Ecologically Significant Areas
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Between 1993 and 1995, the Trust carried out a major project identifying ecologically significant places throughout the province. This project, undertaken with the cooperation of the provincial Departments of the Environment and Natural Resources and Energy (DNRE), was financed through the NB Environmental Trust Fund. The aim of the project was to bring together information on sites having a rich diversity of species or of sites with special features, e.g. rare plants or animals.
Detailed field work, carried out over two summers, enabled the Nature Trust to produce field reports on 30 listed sites together with ecological zone descriptions, maps, photographs and species lists. The resulting database has a variety of uses for non-government organizations, consultants and government departments engaged in planning, environmental assessments, road building, mapping of eco-regions and districts, in selecting sites for ecological reserves, in water-shed management and judging storm run-off impacts. The database is currently being used on a daily basis by the Department of the Environment in Environmental Impact Assessments and Watercourse Alteration Reviews. The Department of the Environment is the official custodian of the information on the database. Requests for specific information on sites should be directed to the Department. ESA Database Applications The Nature Trust’s work to identify the province’s ecologically significant areas has become a key resource for countless land-management projects. In 2005, The NB Aquatic Data Warehouse of the Canadian Rivers Institute developed a web-based mapping tool that features the ESA data as a query-able GIS layer. The ESA database listings provided initial guidance on conservation priorities for The Nature Trust’s own Coastal Charlotte County Project, St. John River Rare Flora Project, and Appalachian Hardwood Forest Project. In return, these projects have enabled further scientific investigations of the regional ESA listings, and promotion of stewardship activities among ESA landowners. Numerous other groups have used the ESA database including: the Department of Natural Resources and Energy, N.B. Power, the Department of Transportation, the Canadian Pacific Railway, Canadian Forest Service, Environment Canada, Department of Municipalities and Housing, Canadian Wildlife Service, New Brunswick Museum, Fundy Model Forest Gap Analysis project, Miramichi River Environmental Assessment Committee, J.D. Irving Ltd., Miramichi Pulp and Paper Inc., Buctouche Bar Conservation Group, and numerous consultants.
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Information was gathered from 48 individuals representing many different organizations including both professional scientists and interested naturalists. Criteria for selecting sites were developed and a database providing a storing, sorting, and retrieval system was developed. Over 900 sites were listed in the database and these were later mapped by DNRE to give a visual display of the distribution of ecologically significant areas in the province.
As a direct result of the Trust's work on environmentally significant areas, at the request of the Miramichi Pulp and Paper Co. - Repap Inc., the Trust did an inventory and survey of private and Crown lands in their charge. Two persons, employed on field work, produced a detailed report on 27 ecologically, significant areas on Repap lands. Since publication of the Trust's report, Repap Inc. announced its intentions to remove the 27 identified environmentally significant areas from its wood supply analysis for the next 25 years.