Aspen Sprout and Shrub Cover -Waterton Lakes - Conservation and Restoration Project (Fescue)

Aspen Sprout and Shrub Cover -Waterton Lakes - Conservation and Restoration Project (Fescue) Waterton Lakes National Park (WLNP) protects one of the last tracts of native fescue prairie habitat in the Parks Canada system. Native Fescue grasslands are an important element of biodiversity in the park, as well as an endangered ecosystem in Canada. It is not just aspen encroachment that is a concern, but also the increasing density of existing aspen stands. Aspen sprouts (aspen < 2.5m height) and shrubs adjacent to grasslands will be removed through prescribed burning of grassland areas, with the goal of increasing the area of fescue grasslands in the project area's prescribed burn units by 2019 through removal of 5% of 2014 shrub and aspen sprout cover. Remote sensing technologies are used to asses this measure. 2024-05-15 Parks Canada robert.sissons@pc.gc.ca Nature and Environmentfecue grasslandswoody encroachmentstand densityaspen sprout covershrub coverprescribed burningGISAlberta Aspen Sprout and Shrub Cover - Waterton Lakes - Burn data - 1CSV https://open.canada.ca/data/dataset/6b710b02-3bd3-407e-b47d-24dbbbad347d/resource/13330242-a56e-4971-b629-69cef7643352/download/waterton_lakes_np_core_fescure_aspen_and_shrub_cover_2014-2017_data.csv

Waterton Lakes National Park (WLNP) protects one of the last tracts of native fescue prairie habitat in the Parks Canada system. Native Fescue grasslands are an important element of biodiversity in the park, as well as an endangered ecosystem in Canada. It is not just aspen encroachment that is a concern, but also the increasing density of existing aspen stands. Aspen sprouts (aspen < 2.5m height) and shrubs adjacent to grasslands will be removed through prescribed burning of grassland areas, with the goal of increasing the area of fescue grasslands in the project area's prescribed burn units by 2019 through removal of 5% of 2014 shrub and aspen sprout cover. Remote sensing technologies are used to asses this measure.

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