Significant Ecological Area

To identify the location and types of Significant Ecological Areas which are commonly found on maps for forest and resource management purposes. A Significant Ecological Area is a polygon feature that identifies an area of interest to the Ministry that is ecologically significant, and warrants special consideration, excluding ANSI's, parks, reserves or ESA's.


Different Significant Ecological Area types include:

  • Significant Valley
  • Significant Woodland
  • No-Cut Area
  • Designated Old Growth Forest
  • Old Growth Forest
  • Significant Ecological Community.

Significant Woodlands


The significant woodland mapping in this data set is not a definitive source of significant woodland mapping as the identification of significant woodlands rests with the planning authority.

  • This mapping was created in 2011 through a desktop exercise that used the best available data at the time and was never field verified.
  • This mapping represents a snapshot in time and does not account for recent changes in forest cover.
  • This mapping only exists in eastern Ontario.

Planning authorities are encouraged to undertake a municipal-wide comprehensive study to identify significant woodlands within their administrative area.


Additional Documentation Status On going: data is being continually updated
Maintenance and Update Frequency As needed: data is updated as deemed necessary
Contact Emily Hill, Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, [email protected]
The data referenced here is licensed Electronic Intellectual Property of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and is provided for professional, non-commercial use only.

Datasets available for download

Additional Info

Field Value
Last Updated March 24, 2026, 20:43 (UTC)
Created March 24, 2026, 20:43 (UTC)
Domain / Topic
Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.
Title
Title for the Dataset.
Significant Ecological Area
Description
A description of the dataset.

To identify the location and types of Significant Ecological Areas which are commonly found on maps for forest and resource management purposes. A Significant Ecological Area is a polygon feature that identifies an area of interest to the Ministry that is ecologically significant, and warrants special consideration, excluding ANSI's, parks, reserves or ESA's.


Different Significant Ecological Area types include:

  • Significant Valley
  • Significant Woodland
  • No-Cut Area
  • Designated Old Growth Forest
  • Old Growth Forest
  • Significant Ecological Community.

Significant Woodlands


The significant woodland mapping in this data set is not a definitive source of significant woodland mapping as the identification of significant woodlands rests with the planning authority.

  • This mapping was created in 2011 through a desktop exercise that used the best available data at the time and was never field verified.
  • This mapping represents a snapshot in time and does not account for recent changes in forest cover.
  • This mapping only exists in eastern Ontario.

Planning authorities are encouraged to undertake a municipal-wide comprehensive study to identify significant woodlands within their administrative area.


Additional Documentation Status On going: data is being continually updated
Maintenance and Update Frequency As needed: data is updated as deemed necessary
Contact Emily Hill, Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, [email protected]
The data referenced here is licensed Electronic Intellectual Property of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and is provided for professional, non-commercial use only.
Tags / Keywords
Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.
Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc)
File format of the dataset.
Dataset Size
Dataset size in megabytes.
0.08
Metadata Identifier
Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
20590557c9e34f4fa0400152d172a857
Published Date
Published date of the dataset.
2019-02-26
Time Period Data Span (start date)
Start date of the data in the dataset.
Time Period Data Span (end date)
End date of time data in the dataset.
GeoSpatial Area Data Span
A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.
Field Value
Access category
Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
public
License
License used to access the dataset.
Electronic Intellectual Property - Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry
Limits on use
Limits on use of data.
Location
Location of the dataset.
https://ontariogeohub-lio.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/lio::significant-ecological-area
Data Service
Data service for accessing a dataset.
Owner
Owner of the dataset.
LandInformationOntario
Contact Point
Who to contact regarding access?
Land Information Ontario
Contact Point Email
The email to contact regarding access?
[email protected]
Publisher
Publisher of the dataset.
Land Information Ontario
Publisher Email
Email of the publisher.
Author
Author of the dataset.
LandInformationOntario
Author Email
Email of the author.
Accessed At
Date the data and metadata was accessed.
2025-11-27
Field Value
Identifier
Unique identifier for the dataset.
20590557c9e34f4fa0400152d172a857
Language
Language(s) of the dataset
English
Link to dataset description
A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
https://ontariogeohub-lio.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/lio::significant-ecological-area
Persistent Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
Globally Unique Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
Contains data about individuals
Does the data hold data about individuals?
Contains data about identifiable individuals
Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
Contains Indigenous Data
Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
Portal Type
Platform type of the source portal.
Field Value
Version
Version of the datatset
None
Source
Source of the dataset.
None
Version notes
Version notes about the dataset.
Is version of another dataset
Link to dataset that it is a version of.
Other versions
Link to datasets that are versions of it.
Provenance Text
Provenance Text of the data.
Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry
Provenance URL
Provenance URL of the data.
Temporal resolution
Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
GeoSpatial resolution in meters
Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
GeoSpatial resolution (in regions)
Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.
Field Value
Indigenous Community Permission
Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
Community Permission
Community permission (who gave permission).
The Indigenous communities the dataset is about
Indigenous communities from which data is derived.
Field Value
Number of data rows
If tabular dataset, total number of rows.
Number of data columns
If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
Number of data cells
If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
Number of data relations
If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
Number of entities
If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
Number of data properties
If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
Data quality
Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
Metric for data quality
A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.

0 Comments

Please login or register to comment.