The Crown Land Use Policy Atlas (the Atlas) is the source of area-specific land use policy for Crown lands in a large part of central and northern Ontario. The Atlas contains land use policies consolidated from a variety of planning documents (e.g., district land use guidelines, Ontario’s Living Legacy Land Use Strategy). The Atlas is also the central site for presenting amendments and providing revisions to area-specific land use policies.
The Atlas does not include provincial land administration policies such as camping on Crown land or the construction of docks. It does not allow a user to obtain specific approvals, permits or licences required to carry out certain activities on Crown land, nor does it replace or provide regulations (e.g., hunting and fishing regulations).
The Atlas does not replace the more detailed resource management direction in a wide range of planning documents including provincial park management plans, interim management statements for parks, statements of conservation interest for conservation reserves, forest management plans, fisheries management plans and water management plans. Where management plans for provincial parks, conservation reserves and enhanced management areas have been developed, some of the more detailed direction from these has been summarized in associated policy reports.
Geographic ExtentThe area covered by the Atlas (area in yellow on inset map) includes more than 39 million hectares of Crown land and waters in central and northern Ontario or about 45 per cent of the province. Manitoulin Island and several other islands in the north channel of Georgian Bay are also included.
In Ontario’s far north the Land Use Strategy for the Whitefeather Forest and Adjacent Areas (2006) has now been incorporated into the Atlas.
The Atlas outlines land use policies for lands that are managed by MNR. Because of the limitations of mapping data, in some cases MNR's land use designations may appear to overlap onto private and federal land. These designations are not intended to apply directly to these lands. However, in some cases the policies may indicate MNR's perspective on land use and resource management on privately-owned land.
Land use policies are taken from a variety of sources. Most policies are a result of broad to local-level planning. Certain area or activity-specific policies come from provincial policy and from provincial legislation. As land use planning continues, policy reports will be amended as necessary to be consistent with land use decisions.
Modified: January 31, 2007
