Ontario Nature Blog

Late in September, the federal government introduced the more than 200-page omnibus bill, C-39, which continues a troubling pattern of increasing political discretion and weakening environmental review processes. The innocuous title, ‘An Act respecting certain measures to strengthen the economy’, contains a sweet of changes to how project decisions are made in Canada. Perhaps most ...

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With National Day for Truth and Reconciliation approaching on September 30, 2026, it is an important time to reflect upon the ongoing legacy of colonialism, including within local and treaty contexts. Local governments are beginning to explore their own reconciliation paths and one municipality in Ontario – the Town of East Gwillimbury – is lighting the way for this work in York Region.   Since the release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to ...

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Ontario’s municipal elections are coming up on October 26, and the outcomes will set the tone for the next four years of decisions affecting nature in cities and towns across the province. Luckily, there are plenty of opportunities for everyone to get involved in securing a mayor and council that will prioritize the local ecosystems ...

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When fellow Ontario Nature Youth Council member Yiming and I created Project 275 to fight species extinction with art, there were 275 species and subspecies at risk in Ontario (see the full list here). We had always known that the “275” would eventually become symbolic when the actual number changed, although we had hoped any change would be driven by species recovery, not politics and declines. Alas! At the ...

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As conservationists, we often mourn the forests we never saw. Much of Ontario was once covered in old growth forest – ancient ecosystems with complex forest structure, large quantities of woody material, and unique types of habitats and nutrient cycling. Many of the trees in these forests would have been hundreds of years old, towering ...

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