AEGD Updates to Natural Heritage Mapping
The City has relied on aerial photos from the early 2000s as part of a 2024 “update” of the Airport Employment Growth District’s (AEGD) natural heritage system map.
2009 map being used to inform 2024 AEGD Natural Heritage System update
Current map of the AEGD Study Area
Take a close look at the 2009 map of the AEGD Natural Heritage System at the top and compare it to the current Google Earth image above, and the wetland map below. You’ll notice a number of inconsistencies between 2009 and today.
Highway Six bypass is missing from the 2009 map, meaning the aerial image was taken sometime prior to 2004.
Some subwatersheds are mislabelled and some are missing.
There are wetlands (e.g., Garner Marsh), woodlots, linkages, creeks, streams and hedgerows all missing from the older map.
Now have a look at the 2024 proposed Natural Heritage Map (page 9 here) and you’ll see that it is a near copy of the 2009 map. Not only is much of the natural heritage missing from the updated version, but there are features proposed to be added to the new map which have not actually existed on the landscape since the early 2000s!
This 2009 map is part of a 2011 subwatershed study which forms the basis of the currently underway 2024 update of the AEGD Natural Heritage System!
Why is the City using a decades old map as the basis of an upgrade?
Once the updated AEGD Natural Heritage Map is complete, it will be added to the AEGD Secondary Plan to be approved by Council early in the new year. From then on this map will help inform (warehouse) development decisions in the AEGD for decades to come. Since this aerial photo may well be from the 1990s, it is far too old to be used in any updates.
Accurate and up to date mapping of the Natural Heritage System of the AEGD is crucial if the City is serious about it’s claim that this 2024 update of the AEGD Natural Heritage System map will “ensure the protection and enhancement of natural features within the Secondary Plan and accuracy of defined features.”
We are calling for a complete re-do of the AEGD Natural Heritage System Map using:
Four season fieldwork
Wetland mapping readily available from the three Conservation Authorities found within the AEGD - Hamilton CA, Grand River CA, Niagara Peninsula CA
The Natural Asset Valuation study carried out by NPCA which includes detailed Ecological Land Classification GIS mapping. (See page 52 at this link.)
Information from the Hamilton Naturalists’ Club Natural Areas Inventory
The great news is that much of this work has already been done by the NPCA! Almost all of the AEGD lies within the NPCA watershed, so extensive and recent (two year old) data that has been gathered for that Natural Asset Valuation study is available to be used by the City of Hamilton!
You can learn more at Engage Hamilton at this link
Despite massive pushback from citizens twenty years ago, the Airport Employment Growth district rezoning was approved by council in 2010 and finalized in 2015 after a decision by the Ontario Municipal Board. The OMB decision resulted in the expansion of Hamilton’s urban boundary onto 1300 acres of wetlands, prime agricultural land, headwaters and wildlife habitat surrounding the Hamilton Airport. Land use in the AEGD then changed from agriculture to “employment” allowing for massive industrial warehouse sprawl.
The AEGD is the highest point of land between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario and so forms the headwaters of many of Hamilton’s plentiful and beloved creeks and streams. These headwaters, wetlands, springs and groundwater recharge areas are all in line for destruction at the hands of industrial sprawl in the AEGD. All due to a 2010 decision which flies in the face of our knowledge of the catastrophic effects of climate change, wetland loss, and biodiversity decline.
Click the news images to read the news items below and learn about the history of the creation of the AEGD HERE
