Description: Lake & Wetland Habitat
Lakes and wetlands based on RMOW GIS (2023) and TEM (Green 2004), plus additions/corrections by this project from the 2023 orthophoto. NB: For this project, open water >1 ha = lake; open water <1 ha = wetland.
Changes from source mapping:
1. Reclassified all open water waterbodies as: (1) lake if >1ha; or (2) wetland if <1 ha. This classification results in 9 waterbodies classified as lakes within RMOW boundaries: Green, Lost, Alta, Nita, Alpha, Loggers, and three Jane Lakes.
2. The RMOW TEM (Green 2003) classified wetlands into five categories: bog, fen, swamp, marsh, and shallow shorelines. Some of these wetlands surrounded open water ponds, i.e., areas deeper than approximately 2 metres (too deep for emergent vegetation). There is no consistent definition of pond vs. lake and available mapping was not at a scale that allowed differentiating them well, hence the use of an arbitrary cut-off of 1 hectare. For the purposes of this project, the distinction did not matter since all wetlands and lakes were ranked at a minimum priority of High.
3. Many previously unmapped wetlands were added in the Brandywine basalt pond area, within Brandywine Falls Provincial Park. Other wetlands were added where visible on available orthophotos. NB, the 2023 RMOW orthophoto was used for these additions since it was at a higher resolution than previous imagery and therefore showed small wetlands/ponds more clearly.