© Lora Denis
As the June 2 provincial election approaches, affordable housing is understandably emerging as a lightning-rod issue, with rents and purchase prices soaring. Unfortunately and unfairly, the issue is being used to justify further encroachment by highways and sprawl development on natural areas and farmland. Can we meet the housing needs of current and future Ontarians ...
December 9, 2021–Graeme Smith
Boreal Forest•Climate Change•Ecology•Habitat•Land-use planning•Ontario Nature
On the heels of the recent 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) and Canada’s commitments to natural climate solutions and ending deforestation, it is imperative to take a critical look at Canada’s current emissions and the ways in which they’re counted. A new report by Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Nature Canada, Environmental Defence ...
December 2, 2021–Anne Bell
Habitat•Land-use planning•Ontario Nature•Species at Risk•Stewardship and restoration
Blanding's turtle, threatened © David Allen CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
The Auditor General of Ontario’s report, Protecting and Recovering Species at Risk, is not reading for the faint of heart. Released on November 22, 2021 the audit sets out in excruciating detail the Government of Ontario’s abject failure to exercise its duty to protect the province’s most vulnerable plants and animals. The review spans the ...
August 19, 2021–Jakob Mueller
Climate Change•Habitat•Land-use planning•Reduce Your Footprint•Wetlands
Mer Bleue © Joe CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
In Ottawa, municipal politicians are backing a project that would build a multi-lane artery across a section of the city’s Greenbelt, fragmenting habitat and impacting the edge of a wetland complex known as Mer Bleue. Alternatives exist, but city officials favour this one due to a purportedly lower construction cost. The landowner is the federal ...
July 16, 2021–Margaret Prophet
Ecology•Greenbelt and Greenway•Guest Blogger•Land-use planning•Ontario Nature•Water•Wetlands•Wild Species and Habitat
The former mayor of Toronto, David Crombie, once gave me invaluable insight about how we view nature. He said, “We look at green spaces and nature as places with potential. Potential for housing, potential for strip malls, potential for highways – not as if they already have a purpose. We need to recognize they aren’t ...