Applying ecological Concepts in practice_ Glacier Ridge Area structure plan

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TABLE OF CONTENT INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................3 TASK 1 1-1- HABITATS....................................................................................................................5 1-2- THREE TYPES OF PLANTS OR LAND COVER TYPES......................................................8 1-3- MAJOR DRAINAGE PATTERN ASSOCIATED WITH AND ON THE SITE.........................10 1-4- IDENTIFIABLE WETLAND LOCATION AND STREAM LOCATIONS ON THE SITE...........12 1-5- THREE KINDS OF LANDSCAPE FEATURES ON THE SITE RESULTING FROM CALGARY REGION’S HISTORY OF GLACIATION..............................................................................14 TASK 2 2-1- MAJOR AND MINOR TERRESTRIAL AND AQUATIC CONNECTIVITY PATTERN............17 2-2- CONNECTIVITY PATTERNS OUTSIDE THE SITE BOUNDARIES....................................20 2-3- EXISTING MAJOR AND MINOR ROADS CURRENTLY EXIST ON THE SITE OR ADJACENT TO ITS BOUNDARIES........................................................................................................20 TASK 3 3-1- TASK 1 AND 2 OVERLAY............................................................................................23 3-2- INTEGRATED PATTERN ON THE LANDSCAPE............................................................25 3-3- DEVELOPABLE AREAS...............................................................................................28 TASK 4 4- COMPARISON AND EVALUATION.................................................................................31 TASK 5 5- REVISED ASP CONCEPT.................................................................................................34 REFERENCES....................................................................................................................39

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INTRODUCTION

Glacier Ridge is located at the northwestern boundary of Calgary, and is part of a larger comprehensively planned regional context. Symons Valley is home to the West Nose Creek. The Valley contributes to the larger natural area and wildlife corridor extending across north Calgary and also offers opportunities for recreational amenities and pathway connections within the Plan Area and to the south where West Nose Creek joins Nose Creek at the junction of Beddington Trail and Deerfoot Trail (ASP, 2015).

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TASK 1 1-1 HABITATS There are different kinds of habitats in the Glacier Ridge Area, including Canopy, Wetland, Riparian, South Facing, Coulee, Rock Barren and Shrub.

1-1-1 Canopy In forest ecology, canopy also refers to the upper layer or habitat zone, formed by mature tree crowns and including other biological organisms (epiphytes, lianas, arboreal animals, etc.) (Parker, 1995).

1-1-2 Wetland A wetland is a place where the land is covered by water, either salt, fresh or somewhere in between. Marshes and ponds, the edge of a lake or ocean, the delta at the mouth of a river, low-lying areas that frequently flood—all of these are wetlands (https://www. worldwildlife.org/habitats/wetlands).

1-1-3 Riparian A riparian habitat or riparian zone is a type of wildlife habitat found along the banks of a river, stream, or other actively moving source of water such as a spring or waterfall.

The term generally refers only to freshwater or mildly brackish habitats surrounded by vegetation and may include marshes, swamps, or bogs adjacent to rivers. Riparian is not generally used to describe coastal shorelines, beach areas, or pelagic environments.

Barren areas, such as a river moving through bare rock, are also not considered riparian zones (https://www.thespruce.com/riparian-habitat-characteristics-386910).

1-1-4- South Facing Cantlon (1953) and Pook and Moore (1966), revealed that opposing slopes vary in their microclimate; light intensity, soil and air temperature, humidity, soil moisture and evaporation, and duration of growing periods, and that these differences are closely associated with differences in vegetation composition and structure. The northern hemisphere, south-facing slopes receive more sunlight and become more xeric and warmer, supporting drought-resistant vegetation and less conducive for tree growth (Maren et al., 2015).

1-1-5- Coulee The coulee areas of southern Alberta provide one of the most distinctive natural habitats in the province and indeed in Canada. Long ignored by many as sterile and barren waste land, undisturbed coulees are places of great and subtle beauty. Coulees are defined as semi-arid, treeless valleys, usually smooth but often rather steep contours. Coulees normally are tributary valleys to rivers. On the whole, therefore, we find them to be approximately perpendicular to the river valley (Bain et al., 2014).

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TASK 1

1-1-6- Rock Barren The shale and sandstone rock barrens and outcrops in the landscape are another habitat. There are plants growing on these rocks; one of these species is Spiny Phlox, it’s a very specific habitat type.

1-1-7- Shrub Shrub habitats are characterized by low, multi-stemmed woody vegetation in young or stunted stages of growth. Such habitats commonly result when mature woodlands are disturbed by wind, fire, flooding or commercial activities such as timber harvesting, farming, or maintenance of rights-of-way (ROW) (NRCS, 2007). Map 1-1 indicates the mentioned habitats in the site.

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TASK 1 1-2 THREE TYPES OF PLANTS OR LAND COVER TYPES The plants and land covers in the site include Tall Trees (Trembling Aspen), Grass Land (Foothill Rough Fescue) and Shrubs (Saskatoon Berry).

1-2-1- Tall Trees (Trembling Aspen) The aspen community is dominated by trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) with some balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera) present. Smooth brome (Bromus inermis) is a potential threat to this community. It typically invades the understory, pushing out most native grasses and forbs as it encroaches on the forest. Aspen communities are widely understood to expand in fescue grassland communities when fire is not present (City of Calgary, 2016).

1-2-2- Grass Land (Foothill Rough Fescue) The rough fescue community is dominated by foothills rough fescue (Festuca campestris) and is present as a small remnant patch of fescue grassland. There are also shrubs naturally found within these grasslands, as well as dominant forbs. Rough fescue grasslands are very fragile communities and will require management in order to maintain them within the park. The greatest threats to this grassland are human traffic, forest encroachment, and invasive non-native species such as Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis) and smooth brome (Bromus inermis) (City of Calgary, 2016).

1-2-3- Shrubs (Saskatoon Berry) These berries were very important for early First People’s life as well as settlers. They are shrub or small tree with 1-8 meters height. The flowers are white colored with 3-20 flowers per cluster. Their unique leaves are oval to round and margins get toothy on the upper half of the leaf. Berries are a pome (think a small apple) and dark purple in color.

They ripen in mid/late July and have uneven ripening. The size depends on the cultivar (https://gardening.usask.ca/articles-growing-information/saskatoon-berries.php). Map 1-2 shows the location of different plants and land covers in the area.

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TASK 1 1-3 MAJOR DRAINAGE PATTERN ASSOCIATED WITH AND ON THE SITE Drainage pattern is the pattern formed by the streams, rivers, and lakes in a particular drainage basin. They are governed by the topography of the land, whether a particular region is dominated by hard or soft rocks, and the gradient of the land (http://www.geologyin.com/2014/03/drainage-pattern.html). The major drainage pattern and permanent stream is the West Nose creek (the light blue) and the coulees (dark blue) and intermittent streams are the minor ones. Wetlands are drainage flows in terms of infiltration.

An important part of drainage goes into the wetlands, sometimes they over flow and sometimes they just infiltrate and sometimes water evaporates. That is the way for water to get off the landscape when flowing off the river. The wetlands capture snowmelt and run off, part of it is infiltrated and part of it is evaporated. Most of the minor streams are directed towards west nose creek. But there is a stream that flows into a ravine and under the highway and hits into a coulee in Country Hills neighborhood. It eventually flows into the nose creek in the east side of the site. In the south east of the site, there is a watershed divide and that is causing the different flow direction. The following map shows the drainage pattern associated with and on the site.

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TASK 1 1-4 IDENTIFIABLE WETLAND LOCATION AND STREAM LOCATIONS ON THE SITE Wetlands are areas where water covers the soil, or is present either at or near the surface of the soil all year or for varying periods of time during the year, including during the growing season (https://www.epa.gov/wetlands/what-wetland). Map 1-4 shows the wetland and stream location on the site.

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TASK 1 1-5THREE KINDS OF LANDSCAPE FEATURES ON THE SITE RESULTING FROM CALGARY REGION’S HISTORY OF GLACIATION The landscape features on the site which are the result of Calgary Region’s history of glaciation include: Glacial Till, Glacial Spillway and Glacial Erratic.

1-5-1- Glacial Till Glacial till is the sediment deposited by a glacier. It blankets glacier fore fields, can be mounded to form moraines and other glacier landforms, and is ubiquitous in glacial environments. It has a very distinctive composition that arises from the fact that glaciers not only grind rocks, breaking them into small, fine pieces but also they also pluck off large chunks of rock. This means that glaciers transport everything from large boulders to tiny grains smaller than sand. These rocks and sediments are all mixed together in a jumble after they are deposited. In contrast, rocks and sediments deposited by rivers settle out as the water speed slows, so big boulders are often dropped before small grains of sand. Rather than jumbling sediments of every size, rivers sort them out in a way that viscous glaciers cannot (https://www.nps.gov/articles/glacialtillandglacialflour.htm).

1-5-2- Glacial Spillway Spillway is a general term for a glacial drainage channel, cut by water during glaciation, and normally including three varieties: (a) channels cut by water escaping from a glacially impounded lake; (b) channels cut by meltwater released from a decaying glacier; and (c) channels cut by a stream deflected by an advancing glacier.

1-5-3- Glacial Erratic Glacial erratics are stones and rocks that were transported by a glacier, and then left behind after the glacier melted. Erratics can be carried for hundreds of kilometers, and can range in size from pebbles to large boulders. Scientists sometimes use erratics to help determine ancient glacier movement. In the map 1-5 the glacial features are shown.

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TASK 1

GLACIAL ERRATIC

SANDSTONE OUTCROP 15

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TASK 2 2-1 MAJOR AND MINOR TERRESTRIAL AND AQUATIC CONNECTIVITY PATTERN Landscape connectivity is an “emergent property� of species-landscape interactions.

Landscape connectivity results from the interaction between a behavioral process (movement) and the physical structure of the landscape. It is therefore a dynamic property that is assessed at the scale of the landscape (with particular organisms or suites of organisms in mind) and is not simply an aggregate property of a set of patches within the landscape (Taylor, et al., 2006). There are two kinds of landscape connectivity: Terrestrial and Aquatic. The whole stream valley is fairly intact grassland from edge to edge and it is the major natural corridor through the site. Next major connectivity pattern is the biggest coulee which goes beyond the site in the west in the other major corridor connecting the habitats. The following maps indicate the terrestrial and aquatic connectivity patterns inside the Glacier Ridge Area.

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TASK 2 2-2- CONNECTIVITY PATTERNS OUTSIDE THE SITE BOUNDARIES The following maps shows the terrestrial and aquatic connectivity pattern outside the site boundaries that spatially connect to those identified in the site.

Map 2-2- Terrestrial and Aquatic Connectivity Outside the Site

2-3- EXISTING MAJOR AND MINOR ROADS CURRENTLY EXIST ON THE SITE OR ADJACENT TO ITS BOUNDARIES Map 2-3 indicates the major and minor roads that exist on the site and adjacent to its boundaries.

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TASK 3 3-1- TASK 1 AND 2 OVERLAY Map 3-1 indicates an overlay of task 1 and 2 maps where all the connectivities and landscape features existing on the site are shown simultaneously.

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TASK 3 3-2- INTEGRATED PATTERN ON THE LANDSCAPE Map 3-2 indicates the integrated pattern of landscape. In this map all the connectivities and landscape features are shown as one integrated area.

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TASK 3 3-3- DEVELOPABLE AREAS In map 3-3 the lands that have the opportunity to be developed and also the lands that should be preserved are shown. Based on the map, the area of the developable area is 6.98 km^2 and the area of the lands that should be preserved is 6.67 km^2.

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TASK 4 4- COMPARISON AND EVALUATION The following map shows the similarities and differences between the ASP map and the results of group’s analysis. In general the developable area suggested by ASP is larger than the area proposed as the result of group analysis, as in ASP some of the areas that need to be preserved are suggested to be developed.

Map 4: Similarities and Differences 4-1- SIMILARITIES The three major landscape connectivities including terrestrial and aquatic on the center, west and east part of the site are preserved both in ASP map and group’s map.

4-2- DIFFERENCES Some of the lands that are suggested for development in ASP map are the lands that are proposed to be preserved in the group’s map, including some lands around the West Nose Creek, the lands around the coulee on west part of the site and the stream on the east part of the site.

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TASK 5 5- REVISED ASP CONCEPT The ASP concept has been modified based on following principles: •The paths are modified and some paths are eliminated to preserve the terrestrial and aquatic connectivity.

•The existing ecosystems have been proposed to be connected in some areas.

•The size of the neighborhoods has been reduced but the density is increased in order to accommodate the proposed number of residents.

Map 5 illustrates the modified ASP concept based on neighborhood area, roads and the areas that should be preserved

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REFERENCES •Bain, John, Flanagan, June, Kuijt, Job (2014), Common Coulee Plants of Southern Alberta, University of Lethbridge Herbarium, Canada •City of Calgary (2015), Glacier Ridge Area Structure Plan •City of Calgary (2016), Bowmont Natural Environment Park Management Plan, Prepared by O2 Planning and Design.

•Måren, Inger Elisabeth, Karki, Sikha, Prajapati, Chanda, Yadav, Ram Kailash, Shrestha, Bharat Babu (2015), “Facing north or south: Does slope aspect impact forest stand characteristics and soil properties in a semiarid trans-Himalayan valley?”, Journal of Arid Environments, 112 – 123 •Natural Resource Conservation Service (2007), Shrub-Shrub Birds, Wildlife Habitat Council, No. 42 •Parker, G.G. (1995), Structure and microclimate of forest canopies. pp. 73-106 In: Lowman, M.D. and N.M. Nadkarni (editors). Forest Canopies. Academic Press, San Diego, CA. •Taylor, Philip D, Fahrig, Lenore, With, Kimberly A. (2006), Landscape Connectivity: A Return to the Basics, In Book: Connectivity Conservation, Chapter 2, Cambridge University Press, Editors: Kevin R. Crooks, M Sanjayan, pp, 29-43 ONLINE REFERENCES •https://gardening.usask.ca/articles-growing-information/saskatoon-berries.php •https://www.nps.gov/articles/glacialtillandglacialflour.htm •https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/glaciers/gallery/erratics.html •https://www.worldwildlife.org/habitats/wetlands •https://www.thespruce.com/riparian-habitat-characteristics-386910 •https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs143_010138.pdf •http://www.geologyin.com/2014/03/drainage-pattern.html •https://www.epa.gov/wetlands/what-wetland

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