Beacon Environmental has bench strength in all aspects of environmental planning. These include providing input to Official Plan review, peer review of ecological studies, advice to governmental agencies, strategic advice to public and private sector clients and input to planning processes for natural areas, including landscape-scale projects. Beacon staff have represented clients at many Ontario Municipal Board hearings and other land use tribunals.
- Policy Development and Review
With over 125 years of cumulative experience in southern Ontario, Beacon Environmental staff have been involved with the evolution of planning policy related to natural heritage. We have a thorough comprehension of policy application and implementation based on work with both government and private sector clients at a variety of scales.
Beacon has developed natural heritage and planning policy for upper and lower tier municipalities through Official Plan updates, secondary plans, Master Environmental Servicing Plans, watershed plans, and natural heritage systems. Having worked extensively with the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan (ORMCP) and the Greenbelt Plan, Beacon has developed expertise in working with the specific requirements of these plans (e.g., Natural Heritage Evaluations and ORMCP conformity exercises).
Beacon staff are frequently called upon to provide peer review services and strategic advice to both regional/county and local municipalities, as well as Conservation Authorities on matters related to the application/interpretation of natural heritage policies.
- Natural Heritage Planning
Beacon Environmental specializes in aspects of planning related to terrestrial and aquatic ecology. Key areas of expertise include:
- development of natural heritage systems at various scales (e.g., secondary planning, level, watershed-scale and region-wide);
- input to natural heritage and planning policy for upper, lower and single tier municipalities through Official Plan updates and review;
- provision of technical and strategic advice to public and private sector clients through Secondary Plans, Master Environmental Servicing Plans, watershed plans, and landscape scale natural heritage projects; and
- provision of planning context for studies as part of environmental and impact assessments for infrastructure, energy, aggregate and land development studies.
Beacon Environmental staff have been involved with the evolution of planning policy in Ontario related to natural heritage and have contributed to the implementation of many aspects of this policy through work with government agencies and private sector clients. We have worked extensively with the Niagara Escarpment Plan, the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan (ORMCP) and the Greenbelt Plan, and are also familiar with natural heritage policies and practices in municipalities across Ontario, as well as policies and regulations applied by various conservation authorities, and the new Species at Risk Act in Ontario.
Beacon Environmental is known for its knowledge and understanding of current landscape ecology and conservation biology science, which forms the basis for sound natural heritage planning. The firm is also increasingly involved in providing technical expertise to community sustainability planning and climate change preparedness projects. Recent projects include development of a large-scale Natural Heritage System for the Lake Simcoe Basin, development of a smaller-scale NHS for the Town of East Gwillimbury and input to Sustainable Neighborhood Action Plans for the Toronto & Region Conservation Authority.
- Wetland Evaluations
Beacon staff members have conducted over a thousand wetland evaluations and/or updates, including evaluating wetlands using the Ontario Wetland Evaluation System in both southern and northern Ontario, and on wetlands ranging from several hectares to thousands of hectares. We are also regularly involved in wetland boundary delineations and desktop evaluation updates as part of development applications on behalf of private and public sector clients, and are often called upon as expert witnesses on wetlands.
- Expert Review and Litigation Support
Senior staff at Beacon Environmental are regularly asked to peer review natural heritage and ecological studies, provide strategic advice, and provide support and testimony for hearings before the Ontario Municipal Board, Environmental Assessment Board and other land use tribunals such as the Mining and Lands Commission Environmental Assessment Board. The scope of our support has included: literature reviews and scoped research in support of hearings on “hot button” ecological topics such as buffers, wildlife corridors and the effects of urbanization on wildlife; development of mapping using GIS to illustrate findings; and provision of witness statements and expert testimony.
Our work has included peer review of environmental assessments for various agencies, peer review of environmental impact assessments and natural heritage systems for conservation authorities and municipalities, and provision of expert witness testimony for a variety of natural heritage on behalf of private sector clients, as well as the provincial government, municipalities and
conservation authorities.
- Training, Education and Facilitation
Beacon Environmental has a long-standing tradition of being actively involved in the development and teaching of courses related to ecological assessment. Our Senior Ecologists have been instrumental in the teaching of both the OMNR-endorsed Ecological Land Classification (ELC) and Ontario Wetland Evaluation System (OWES) courses for well over a decade. These intensive one-week courses give our staff an opportunity to share their applied knowledge, and ensure that the next generation of ecologists understand the principles and protocols behind the assessments we conduct.
Beacon Environmental also provides course instruction, workshops and lectures on an assortment of environmental topics and also has in-house expertise in development of educational materials and event facilitation. Course topics have included Environmental Impact Assessment, Terrestrial Ecology for Municipal EAs, and Issues and Challenges around Wetland Designation. Recently the firm offered a course in wetland plant identification.
Educational initiatives may be specifically developed to meet the needs of individual clients or designed for more generalized and repeated applications. Materials are always based on applied experience, sound research, technical accuracy and solid communication principles that integrate graphics and non-technical language.
- Ecological Monitoring and Management
Beacon Environmental has the capacity to design, undertake and analyze management and monitoring programs for natural areas on a site-specific basis or on a jurisdictional-wide scale. With the importance of adaptive management approaches being increasingly recognized by municipalities, conservation authorities, government agencies and others, management and monitoring should go hand in hand. Staff at Beacon Environmental have developed, and implemented, such programs for protected natural areas in urban and rural settings in various locations across southern Ontario, and have also advised municipalities on approaches, protocols, and appropriate designs for long-term monitoring. Our approach to management and monitoring is fundamentally practical in so far as we believe that data should never simply be collected for its own sake; rather, goals and objectives must be clearly understood up front so that data collection can be targeted to yield meaningful and reliable results.
Beacon undertakes compliance monitoring for a wide variety of projects including restoration, habitat creation and preparation of BDRs.