The Beaver Hills Initiative
The Beaver Hills Initiative is an award-winning effort that advances land use planning to include the social, economic and ecological factors — equally.
The Beaver Hills spreads across five counties. This unique area includes Elk Island National Park, Ministik Lake Bird Sanctuary, Black Foot/Cooking Lake Recreational Area, Miquelon Provincial Park and several hundred acres of both publicly and privately protected areas.
The Beaver Hills Initiative educates, informs and acts as a forum to facilitate communication between the public, private landowners, all levels of government and other involved partners.
Background
The Beaver Hills Boreal Forest ecosystems support high levels of biodiversity compared with other ecosystems; the boreal forest is especially attractive to a large variety of migratory bird populations.
The landscape supports mixed wood tree stands, water sheds, wetlands, bogs, fens, swamps, small lakes, creeks and rivers; in summary a diverse and unique geomorphological landscape created by glacial retreat.
Awareness of this ecosystem, or any ecosystem, and the role it plays in one's quality of life is missing from most people's realm of understanding.
The Beaver Hills Initiative is based on the reality that the consequences of poor land use decisions will lead to the degradation and eventual destruction of wildlife species, vegetation and entire watersheds. An area that cannot provide clean water, clean air and a healthy landscape cannot support life of any kind. Without ecological integrity there can be no life.
The Beaver Hills Initiative will serve as a “facilitatory” board, providing recommendations based on the best science-based data to support land use decisions within the area that balance social, economic and ecological factors — equally.
Every participating municipality will be asked to write these recommendations into their municipal development plans and land use bylaws.
Core funding for the Beaver Hills Initiative is currently under consideration by all of the five municipalities in question.
Each member of the Beaver Hills Initiative Board will have one vote.
All decisions will be reached by consensus. If consensus is not attained then all members will work together until a unilateral decision is achieved.
The chairman of the Beaver Hills Initiative will call for a vote of the members only if a consensus cannot be reached.