Greenbelt Plan

The Greenbelt Act, 2005 enables the creation of a Greenbelt Plan to protect about 1.8 million acres of environmentally sensitive and agricultural land in the Golden Horseshoe from urban development and sprawl. These data are made up of three categories:

• Outer boundary and greenbelt designations (Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs & Housing) Includes boundaries for the protected country, the Oak Ridges Moraine and the Niagara Escarpment.
• Greenbelt Natural Heritage System boundary (Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources) Identifies areas of the Greenbelt Protected Countryside with the highest concentration of the most sensitive and/or significant natural features and functions as outlined in section 3.2 and schedule 4 of the Greenbelt Plan. Also includes the external connections layer which identifies the river valley connections references in section 3.2.5. These connections identify linkages beyond the Greenbelt Natural Heritage system through existing or approved urban areas to inland lakes and Lake Ontario. [...see metadata in unzipped file download]
• Greenbelt Selected Wildlife Habitat (Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources) Locations of deer wintering areas.- description courtesy University of Guelph Library