Ontario Nature Blog

People are often fearful of something new. This fear can result in unwillingness to break from routine – which, arguably, has been the case in conservation across Canada for many years. Other Effective Areas-based Conservation Measures Take “Other Effective Areas-based Conservation Measures” (OECMs), for instance. This unwieldy term applies to areas that aren’t legislated parks ...

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Patience may be a virtue, but in the case of Rondeau Provincial Park, we’ve waited long enough. For over 60 years, the Government of Ontario has acknowledged the need to phase out private cottages in provincial protected areas, such as Rondeau Provincial Park. And now it’s proposing a three-year extension of the leases while it ...

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Here we go again. Relentless in the pursuit of its “open for business” agenda the Government of Ontario wants to weaken protections for nature in order to fast-track development across the province. This time it is targeting the Provincial Policy Statement (PPS), Ontario’s primary land use policy, with the goal of “reducing barriers and costs ...

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As a party to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, Canada has an international obligation to protect at least 17 percent of its lands and inland waters by 2020.   To count towards the 17 percent target a protected area must:  Ontario Falling Short In Ontario, we’re falling far short of that goal, with only ...

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An ecological hot spot in Windsor is one step closer to permanent protection. Last summer, the City of Windsor announced the plan to take ownership of Ojibway Shores, a 13-hectare property currently controlled by the Windsor Port Authority, and add it to the Ojibway Prairie Complex, a collection of five species-rich natural areas near downtown ...

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