for a consulting firm to complete the study is expected in February. The study will include public engagement.

“We don't know what that will look like, of course, based on where we are with COVID later this year,” she added.

Joe Gallivan said the study will be used as part of the update to the Frontenac County Official Plan, and will be available to the townships to incorporate into their own Official Plans going forward.