Evaluation of planning and management approaches for limiting residential encroachment impacts within forest edges: A Southern Ontario case study

Studies increasingly document degradation and loss of publicly owned urban forest area following adjacent development due to residential encroachment. Little is known about prevailing approaches for limiting these impacts. Taking Southern Ontario as a case study, long interviews were conducted among Ontario planners, landscape architects, forest managers and bylaw officials within six Ontario municipalities to determine prevailing goals, tools, and strategies for addressing residential encroachment. Few municipalities had explicit goals, and none had objectives for addressing encroachment. Bylaws were the primary tools for addressing existing encroachments, but field studies indicated infrequent enforcement. Boundary-focused structures, such as fences, were the primary means of preventing encroachment; however, they were applied to a minority of forests with adjacent housing. None of the municipalities had a strategy for implementing their tools to protect targeted ecological, social or economic services provided by urban forests. Recommendations for improved approaches for managing residential encroachment impacts within forest edges are provided.