Tree & Vegetation Community Surveys
The identification, classification, and assessment of vegetation and vegetation communities are key components of most projects at D&A. Our focus is terrestrial and wetland systems in Southern Ontario, where our ecologists have worked in diverse habitats throughout most of the region’s municipalities. Our highly trained staff have extensive experience with botanical surveys, Ecological Land Classification (ELC), wetland evaluation & delineation, tree health assessment (including Butternut Health Assessments), and arborist surveys.
Our tree & vegetation community projects include site-scale characterizations, landscape-scale studies, conservation and species-at-risk (SAR) assessments, and tree surveys. These projects are typically part of municipal natural heritage planning, private land development, or conservation initiatives.
We take a scientific approach to all of our tree and vegetation community work, using established protocols as well as our own methods that have been refined over the past 30 years. Our approach starts with a desktop query of the NHIC database as well as relevant policy documents and orthophotography analysis. Field surveys are then conducted to determine the plant species present on the site and to classify vegetation communities and their boundaries. Species lists are further refined using our in-house herbarium, and vegetation communities are mapped using ArcGIS. Our staff consult local, regional, and provincial status lists and policy documents to determine opportunities and constraints for the study area.
Our field ecologists are trained and certified in the Ecological Land Classification (ELC) System for Southern Ontario, the Ontario Wetland Evaluation System (OWES), and the Butternut Health Assessment (BHA) protocol; two members of our team are also International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) arborists with training in tree risk assessment. Policy analysis and interpretation are major aspects of many projects, and our team has experience working within the jurisdictions of many agencies and municipalities across southern Ontario. Versatility in our techniques and personnel has allowed for the successful completion of projects ranging from single tree assessments to watershed scale land classification.
Examples of Our Work