Forestry Data (DNR)

It was hoped that Department of Natural Resource forestry data available through the regional
office in Truro could be used. This database includes tree species, height, and related data.
166 This
forestry data does not appear to be as well suited to tourism potential modelling as originally thought.
There is information on species of trees but this fact does not indicate the environmental aspects of the
area. What is needed is ecological land classifications and ground cover vegetation information. When
development such a trail occurs in a natural area there is a degree of environmental impact that occurs.
An important aspect of tourism potential modelling was the concept of carrying capacity,
environmental resiliency of the land, and what the environmental impact of increased tourist traffic
will be on the ground cover. The Department of Natural Resources forestry data does not contain this
type of information so was not as well suited to the purposes of the project as originally thought. The
forestry data includes a relatively new data set with information on ecological land classifications
which should be discussed.
This data on ecological land classifications contains many different sources of information like
soils, basemap, forestry data, surficial geology, satellite data, landscapes, and other data sources,
however it appears to be disappointing as a useful data source. This data claims to be a combination of
many different datasets however, upon closer examination, it contains only three major attributes, soil
drainage, texture, and topography. This type of integrated data would be good for modelling, however
the same data could be easily gained from topographic basemap, data, and soils data which can be
downloaded for free from the Natural Resources (Geogratis) website which is
http://geogratis.cgdi.gc.ca/clf/en.