FAQs

A woodland is a complex ecosystem comprised of communities of trees, shrubs, ground vegetation as well as the biotic and abiotic environmental conditions on which they depend.

Within the City of Mississauga a woodland is defined as any area greater than 0.5 hectares that:

• Has a tree crown cover of 60 percent of the ground or;
• Has a tree crown cover of 25 percent together with sufficient stocking. Stocking is a measure that references tree density. Guidelines for stocking are extracted from the Provincial Forestry Act.

The City of Mississauga is pursuing a woodland management plan because it will act as a guiding document in the management of the City owned woodland resource. The plan will provide:

• A comprehensive overview of woodland health, diversity, size, risk, tree regeneration;
• Overall management objectives for the woodland resource;
• Establish targets and methods to achieve those indicators of success

The need for a woodland management plan was identified in both the City Urban Forest Management Plan and the Natural Heritage & Urban Forest Strategy. It will provide the necessary information to allow responsible and professional management for the 20 year planning period.

Forest certification is the process of verifying that forest management activities are sustainable, environmentally appropriate and socially beneficial by enforcing certain standards and levels of monitoring their performance. 

The City of Mississauga is interested in pursuing forest certification because:

1. It provides a professional framework for the management, monitoring and administration of woodlands;
2. Third party auditing provides increased confidence to the public in the responsible management of all certified forests;
3. Join a growing network of certified forests in Southern Ontario, including direct neighbours in the Town of Oakville, Halton Region.
4. Serve as a beacon of responsible municipal forest management and raise the bar for other communities as well.

This depends on a number of factors and will be outlined within the Woodland Management Plan.

In 2022 the City began a Woodland Risk Tree Program in which trees posing potential risk to targets were mapped digitally with respective tree attributes such as size, species, mitigation strategy and level of risk. Targets include but are not limited to: official woodland trails, roads, residential/commercial property or other infrastructure such as playgrounds, benches, sports fields etc. Identified hazard trees that exceed the Cities tolerance for risk will be mitigated and prioritised by the risk rating that was assigned during field collection.

However, not all trees that are dead pose risk and on the contrary are important for wildlife. These dead wildlife trees, often referred as snags, help wildlife by:

• providing a place to live (cavities, crevices) for many types of birds and mammals;
• Provide wildlife food sources by attracting insects, mosses, lichens and fungi;
• Cycle nutrients by allowing mosses, lichens and fungi to decay woody material.

The appropriate number of snags to be left over in woodlands will be carefully considered and articulated through the Woodland Management Plan and will be based on best guidance from Provincial science.