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© Lora Denis
Malcolm Bluffs, Colpoys Bay © Robert McCaw
As 2018 draws to a close, we’re reflecting back on some of our accomplishments for nature this past year. We could not have done it without you – our members, friends, followers and funders. With your support, we continue to be a force for nature in Ontario and there when nature needs us most.
Money Sense ranked Ontario Nature as one of the top 10 environmental charities in Canada for 2018.
With your help, we’re standing up against the Government of Ontario’s Bill 66. If passed, this legislation would trump critical environmental protections for land, water and wildlife across Ontario. Sign our letter to the Premier today.
We were back in federal court – represented by Ecojustice – with our partners the David Suzuki Foundation, Friends of the Earth Canada and the Wilderness Committee, fighting to protect our pollinators from Thiamethoxam, a deadly pesticide.
As part of the Oak Ridges Moraine Partnership, we championed expansion of the Greenbelt to protect wetlands, moraines and cold water streams across the Greater Golden Horseshoe.
We launched our brand new website designed to give you fast and easy access to all of your nature needs using whatever device you have on hand.
We held our ninth annual Youth Summit for Biodiversity that brought together 106 young leaders from 74 diverse communities across the province.
Our Youth Council hosted 9 Our Special Spaces events, planting 1,500 pollinator-friendly plants with the help of over 250 volunteers. Six of our Youth Council members were recognized nationally and internationally for their environmental leadership.
We raised more than $40,000 for our Protected Places Campaign this Giving Tuesday! These funds will help us fight to ensure Canada meets its target to protect at least 17% of lands and inland waters by 2020.
Our Protected Places Declaration has been signed by over 5,000 Ontarians and endorsed by 137 organizations.
Our citizen scientists submitted a total of 435,236 records of reptiles and amphibians to our Ontario Reptile and Amphibian Atlas. These submissions help to increase the collective knowledge base of reptiles and amphibians in Ontario, and help guide important conservation efforts.
We completed a 500 metre wheelchair-accessible boardwalk at our Petrel Point Nature Reserve. Improvements to the trail will enable a more inclusive outdoor experience for people of all physical abilities while protecting the property’s sensitive fen ecosystem.
Ontario Nature’s Dr. Julee Boan and four other scientists published a peer-reviewed research paper, From Climate to Caribou, outing some in the logging industry for their harmful misinformation campaign about at-risk boreal caribou.
We launched a legal petition with the federal government calling on Minister McKenna to protect critical caribou habitat in Ontario.
We hosted our second gathering on Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas bringing together members of Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities to discuss opportunities to work together to protect lands and waters in the spirit and practice of reconciliation. You can read the report and watch the video from the gathering, Transforming Conservation: Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas in Ontario.
We hosted a number of events on our nature reserves, helping educate and connect our members with nature across the province. Some of these events included identification training, guided hikes, stewardship tips, invasive species removal best practices and more.
We launched our long-term monitoring protocols for Ontario snakes. In total, 9 sites and 216 cover boards were set up to monitor snakes in the Norfolk region. We found 132 individuals and 2 species at risk snakes.
We worked with our agricultural partners to help establish a new ALUS community in Chatham-Kent, bringing the total number of Ontario ALUS communities to eight.
We collaborated with Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation on a report that explores how climate change is impacting birds and birding, and what we can do to take action.
Finally, we celebrated 87 proud years of conservation work in Ontario! Please consider making a year-end gift this holiday season to support our work to protect wild species and wild spaces through 2019 and beyond.
Wishing you the joy of nature this holiday season,
—The Ontario Nature team
© Lena Morrison
Thank you for all your hard work to bring the importance of protection for the environment – Green Belt, Conservation Associations , Oak Ridges Moraine etc. and hopefully you are prepared for the biggest disappointment coming forward from the Conservative government provincially.
All actions on the environment need the public to get behind and make the necessary changes to protect the climate, the air we breathe, the precious water we need to survive so there is a future for all.
Keep up the good work. These are threatening times for the environment in Ontario.
WELL DONE! Keep up your dedicated efforts to protect ALL that is Nature!
Congrats on all of your accomplishments this year! Thank you for the work that you do!
Congratulations on the year’s effort and accomplishments. Photos in this blog are stunning. Your Ontario Youth Summit photo is inspiring and beautiful — it says it all.
Great Blog! Thank you to all Ontario Nature’s staff for their dedication and hard work during this past year. The accomplishments highlighted in the Blog are testimony to your commitment to conservation and education.
We are proud to be members of Ontario Nature.
Best wishes to all.