Conservation Area Strategy

Conservation Area Strategy

The Hamilton Conservation Authority (HCA) has developed a Conservation Area Strategy (Conservation Strategy). The Conservation Strategy is a requirement of Ontario Regulation 686/21 and is to be completed by December 31, 2024.

The Conservation Strategy will be used to guide the operation and maintenance of the HCA’s conservation lands. The HCA is a major land owner within our watershed area in that we own or manage 4,732.6 hectares (11,694 acres) of land which represents 10% of our watershed area. These lands are locally, provincially and in some cases, internationally significant and include features such as forests, prairie, wetlands, watercourses, karst, Lake Ontario shoreline and the Niagara Escarpment.

As per Ontario Regulation 686/21, the Conservation Strategy must include the following:

1. Objectives established by the authority that will inform the authority’s decision-making related to the lands it owns and controls.
2. Identification of the mandatory and non-mandatory programs and services that are provided on land owned and controlled by the authority.
3. An assessment of how the lands owned and controlled by the authority may augment any natural heritage located within the authority’s area of jurisdiction and integrate with other provincially or municipally owned lands or other publicly accessible lands and trails within the authority’s area of jurisdiction.
4. The establishment of land use categories to be included in the required Land Inventory
5. Periodic review and update of the strategy.

The Conservation Area Strategy is a living document and will be updated to address changing times and priorities. The HCA’s Strategic Plan will provide overall guidance regarding programs and services. The Conservation Area Strategy will provide a finer level of guidance for the management and operation of HCA lands and will be updated based on HCA’s overall strategic priorities to address these changes, opportunities and effectiveness of programs as required. Lastly, issue-specific strategies and plans will be maintained based on the HCA Strategic Plan and Conservation Area Strategy to provide a greater level of direction and guidance related to these specific issues. The following highlights the hierarchy of this approach.

On July 8, 2024, the Board of Directors of the HCA received the Draft HCA Conservation Area Strategy and directed staff to consult with stakeholders and the public to gather comments and suggestions on this draft strategy. In this regard, we kindly ask you to review the Draft HCA Conservation Area Strategy for your perspectives that will help refine and shape the final version.

Please submit your comments by August 30, 2024, to ensure they are considered in the final review process.

An electronic version of the draft Strategy is available here.

Further, questions to assist in your review can be found in the survey below