In a detailed and comprehensive report coming to Chatham-Kent council tonight, it will show that Chatham-Kent has lost tree cover over the past decade.
The report, which was prepared by the Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority, shows a mapping of forest cover in the municipality. The report uses digital mapping to compare forest cover in the year 2015 versus the year 2020.
According to the report, Chatham-Kent has lost over 2,036 acres of forest cover from 2010 to 2020.
As a comparison, the loss would be about the size of about 1,000 Canadian football fields.
The report will give councillors an idea about area forest cover as they prepare a woodlot conservation bylaw in the upcoming months.
Meantime, with Chatham-Kent council launching a public engagement process to look at options to manage woodlots, tonight’s online committee of the whole meeting will consider extending a temporary clear cutting bylaw from December 14 of this year to April 30, 2022.
The extension would give the newly created Natural Heritage Committee of the Whole more time in its deliberations to look at the municipality’s natural heritage and prepare options to try and improve Chatham-Kent’s forest cover.