4.1Natural Features

Map 4 - Natural Features shows the Plan area’s natural features.  Below is a description of the area’s key biophysical features. 

Topography and Drainage

The area is generally level to gently and moderately undulating and rolling.   The majority of the Plan area drains in a southeast direction to the North Saskatchewan River. The northeast and southwest corners of the ASP area are drained by the Redwater River and Sturgeon River respectively.

Soils

Data on Soils in the Sturgeon County Industrial Heartland Area Structure Plan (ASP) was last collected in 2002, and published in the Alberta’s Industrial Heartland Complementary Area Structure Plans, Background Report, January 2002.  Map 5 – Soils, shows the different types of soils according to the Canada Land Inventory (CLI) Soil Capability Classification for Agriculture.  Approximately 60% of the ASP area is comprised of Class 1 and 2 soils.

The CLI Soil Capability Classification for Agriculture can help to formulate decisions on land improvement and farm consolidation.  The assumptions on which agricultural classification is based are:

• The soils will be well managed and cropped, under a largely mechanized system.
• Land requiring improvements, including clearing that can be made economically by the farmer is classed according to its limitations or hazards in use after the improvements have been made. Land requiring improvements beyond the means of the farmer is classed according to its present condition.
• The following are not considered: distances to market, kind of roads, location, size of farms, type of ownership, cultural patterns, skill or resources of individual operations, and hazard of crop damage by storms.
• The classification does not include capability of soils for trees, tree fruits, small fruits, ornamental plants, recreation, or wildlife.
• The classes are based on the intensity, rather than kinds, of their limitations for agriculture. Each class includes many kinds of soil, and many of the soils in any class require unique management and treatment.
• Land given a capability classification of 6 or 7 will never warrant irrigation since the benefits derived from irrigation would be negligible. For this reason, capability Classes 6 and 7 will always appear in the non-irrigated portion (Classes A to C) of a land unit classification.  The classes indicate the degree of limitation imposed by the soil in its use for mechanized agriculture.
  • Class 1: Soils have no significant limitations in use for crops.
  • Class 2: Soils have moderate limitations that restrict the range of crops or require moderate conservation practices.
  • Class 3: Soils have moderately severe limitations that restrict the range of crops or require special conservation practices.
  • Class 4: Soils have severe limitations that restrict the range of crops or require special conservation practices or both.
  • Class 5: Soils have very severe limitations that restrict their capability to producing perennial forage crops, and improvement practices are feasible.
  • Class 6: Soils are capable only of producing perennial forage crops, and improvement practices are not feasible.
  • Class 7: Soils have no capability for arable culture or permanent pasture.
  • Class 0: Organic Soils (not placed in capability classes)

As the Plan area is part of the region’s glaciated area, the soils have developed on glacial till, and deposits were produced by postglacial sortation, such as lacustrine, alluvial, and aeolian materials. These Pleistocene deposits are almost entirely of Edmonton formation origin. In discussing the kinds of soils found in the Edmonton area, the basis of separation is the order, as used in the Canadian System of Soil Classification. The characteristics of each order are briefly described as follows:

• Chernozemic Order -- about half of the area has soils in this order. They are predominantly black in colour, and are found on practically all the types of parent material previously mentioned. In general, they are high quality agricultural soils and are found throughout the area. Many of the Chernozemic soils have been placed in Capability Class 1.
• Solonetzic Order -- this group of soils is found throughout the area on all types of parent material. Here the till is thin and is underlain by the Bearpaw shale formation. Generally they are considered to be in Capability Class 2 or lower, depending on degree and kind of development of the Solonetzic characteristics.
• Podzolic Order - they are mainly Dark Gray Wooded and Gray Wooded soils. These soils are considered to be no better than Capability Class 3.

The remaining three orders found in this area are Gleysolic, Regosolic, and Organic.  They are scattered throughout, generally in association with other soils. They are generally marginal for agriculture or in the pasture classes.

Environmentally Sensitive Areas

Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs) within the Plan area are shown on Map 6 – Environmentally Sensitive Areas.  Data on ESAs in the ASP area was last collected in 2002 and published in the Alberta’s Industrial Heartland Complementary Area Structure Plans, Background Report, January 2002. This report identifies lands important to plant and animal diversity in four categories:

• nationally or internationally significant (limited to the best or only example of their kind in Canada or the world)
• provincially significant (limited, unique or best example of their kind in the province)
• regionally significant (limited, unique or the best example of their in the planning area)
• locally significant (limited, unique or the best example of their kind in the local area)

The report also describes hazard lands that would impose significant constraints on development in their natural state, including floodplains, permanent wetlands and water features, seasonal flows, and unstable slopes.  Each ESA was judged as to its relative sensitivity to changes and disturbance. The following three sets of characteristics were indicative of land units sensitive to disturbance:

• high susceptibility to erosion,
• severe limitation to revegetation, and
• mixture of landform and vegetation that would make the land unit of important significance to wildlife.

Dominant attributes of an ESA are as follows (Environmentally Sensitive Areas: County of Strathcona and M.D. of Sturgeon 1989):

• areas which perform a vital environmental, ecological or hydrological function,
• areas which contain unique geological or physiographic features,
• areas buildings or features which are important for cultural or historic reasons,
• areas which contain significant, rare or endangered species,
• areas which are unique habitats with limited representation in the region or remnant of once larger habitats which have virtually disappeared,
• areas which contain an unusual diversity of plant and/or animal communities due to variety of geomorphological features and microclimatic effects,
• areas which contain large and relatively undisturbed habitats and provide sheltered habitat for species which are intolerant of human disturbance,
• areas which contain plants, animals or land forms which are unusual or of regional, provincial or national significance,
• areas which provide an important linking function and permit the movement of wildlife over considerable distance.

Provincially Significant Areas

Sturgeon River Valley

North Saskatchewan River Valley

• inter-provincially important river
• diverse riparian habitat
• provides key habitat for white tailed deer
• diverse sites of interpretive and educational value relative to geological and paleontological history as well as present day fluvial processes
• exposures to gravel pits in the valley have in past shown interesting periglacial features such as fossil sand wedges; in addition these sites have yielded paleontological discoveries such as bones of dinosaur, woolly mammoth, bison, etc.

Regionally Significant Areas

Coronado East

• Large area of well developed sand dunes located in the northwest Plan area.  These large dunes are not found elsewhere in the region.
• The dune field is relatively undisturbed.  Within the area is a Provincial Natural Area and a Ducks Unlimited waterfowl project.
• Hosts a very diverse vegetation mosaic due to the various plant responses to the changing edaphic conditions.
• Good upland wildlife habitat especially in the more mesic sites along the lower slopes of the dunes and in poorly drained blowouts.

Redwater Sandhills Natural Area

• Located northeast of the Plan area, with a small segment inside the ASP boundary.  This area is a large sand dune field.
• Contains significant remnant natural forest and possesses good wildlife habitat values, reinforced by its proximity to the North Saskatchewan River Valley