Douglasdale Park Habitat Management Plan

CLIENT: City of Calgary

AJM was contracted by the City of Calgary’s Parks and Open Spaces Unit to produce a ten-year Habitat Management Plan for Douglasdale Natural Environment Park, a 47ha park located adjacent to the Bow River in southeast Calgary. The primary objective of a Habitat Management Plan is to outline a clear strategy and timeline for the management of the ecological health and function of the park, and to ensure that biodiversity and climate resilience outcomes can be achieved more effectively.

The scope of work included reconnaissance site visits to the park and a thorough desktop review of background data, including ecological surveys, health assessments, biophysical impact assessments, historical aerial photos, and GIS data. AJM worked in collaboration with the City of Calgary to incorporate contributor engagement from various stakeholders, including public park users. The following key deliverables were developed:

The ten-year Habitat Management Plan for Douglasdale Park;

Maps and spatial data files to accompany the Habitat Management Plan, produced using ArcGIS pro desktop software; and

A responsibility matrix, implementation timeline, and annual work plan to accompany the Habitat Management Plan.

The Habitat Management Plan summarised the history of the park and its management, detailed the current state of the park’s abiotic and biotic features, and described the current and anticipated future stressors on the park, including environmental and human-induced disturbances. AJM developed an overall vision statement and ‘SMART’ (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) goals and objectives to guide the management of the park’s environmental resources and human uses. AJM then delineated management zones within the Park with distinct management intents and priorities, and planned appropriate management activities across varying timeframes for each zone. Finally, AJM detailed the ongoing monitoring, assessment, and reporting timeline, alongside the budget and timeline for the proposed management practices.

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