Two parks within the Niagara Escarpment Parks and Open Space System (NEPOSS) have recently completed Master Plans which have now been sent to the Ministry of Natural Resources for approval.

Country Heritage Park is located in the Town of Milton. Designated an Historical Park, it is the site of the former Ontario Agricultural Museum. With the assistance of consultants, stakeholders from a number of agencies and the Park's Board of Directors, a Master Plan has been developed to guide its future use with an emphasis on preserving the historic buildings on the property and promoting the appreciation of rural life through special events and education.

Burlington City Park is designated as a Recreation Park and will be the site of a future sports park for baseball and soccer events. The park will be divided into active and passive recreation areas and preserves a corridor for the Bruce Trail and several natural heritage features throughout the property and along the escarpment edge. Opportunities to recognize and promote the Niagara Escarpment will be incorporated into the detailed design of each park as they proceed to the Development Permit stage.

NEC Manager Ken Whitbread and Senior Strategic Advisor Nancy Mott-Allen are working with graduate students from the University of Guelph's School of Rural Planning and Development on a project involving a former quarry in the Town of Mono. The site has been rehabilitated by the company. As part of their course work, the students will prepare a report and a draft Plan Amendment with recommendations for the future designation of the site in the Niagara Escarpment Plan.

The Niagara Escarpment Commission Monitoring Program has been monitoring five one-hectare forest biodiversity plots along the Escarpment since 1996. Plots are used to study long-term, cumulative environmental impacts of land use change and development on Escarpment ecosystems. The plots are inventoried on a five year rotational basis in partnership with the University of Waterloo Environment and Resource Studies (ERS) Department. All of the plots are located in upland, deciduous, forest interior habitat on public land within the Escarpment Natural Area.

The plots are monitored using protocols originally developed through the Smithsonian Institute Monitoring and Assessment of Biodiversity Program (SI/MAB) and the Canadian Forest Service, which are endorsed by Environment Canada's Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network as standard protocols for monitoring in Canada. The plots are considered "control" sites for monitoring relatively undisturbed conditions, although some degree of disturbance (historical or present-day) has been identified within all plots.

From August 19-26, 2009 the third inventory of Hope Bay plot was successfully completed by NEC staff and thirteen UW faculty and students. The Hope Bay plot was first inventoried in 1999 and is within the Escarpment Natural Area Designation of the NEP.

Standard protocols were carried out to collect data on tree species, diameter-at-breast height, height classification, tree health assessment, shrub/sapling and ground cover layer sampling. Eight different tree species were identified in the 2009 inventory. All identified species at risk are reported to the Natural Heritage Information Centre (NHIC) of the Ministry of Natural Resources. Invasive species are also inventoried along the trails entering the plot. Data collected during the tree inventory are entered into a data management system developed by the Smithsonian Institute (BioMon Version 2.0). A data verification process is undertaken whereby the data are field-checked to ensure a high standard of accuracy.

Site-level analysis through forest plot monitoring complements the landscape scale studies and provide indicators to assess whether forest health and ecological function are being maintained over time. Now that three inventories have been carried out for most Escarpment plots, analysis has begun on the data collected. This analysis and reporting will contribute to the NEC Monitoring Program State of the Escarpment reporting in 2010. Information on forest health or function will be used to inform land managers to adapt land management practices to better protect the Escarpment environment. Included in the analysis will be an assessment of the value of the plot-based monitoring to the NEC Monitoring Program.