Wildlife Corridor Enhancement Project (new)

The NRC’s Wildlife Corridor Enhancement Project is new reforestation project that commenced in the fall of 2005. This project is focused on three watersheds of the Niagara Region, in Fifteen, Sixteen, and Eighteen Mile Creeks, areas which have not been recently targeted for forest restoration.



Forest cover in the Niagara Region is at an all time low of 14%. Remaining woodlots are typically small and fragmented, which provide very little interior wildlife habitat for species which rely upon core forest area, such as rare species in Niagara including the scarlet tanager, oven bird and hooded warbler. The Carolinian zone is actually home to one third of Canada’s endangered species, due in large part to the increasing urban population in this region of Ontario.



The NRC, in conjunction with its partners, will be planting 50,000 native trees within the project area. Through these efforts, we hope to meet several of the following goals:

• Restore forest habitat through the connection of existing forest patches
• Protect and conserve existing forests via various land conservation tools, including tax incentive programs for landowners
• Participate in informational events to educate the public and landowners about the significance of forests.

The NRC is currently in the stages of selecting properties and contacting landowners that will be interested in supporting tree planting efforts on their properties. Sites that provide opportunities for long-term habitat conservation and other potential ecological functions, such as erosion control are targeted as high priority sites. Planting will also be done on public areas such as parks and conservation lands. The Fifteen, Sixteen and Eighteen Mile Creek watersheds contain a promising amount of vegetated cover, which can be effectively connected to support continuous forest!!



This project will be undertaken with the help of the NRC’s partners, including the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority, Trees Unlimited, Land Care Niagara, the Niagara Woodlot Association and the Carolinian Canada Coalition. Funding for this program has been given by the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the Niagara Community Foundation and the Shell Environmental Fund.