Biodiversity in several Hamilton areas in 'severe decline' says botanist after conducting land survey

Hamilton's urban forests and woodlands may look nice and green, but according to a recent land survey commissioned by the Hamilton Naturalists' Club, looks can be deceiving. The non-profit club says Hamilton's biodiversity is in "severe decline."

In the spring, Hamilton field botanist Paul O'Hara went out to 11 natural areas in central and western Hamilton. He walked through forests and woodlots, logging all the plants he saw, as well as any harms impacting the land, such as litter, invasive species, deer-predation and signs of humans or dogs travelling off marked trails.  

"I knew it was gonna be bad before I started," O'Hara told CBC Hamilton, adding his findings show urban natural areas of the City of Hamilton are not providing the ecosystem they should. 

The botanist found many of those areas were full of non-native trees. Ground that should have been spongy and mossy was muddy, and the sites were absent ground-nesting birds or aquatic life. 

The woods near Dundas Driving Park in the city's west end provide an example. While the area contains trees in the 150- to 250-year-old range and hard-to-find native plants such as Back's sedge, it is also threatened by deer, dumping and the invasive dog-strangling vine, O'Hara reported.

The non-profit naturalists' club is sharing O'Hara's work this month, saying it speaks to a need for public education, and investment in the city's Biodiversity Action Plan, which Hamilton adopted in June in collaboration with the club.

O'Hara surveyed three sites on the central Mountain, two along the Niagara Escarpment, one in Westdale, two in Ancaster and three in Dundas, totalling about 87.5 hectares. He said he picked sites that weren't well studied. While they make up only a small part of the land in the Hamilton area, the sites are representative of what's happening across the city, O'Hara said. 

Each generation doesn't know the 'magic' that was lost

Hamilton exists within significant ecological areas, including the larger Carolinian forest ecosystem, which stretches from the tip of southern Ontario to South Carolina and contains a greater variety of wildlife than any other ecosystem in Canada. 

To people living in the area today, it may seem very lush, but the region was once maybe a hundred times richer in biodiversity, O'Hara said.

"We really don't know how much we have lost," he said. "Each generation doesn't know what magic on the land was here."

That "shifting baseline" is a problem when it comes to protecting our natural world, said Brian McHattie, program director at the naturalists' club and former city councillor, using the Dundas Valley as an example.  

"As far as you know, it's a decent forest," he said. "But you don't necessarily notice the fact there are no ephemeral plants like wildflowers coming up and there are no shrubs or there's not a second layer of trees that are growing. Those have been wiped out by deer and wild turkeys." 

Climate change is making things worse by hastening species loss, McHattie said. "The whole thing is a crisis."

He said surveys like O'Hara's will help inform work under the Biodiversity Action Plan, which includes strategies to monitor and improve biodiversity, and to educate the public about it. 

Businesses, residents, city can help protect biodiversity: club

Jen Baker, general manager for the Hamilton Naturalists' Club and coordinator for the action plan, spoke before Hamilton city council during budget delegations on Monday, telling councillors she'd like to see more staff dedicated to implementing it.

Baker told CBC Hamilton she hopes the action plan will make protecting biodiversity part of routine city business. For example, she said, future construction could include wildlife tunnels to protect animals from collisions. 

The club is also asking for funding to recruit the public to participate in projects such as invasive species removal in local parks. Baker said that once people are educated, they better understand the scale of biodiversity loss.

"Sometimes I apologize [to] volunteers because you're not going to be able to un-see this," she said, adding volunteers often tell her they didn't realize how much invasive species impact local areas. 

In addition to supporting the action plan, the club said there's lots individuals can do to protect natural areas in the city, including keeping people and dogs on marked trails, avoiding dumping and planting native species of plants at home.

"We need everybody to do something," Baker said.