Event: Landscape Level Planning Workshop
Date & Time: March 11, 2006,8:30 a.m - 3:30 p.m.
Location: Rodd Royalty Inn, Charlottetown, PE
Cost: $10.00, Lunch Provided
Description:
The P.E.I. Model Forest Network Partnership and the Public Forest Council will be hosting a landscape level planning workshop on Saturday, March 11, 2006 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Rodd Royalty Inn on the Trans Canada Highway.
“When asked about their impressions of Prince Edward Island, residents and visitors alike tend to focus on our landscape,” said PFC Chair, Dr. Ian MacQuarrie. “They often see the Island in terms of its pastoral blend of forests, fields and water, but in recent years, many people have become concerned that the landscape we treasure is fast slipping away.”
He noted that the small farm fields, neat lines of spruce hedgerows, tree-covered hilltops, and clear blue water have been seen as strong and traditional symbols of the uniqueness of Prince Edward Island. However, over the past decade urban sprawl, spreading tourism developments, poor land use practices, and forest clearances have had a major impact on landscapes across the Island. While each change only involves a small area, cumulatively these impacts are affecting significant portions of P.E.I.
The workshop will explore options for several key questions such as, “How do we, as a society, deal with significant human and environmental values related to
woodlands?” One possible answer lies in rural community landscape planning,
sometimes called local-level planning. This approach has been quite successful in
many Island communities and helped to protect and improve watercourses through voluntary agreements with landowners. The Council believes that this community process can be extended to other landscape features such as woodlands, but it will take much thought and discussion to make it happen. For this reason, Islanders from all walks of life are invited to attend “Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities,” a landscape level planning workshop.
Local and off-Island speakers will discuss their views and experiences with the audience. Guest speakers will include John Sylvester, a well-known Island photographer; John Gilbert of J.D. Irving Woodland; Gary Schneider of the MacPhail Ecological Forestry Project; Matthew Betts from Dartmouth College, New Hampshire; Kirby Tulk from Parks Canada; Jack Saunders from Community and Cultural Affairs; and Bob Bancroft, wildlife biologist and CBC commentator from Nova Scotia.
For further information or to register, contact the P.E.I. Model Forest Network Partnership Coordinator, Steve DeWolfe at 368-4800, info@peiforests.ca or www.peiforests.ca.