Nature Counts Project: Hamilton Natural Areas Inventory
Editor: Jill K. Dwyer
The first Natural Areas Inventory (NAI) was conducted by the Hamilton Naturalists' Club and its partners in 1991 and became the first complete inventory of natural areas in Hamilton-Wentworth. Ten years later in 2001 and 2002, these areas were re-inventoried to measure ecological change.
The Nature Counts Project was a collaborative effort between the Club and many other agencies, including the Hamilton Conservation Authority, and City of Hamilton. Many experts helped to compile the two-volume report over the past two years.
"These reports give us a substantial amount of information on where each species occurs and whether it is locally common or uncommon, or provincially or nationally significant," says Bruce Duncan of the Hamilton Conservation Authority. "We now have updated lists with rarity status for all the species in Hamilton, and it assists us a great deal in identifying special occurrences. It tells us whether a particular area is especially deserving of environmental protection in the city's Official Plan."
Volume I contains technical site summaries for the areas surveyed and maps them.
Volume II contains annotated species checklists for the study areas. The checklists cover butterflies, fishes, amphibians and reptiles, breeding birds, mammals, vascular plants and plant communities. These checklists are revisions of the checklists in Heagy (1995), reviewed by qualified experts in 2002-2003. As part of each review, the national, provincial and local rarity status of each species was updated. Local status was updated on the basis of new information obtained during the 2001-2001 Nature Counts fieldwork and other observations recorded since 1991. The other sections of Heagy's 1995 report have not been updated. Therefore, to read about Hamilton's earth science features, hydrology and watershed summaries, see Heagy (1995).
The Nature Counts report consists of two volumes, and can be ordered from the Hamilton Naturalists' Club as a set for $75 (plus $10 shipping costs when applicable). The report can also be viewed and purchased at the Club's monthly meetings.
Copyright © 2006 - 2012 Hamilton Naturalists' Club ... Protecting Nature Since 1919
