Minor Amendment Beattie Pinery Provincial Park Management Plan

Issue:

A minor amendment to the Beattie Pinery Provincial Park Management Plan (2001) is required to clarify the intent of the plan to permit a range of vegetation management prescriptions towards perpetuating a pine forest in the nature reserve.

Background:

Page 7 of the approved Beattie Pinery Park Management Plan (2001), under section 7.2 Vegetation, contains the following statement:

  • Without severe fire disturbance to pine stands, such forests usually change over time into more mesic maple-dominated forests. However, such disturbances are unlikely to ever occur again on the sand plains of the Essa Flats. Therefore, natural pine forests will continue to be extremely rare. Because of this rarity, and because of the scientific and educational values of the Beattie Pinery, consideration will be given to perpetuating a pine forest on the site through application of prescribed burning.

Prescribed burning was intended to be one example, not the sole vegetation management prescription to be considered for perpetuating a pine forest. As addressed in the approved Beattie Pinery Vegetation Stewardship Plan (2003) and as amended from time to time, other accepted vegetation management prescriptions such as tree cutting/thinning, scarification, girdling, tree planting, etc., may also be applied.

The aforementioned paragraph is hereby amended (where underlined) to read as follows:

  • Because of this rarity, and because of the scientific and educational values of the Beattie Pinery, consideration will be given to perpetuating a pine forest on the site through application of prescribed burning or other methods specified in the approved Beattie Pinery Vegetation Stewardship Plan (2003) that will achieve the desired management target.

This change shall constitute a minor housekeeping amendment to the Beattie Pinery Park Management Plan.

Public Consultation:

Public consultation was not undertaken as part of this minor amendment. Copies of the approved minor amendment will be retained on file and made available to the public upon request. The approved minor amendment will also be appended to existing copies of the Beattie Pinery Provincial Park Management Plan.

Prepared by:
Brian Huis
Parks Planning Specialist
Southwest Zone, Ontario Parks

Approval Statement

This minor amendment to the Beattie Pinery Provincial Park Management Plan is approved to clarify the intent of the plan to permit a range of vegetation management prescriptions towards perpetuating a pine forest in the nature reserve.

Approved by:
Robert Owen
Park Superintendent
Beattie Pinery Provincial Park

Date: November 30, 2004

Peter Sturdy
Zone Manager
Southwest Zone, Ontario Parks

Date: January 7, 2005