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Cootes Paradise, Dundas Valley © CC BY-NC Jim Smith
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Your Stories
We have been inspired by what our supporters are saying about what protected places means to them. Your comments and passion for nature motivates us to push even harder to reach our goal of protecting at least 17 percent of lands and inland waters by 2020.
Now we want to hear from you! Please sign our guestbook under the comments at the bottom of this page to tell us why you care about protected places. Your stories bring the campaign to life.
Youth Camping Trip, Altberg Wildlife Sanctuary Nature Reserve © Nicole Chamula
Protected Places Campaign
Canada has committed to protecting at least 17 percent of our lands and inland waters by 2020. We’re holding Ontario to this commitment. Protected areas are vital to conserving life on Earth.
You can help protect the wild spaces you love.
Sign the declaration to show you care about protected places and ask the governments of Ontario and Canada to meet the commitment to protect at least 17 percent of lands and inland waters by 2020.
Pinery Provincial Park © Christopher Woo CC BY 2.0
Why do you care about protected places?
Sign the guestbook with your comment below.
The Government of Ontario must invest in a climate resilient future that makes Ontario more liveable and prosperous.
Young leaders, Youth Summit for Mother Earth 2023 © David Pugh
This is what I’ve found in regard to your request about vegan leather
https://wtvox.com/fashion/what-is-vegan-leather-everything-you-need-to-know
Let me know if I can be of further help.
PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS BEAUTIFUL LAND NEEDS YOU!
I am looking for help to solve a very important conservation issue! I am also hoping to share my petition with as many like minded individuals as I can. I would greatly appreciate it if you could help spread the word or suggest other ways I can get the petition to more people. The forests and waterways surrounding swift rapids rd, county of Simcoe, have devastatingly polluted with garbage and lead target shot (into the Georgian Bay watershed.). It is very important to keep our remaining natural wilderness clean.
Please see attached letter for more info!!
Here is the petition:
https://www.thepetitionsite.com/215/941/883/demand-an-end-to-pollution-in-a-once-pristine-natural-area/
I look forward to discussing the matter with you further.
Kind regards,
Yosef
While it’s true that the earth is likely to be here long after humanity has ceased, every second breath we take as well those our grandchildren will hopefully take, is made possible by the health of our biosphere. Of course change is constant, but indifference is often a catalyst for irreversible change to that we innately understand as practically necessary to all and precious to a great many. Over obsession with financial markets leads not only to a loss of historical context, but to a weakened awareness of our role in the protection of the earth’s biodiversity and the services our natural ecosystems provide.
Ontario Nature’s Protected Areas campaign reminds and encourages each of to assert our voices, such that we press on in demanding our governments pass the necessary legislation to protect those natural areas in the province of Ontario which are irrefutably part of Canada’s most valuable resources!
I am honoured to be a guest, a proper guest upon this planet and will do all that I am able to help protect this beautiful planet and her “Protected Places”.
I believe we need more protected places and less of one species, mankind footprint erasing all that is beautiful and special!
We have but one planet, let us all do our best to protect her!
Nature needs protection from our burgeoning population. Even areas that the public think are protected like Algonquin Park, are in fact logged. Marshes everywhere are being filled in. We are destroying entire species, largely by depriving them of suitable habitat. Protecting 17% is a modest goal, but it will not be achieved without groups like Ontario Nature pushing governments to do the right thing.
Here in SW Ontario, where the landscape has been so fragmented, protected natural places are relatively few. My husband and I own 42 ha of conservation land fairly close to the north shore of Lake Erie. Under a former owner, it was last under crop or pastured in 1991, and has since been returning to natural environment through our re-naturalization of woodland, thickets, and meadows through the planting of native species and the removal of exotic species. Over the past decade we have had eight wildlife ponds created to encourage wetland and aquatic species to inhabit them, and to control water run-off from a neighbour’s property into our creek. The burgeoning biodiversity and ecological succession are bringing us much pleasure. More importantly, the property is providing habitat for many terrestrial and aquatic species that are in dire need of more natural habitat in the Carolinian Life Zone of Ontario. Therefore, we strongly support Ontario Nature’s Protected Places Campaign.
If not for the protected spaces of wilderness there would be no place to replenish ourselves. We were made to be a part of all nature, from the more domesticated to the truly left wild and untouched. Without those protected spaces our living experience would be greatly diminished as would the diversity of life on this planet. We were made to need to discover something new and wondrous in our natural world everyday. It constructs us and completes us. We need more of these protected spaces as our population grows and the stress that creates. Wild spaces, protected nature gives us the stress release our bodies and minds need for better health.
protected places allow us all to reconnect with the natural world we so desperately need – neither us, nor the wildlife will survive without them
We’ve destroyed to much of our natural resources. We need to save what we have left and through nature’s capacity to restore try to bring back some of our losses. It’s possible, other countries are successfully doing it and the results are amazing. Let’s do this now!
The Target: 17% of lands and inland waters for nature. Really? Only 17% set aside with priority one for biodiversity and we still get to use the lands and waters for some uses? And we are struggling to achieve that in Ontario and Canada??? Shameful! That target is a “negotiated target” which is woefully inadequate to conserve biodiversity. We are part of nature, not apart from nature. We are dependent upon its services for every moment in our lives, yet our actions suggest otherwise. 17% should be seen as just a start and as a prudent interim target which if done correctly could serve as critical control sites to test our claims of sustainable resource management. Surely the rest of life matters! Sadly, it is now up to all of us. Ontarians, Canadians – we need to wake up and show some respect for our natural heritage. We can and must do this. Indeed we should be doing much more!
Having participated in the Wabakimi Project for four years, and also canoed Quetico and Woodland Caribou P.P.’s, I have a deep connection to the wild areas of Northern Ontario. What concerns me is the extensive logging that goes on. Reportedly, the timber companies are respectful of identified canoe routes on crown lands…which is good; but how much logging into the north is good; when moose and woodland caribou (indicator species)are in a slow decline. Does Ontario want to be like the U.S. Pacific NW, where a mere 10% of old-growth forest remains uncut. (or does your logging mimic the natural cycles of burn and recovery?) (Oregon Dave on YouTube)
As human ideology shifts from “dominion over” to “partnership with”… “protection” will no longer be necessary. We have a ways to go, but the path is inevitably better for ALL.
Stewardship and conservation lay the foundation of this path by expressing the intention of harmony between humanity and planet earth.
Our destiny is grand, only when we consider all expressions of life, with appreciation and respect.
Humans evolved from the natural world and without nature we will devolve into not being what we are. The prospect is terrifying! We have to act NOW to both preserve and enhance the natural world and all that it contains. Our very survival is at stake. For ourselves and for future generations, let’s DO what needs to be done.
After much thought and research, the single most effective way we can proceed is to protect the trees we have and then plant more and more trees! Plant trees everywhere we can, perhaps including your own back yard! Planting four trees for every one cut down would soon make a big difference!
Let’s just do it!
I just traveled the French River with a group from Waterloo Wellington Canoe and Kayak club. What a joy it was: Rocks stuck in yoga contortions for eons and scored by ancient ice, bald eagles and ospreys winging by, dark forests, black night skies strewn with stars, shores studded with masses of bright cardinal flowers, and clean water – flowing, dripping, roaring, seeping. We need all this to stay healthy in body and spirit. (My grand children must be able to count on this, too!)
We need to protect our natural spaces so we have a place to go to de-stress! As a person who loves to camp and canoe, it is extremely imortant to protect our lakes and rivers and wildlife for future generations to enjoy. We need our forests so that we, and all the other species that we co-exist with can live! Without these natural spaces our world would be a concrete jungle. It is important to control climate change and feel the coolness of a treed area and just breath!
Protected places are irreplaceable witnesses to earth’s history. Without them we will not understand the earth we live on. We protect Shakespeare’s works and no one would advocate otherwise. Protected places are no different.
if we don’t protect farm land it will be covered with suburbia
if we don’t protect natural areas, it will be cut down to make farm land – and not good farm land
farmers are clear cutting hundreds of acres and even hedge rows – they must be stopped
we need 30 % tree cover – we don’t have it in southern Ontario – if Germany can do it we can too
I’ve been an avid birder, naturalist and photographer since the 1980s, and I’m sometimes shocked at the changes in the environment and how those changes have affected wildlife habitat and population numbers. Considering how much we benefit from healthy ecosystems, one would think we would be acting faster to conserve and protect.
I completely support the efforts by Ontario Nature to protect and preserve that precious 17%!
I live in the Minesing area, outside of Barrie. At this time we are fighting to stop a development which will destroy the Minesing wetlands. We can’t let our government keep allowing farmlands to be destroyed for homes and shopping malls as it will be detrimental to the environment. Once the land is paved over there is no going back.
Nature does so much work for our benefit that we could not hope to replace, and it does it for free! The more we protect nature, the less costs we incur from having to try and replace and repair damages caused by nature not being able to do its work. Plants clean the air so there are less respiratory problems for us, as well as less global warming and climate change because of the carbon it captures. This is some of the work that nature does for us. The added bonus is that nature is so beautiful and peaceful! If we protected more of it, enjoying the beauty and peace a natural protected areas can improve quality of life for everyone. This just scratched the surface on the known benefits of natural areas, let alone the unknown benefits we have yet to discovery. These alone are reason to protect nature through protected areas.
Our iconic species are under stress and many are in decline. We must protect more of our land and marine ecosystems to ensure their survival. Meeting our Aichi targets are a first step and it is imperative that all levels of government and our indigenous communities work together to achieve this goal.
Deb Schulte
Chair of the Standing Committee on the Environment and Sustainable Development
Save the planet – there should be no bigger priority.
Come on politicians, do something good for a change!
Protected Places matter to me because wilderness and natural areas give me a sense of peace as places to go hiking, get healthier, get inspired, restore my body and soul and to feel more connected to the landscape. There is nothing more nourishing than a walk in the forest. Protected placers also act as natural systems. They protect our environment and help stop global warming. They provide habitat to all kinds of wildlife and endangered species. Protected places provide clean air, clean water, fresh fertile soils and moderate the weather. They also take carbon out of the environment. If we con’t protect these wild places, there is a chance that our earth will die.
Mother Nature, Without her we all die!
Without our nature and wildlife, we have nothing. We cannot survive. We need to protect our wilderness and nature, including all species.
We have an obligation to protect, to steward, to respect and to celebrate the natural world. Protected places will ensure that future generations will enjoy the majesty and beauty that many of us take from granted.
The earth and all living creatures need wilderness, this is we come from and need to live.
I live in an area which is still quite wild. I see a diminishing number of birds and reptiles each year which is alarming to me. If the environment is bad for them, it’s bad for me. I want to do everything I can to protect what I have and what is around me.
We must be sure that the percentage applies to each ecosystem wherever that remains possible. In BC, too much credit for net % is given to rocks and glaciers.
Protected Places, provides areas were the unmeasurable beauty of birds, flowers, insects and amphibians, can be viewed in their natural habits of forests, marshes, rivesr, and lakes, proving peace of mind and tranquility.
I love nature and spend as much time as I can walking viewing and photographing birds, animals and insects in northern, Ontario. About once a week I am in a natural area protected from human development just out of sight of develment, but within hearing.
As a conservationist with years of experience, without direct continuous advocacy there would be no natural areas left in Ontario and eventually in all of Canada – no conservation areas, provincial or national parks in their original state.
I’ve travelled all over the world to remote and mystical areas (the Tibetan plateau, the coastal rainforests of Tasmania, Argentine Patagonia and the central highlands of Equador included) but rarely fly now due to the large carbon footprint of airline travel. Lifetime memories for sure from those globetrotting adventures. However, as I grow older I derive just as much satisfaction from hiking, kayaking or snowshoeing at local conservation areas and Provincial Parks within an hour’s drive of home. I realized you don’t have to travel halfway across the globe to experience the soothing and exhilarating effects of nature. More protected areas are needed now more than ever as a bulwark against climate change and to stem the rapid decline in viable wildlife habitat.
As a senior citizen, I’m thinking about future generations … we have to act !!
Without nature and a healthy environment; the human race will not survive!
Economic growth is not the answer! Economic growth and the environment can not co-exist. We will survive with a healthy environment; but cannot survive on economic growth that eventually destroys the environment. Surpluses & waste will eventually destroy us. As they say, the ‘almighty dollar’ is the root of all evil!
If the government can not, or will not, protect a measily 17% of our environment, as promised; then they need to be, and deserve to be dumped out of office!
Having spent the past month in the Yukon, I was impressed with the management of their wilderness and each trek was a learning experience on how First Nations lived for thousands of years in complete harmony with nature and its resources whether it was food or shelter or medicine. The protective measures in place are not about a piece of land but how that protected land is visited and used by humans.
After camping on an 11 day raft trip in Kluane, we left without leaving any trace of human presence, even our personal human waste was removed. Ontario has magnificent wilderness that needs not only to be preserved for now and for the future but also we need to ensure that the impact of human visits to our wilderness places is done responsibly and with the minimal amount of human impact.
Ontario Nature can be instrumental in educating and can work hand in hand with First Nations, Parks Canada and others to ensure that we, the human visitors, are guided on our use of protected land when we visit it and that will ensure the pristine wilderness will be passed onto the next generations as part of their Canadian heritage.
With urbanization and industrialization taking over Canada’s natural spaces, conservation efforts are more important than ever. Urban Canadians need to have their right to green space and our pristine wilderness needs to be kept safe from industrial greed to protect the animals that call it home, or that rely on the land for food or breeding habitat.
For my granddaughter whose favourite animal is “worms”.
Thanks to Ontario Nature for supporting this necessary endeavour.
Living and working in corridors of concrete takes a toll on me. I crave green, trees, insects, bird calls, sighting another species. Protect these places, whether I ever see them or not. They are as precious as gold. Really.
I don’t know where I’d be right now without the healing power of nature. Mostly everyone I have ever met have been in awe of some thing they’ve experienced in nature. So many overcrowded communities today have many many social issues. The overcrowding, the barrenness, the lack of green. Having taught thousands of children, I have had consistent reminders of the miraculous responses of children to the incredible diversity of life, even the lowly insect. Yet municipalities, cities, regions, developers, keep whittling away at the natural, bargaining away from brings health and healing to so many. To me this is a crime. We all feel better immersed in nature, so why can’t those in power, those with wealth in real estate and industry, stop the destruction of our special habitats and places? The unbelievable beauty of birds, flowers, the amazing structures of insects and amphibians, the intelligence of mammals and all living things, their loss breaks me and I know it breaks so many others who are open to nature. It’s irrational.
There’s an old political adage that “the immediate takes precedence over the important”. Economics captures governments’ attention because it’s immediate, short-term and gains public attention. People are telling governments, however, that land and water protection needs to share that immediacy. Governments need to know that reaching that “seventeen per cent” protection goal is both doable and crucial, and offers way more public benefit than any transitory employment, interest rate or stock market stat.
We have an obligation to protect the homes of the plants and animals that share the Earth with us.
Protected Places help to avoid extinction of individual species! It an insurance policy for the future generations.
Chris is right! There is no return. If we don’t protect our natural areas, we are doomed. We’ve lost too many species of plants and animals already. It’s time to step up and not lose any more!
Protected Places are the only hope for the environment–17% is really not too much to ask of our country !
Since over-population is the number one problem facing the world the necessity for creating and maintaining protected spaces is and will continue to be a priority.
We must put the brakes on; we are approaching a critical point, one from which there will be no turning back, no “fixing it”. It’s completely achievable.
If we take care of the earth, the earth will take care of us. If we don’t….the opposite. It will be the end of us.
We live in such a beautiful place and that place is Ontario. But as I drive through our towns and cities I see all the destruction that we have caused.
Listening to people in uproars about having a fox etc in there community. Really where would you like this poor animal to go??
Save our lands!
Once we take these places away there gone forever.
Nature restores my soul. Most needed in these trying times.
Nothing replaces biodiversity. It’s our ecosystem, and when it’s gone, we can’t buy it back. At the very least, let us protect some of the key habitats that allow species to flourish; connect us to the non-human world; and keep our waterways clean. Nature gives us so much, it seems insane to turn our backs. I hope one day we can do more.
More diversity and less monoculture – protect all we can, it’s all we have.
we are just one species on this planet no more entitled but the most destructive.
We aren’t the only species on this planet but we are the most destructive. We claim to be the most intelligent but we aren’t. No other species kills their own like we do, and everything else that crosses our path. We aren’t entitled to take over other species habitats, we show a reckless disregard for everything else on this planet.
As a (former) avid canoeist, seeing the beauty of Ontario’ s North
I support protection. But I would like to add that we also have to
help those in war torn countries to come to Canada to be safe.
These refugees need to be introduced to our vast and beautiful
wilderness so that they can heal and benefit from our bounty.
We must never forget our obligation to those less fortunate than us. Gisela
Entering the wilderness is like entering a sacred place where humans are the visitors. It is peaceful, harmonious, and full of colour, It is where for millions of years nature has sculptures this beauty. Yet it is within our power to protect it or destroy. Protection could be forever. Destruction is forever.
We as humans, due to our ability to impact the earth on a large scale, have effectively become stewards of our planet. In order to protect our environment and retain a harmonious existence with all livings things, we need to ensure that much of our natural areas are protected. 17% protection is a worthy goal but just a starting point on the journey.
I couldn’t imagine growing up and not having an opportunity or place to explore nature. I was fortunate to be surrounded by nature growing up and now my kids do as well.
We make it our mission to stop for any turtle and help it across the road and report sightings. Recently, as we were walking over a very busy bridge through our town my daughter spotted a tiny painted turtle heading to cross the bridge. How on earth this turtle made it to where it was was puzzling. We collected him in a container and brought him to a much more suitable habitat just down the road in a lovely swamp.
I fear for the future of our wonderful critters and the education of our youth on this important subject. If we don’t ALL smarten up we will lose them forever.
Once it is gone we can never get it back. The time to act is NOW.
Our species is deeply in debt to the rest of the natural world. Protecting 17% of natural spaces in Canada is only a beginning, only a foothold, but it is essential!
“THEY PAVED PARADISE … AND PUT UP A PARKING LOT” — THE IDIOTS!
We’ve destroyed to much of our natural resources. We need to save what we have left and through nature’s capacity to restore try to bring back some of our losses.
we all need to experience space in the wild, even if it is only imagined.
Words cannot describe the ongoing beauty of ‘wild places’ and they are disappearing fast. I truly hope that government will be strong against the destruction of what’s left of our wild places and live up to the commitment of protecting 17% that very land.
We all need our green spaces to retreat to, and protect for future generations.
We need to stand up for protection of the environment given that many of our governments have neglected or refused to do so. Sitting on the sidelines and saying that government will come around or that science will solve our environmental problems is misguided. We need to move forward quickly to address the damage that has already been done to our environment and continues to be done to our world every day. Preserving some of our lands in their original state is a start but just that – the beginning of a long battle that should never have started. We can stand up for the future or ignore it to our peril.
I’m not doing this for me; at my age it is doubtful I will be able to visit such spots. I’m doing this for my grandchildren, and indeed, everyone’s grandchildren.
In today’s troubled world, such places are more important ever. They improve the health of all animals, including us, and improve the health of our planet.
A very important commitment for us to make provincially and nationally. We are nothing without nature to sustain, nurture and enhance our lives. Equally important, is the preservation of habitat for all the amazing species we have in Canada. Let the 17% be the beginning…and see if we can gain momentum to preserve 20 or 25%… we will not regret it and our children/grandchildren will thank us.
Protected places help us to recharge spiritually And therefore important to all humanity as well as all wildlife.
Not for us , but for our children’s children, and theirs.
If we do not protect and keep areas as they are NOW.. how will we know what is original and unspoiled tomorrow?
17% is a start but will need to be larger if we are to offset the current path we are taking into an uncertain future. Lets concentrate on a future that includes a healthy respect for all of our fellow inhabitants of this beautiful biosphere that we share together as it is the only one we have.
Canada is my home, the place I have the best memories and the place I am raising my son. We need to do everything in our power to protect what we have for our kids and our grandkids!
I love nature and spend as much time as I can walking and photographing birds, animals and insects in a semi natural park in Markham, Ontario. I make trips every now and then to visit other more naturalized parks in the area. Each walk I find nature parading some of it’s most beautiful and interesting creatures. For me these parks provide an unending experience of joy and wonder that enriches life in ways that tv, movies and the internet can never match. I hope that such parks will grow in size and quantity near urban areas so that more and more city dwellers will see the beauty in nature that is worth preserving.
This is the very least we can do.
The wild is part of the psyche, part of the soul of every Canadian, even those who have never set foot in it. If it withers, we wither. If it flourishes, we flourish. The more we protect, the more we enhance our own being and the lives of those around us.
As a species we are horribly gifted at destroying and polluting this planet and yet within us all is still the desire to experience the spendor and beauty of it. Our children still love animals. The sound of water still calms our hearts. There is still a thrill at the first snowflake and sense of magic when we observe a deer or an eagle. We are all children of nature. The protection of natural spaces recognizes the fact we still love her. We still hold mother earth as sacred. We want and need to protect it for our children and theirs for generations to come. We are her children and we remember that.
As a species we are horribly gifted at destroying and polluting this planet and yet within us all is still the desire to experience the spendor and beauty of it. Our children still love animals. The sound of water still calms our hearts. There is still a thrill at the first snowflake and sense of magic when we observe a deer or an eagle. We are all children of nature. The protection of natural spaces recognizes the fact we still love her. We still hold mother earth as sacred. We want and need to protect it for our children and theirs for generations to come. We are her children and we remember that.
For over 30 years I have been monitoring the health of the various turtle, snake and frog populations around Bois Blanc Island and Crystal Bay near Amherstburg. The road kill of painted turtles is finally reaching an acceptable level now that the population has been so terribly decimated by urbanization of the marshland and highspeed highways dissecting their habitat. Northern Water snakes on Boblo Island have fared no better. a few years ago, 28 of 30 snakes were poisoned while I was working on an environmental assessment of the property. All this so the future residents would not have to deal with these critters.
On a brighter note I was alerted to the presence of five painted turtle eggs at a construction sight this spring. I rescued them 4 hatched successfully and were returned to the marsh. Next year I am planning on recovering as many map turtle eggs as I can before the racoons and coyotes dig them up at their nest sight at Crystal Bay.
The human species is part of all nature on this planet. We cannot live without the resources of the planet. If we destroy the various ecosystems that have developed here we will destroy everything we need to survive. Remember Earth is our home.
We have so much land, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth protecting. We have one planet, if we take care of it, innovation will take us where we need to go. Let’s do this!
We have to be very cautious about squandering our undeveloped and less developed areas. Once they are paved and built upon, they will never be wild or natural again. Protect them! So much has disappeared already in our lifetimes.
Protected Places are vitally important and definitely need protection from the hordes of human beings who would make short work of protected places. I would love to see the people who decide where a Park should go make many more Parks for all of us but especially for our grandchildren.
I started out as a single voice extolling the health benefits of nature for humans. Over the past years, my voice was joined by others and we created a respectable body of research to show that man without nature is a naked, lonely thing. Protecting 17% of our lands and waters and respecting indigenous voices and practice is a minimum…there is so much more to co-existence than meeting this bare measure. Please let us start here.
I’m pretty much stuck on the beaten path in Toronto now, with aging arthritic knees and I don’t drive, but any encroachment on green spaces makes me sad. As a child, livin at the edge of a city I would delight in getting up early and heading to a nearby farmer’s field, whee I would occasionally see rabbits amd I was very upset to see a hosing develp,emt go up there.
More important than ever, especially in these difficult times.
Just spent the weekend in Algonquin Park with my children who live in Toronto – a much needed break from the concrete and noise – we need the natural places to escape to – to balance out our lives – to make this world, that sometimes seems out of control, all worth it! Make sure there is something for the next generations to come – 17 percent seems do-able – higher would be even better!
By protecting spaces we protect all of nature that is in those spaces so that it can flourish and evolve as it has always done. It is our duty to be stewards rather than exploiters of such spaces.
We are not the only creatures of this planet.
“What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of the spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man.”
Wise words from Chief Seattle in 1854
Every citizen has a responsibility to step up and fight for what we still are able to enjoy in our protected areas. Protected places help to provide fresh clean air, clean water, fertile soils, carbon sequestration, and help moderate the weather. We can see how turning a blind eye to these issues is harming our planet with rising sea levels, global warming and the resultant forest fires, flash flooding in areas not equipped to handle these events, etc.
Wetlands!! Our most productive ecosystems. Our most valuable ecosystem for flora diversity. Do we want to stabilize and possibly increase bird/fauna numbers? Prioritize and save wetlands. I have near 15 years constantly photographing the Big Creek Watershed in my home town of Amherstburg in the county of Essex in Ontario. My flora and fauna numbers indicate that wetlands have value. All wetlands. Will we ever control phragmites? Will it be another cycle of life? If fauna has habitat, fauna will adjust. Fauna needs habitat. Any habitat.
It only makes sense! We need to protect More, not Less
All forms of life need a safe place to live, it is that simple. And we humans need the wild environment to keep us in touch with the real world.
Protecting land is so important to future generations of all species.
Please keep our protected places safe. Once they are gone they can never be replaced.
To protect 17% of nature and wildlife is the bare minimum we should demand. We just cannot continue to whittle away the ground we stand on.
Its nature’s time. We have a committed national government. Lets conserve our communally owned and deeply loved natural heritage now.
No more talks, time to put the planet first!
My wife and I are privileged to live on and steward 260 acres of what was once settlers’ farmland on the Oak Ridges Moraine – adjoining 900 acre of property protected by the Ontario Heritage Trust. We thought we were retiring until young naturalist friends opened our eyes to the opportunities and responsibilities before us. Thousands of tree seedlings, a tall grass prairie and a network of nature trails later “the land we love” is now protected in perpetuity through a conservation agreement with the Kawartha Land Trust. 17% – it can be done. Private landowners…consider
My wife and I are privileged to live on and steward 260 acres of what was once settlers’ farmland on the Oak Ridges Moraine – adjoining 900 acre of property protected by the Ontario Heritage Trust. We thought we were retiring until young naturalist friends opened our eyes to the opportunities and responsibilities before us. Thousands of tree seedlings, a tall grass prairie and a network of nature trails later “the land we love” is now protected in perpetuity through a conservation agreement with the Kawartha Land Trust. 17% – it can be done. Private landowners…consider.
Protecting places is one of the most important ongoing ventures we can get involved with in our lifetime. With increasing population and an ever present threat from developers, we need to preserve as much land and water as we can. Even if parts of the land is second grade, we can, over time, work to bring it to a normal productive natural area. The important thing is that is get protection status. Being at the top of the intelligence ladder, It is our responsibility to protect nature from the devastating impacts of human presence. One big aspect of this is establishing Protected Places. It is important that this not only means protecting important isolated jewels of nature but ensuring a connectivity factor as well. This will ensure biodiversity and protect the animal populations that depend on migration routes, including maintaining the absence of and, in some cases, the removal of roads and stopping deforestation that inhibit the natural migration routes that have been used for thousands of years. It is important to realize that Canada is known world wide for its vast natural areas. By establishing a network of Protected Places, we ensure that Canada keeps its image of a land where its population can thrive and coexist with its natural protected areas. This after all will prove to be a viable income opportunity where human visits will be permitted to selected natural Protected Places.
Finally we’re thinking about our grandchildren’s grandchildren. The health effects of wilderness are proven and we need to protect endangered species.
We and the other creatures on this planet need our special protected places ,not only to survive but to live well and long.
Planet Earth itself needs to be a protected place.
In this extremely busy society that we live in, it is more important than ever to be good stewards of what we have been given. Our forefathers have made some terrible mistakes, but by working together we can make it better today and for our descendants. There has been more research recently regarding the effects of going for a walk in the woods – how it helps calm you down and can put you in a better frame of mind. Recent research in Japan on “forest bathing” implies measurable health benefits. Our First Nations have known this for generations. It is essential that we aim to preserve as much of our natural habitat as possible – for our native species as well as ourselves, for by saving protected areas, we help to preserve our own sanity.
I worry about the world my six beautiful young grandchildren will inhabit. Everything we do, everything we see in this world is connected.
Seventeen percent by 2020 sounds like a good place to start. Protecting our environment is protecting ourselves.
Protected spaces provides for us humans as well all species of animals, birds, insects etc. It’s not only the cleaner air and water, but green spaces has positive effects on health – physical, emotional, spiritually and mentally. It can provide a place to come aside and rest, renew and be recreated.
We need to protect as much wildlife habitat as possible.
There is an urgency to protect large swaths of natural habitat. So many animals including birds and amphibians as well as mammals are finding it difficult to survive. We as people also need to find sanctuary in green spaces. Well documented how important to mental health for us to live in harmony with nature.
Agree with previous comments. Let’s keep the promise of 17% and do more. The older I get, the more I know how important it is to care for our waters, lands and wildlife. Without our active involvement, including speaking up, these vital treasures may not be here in 50 years. This is important for all of life here now and in the future.
We live in a diverse area that brings in tourism dollars but it’s coming in at a rate that is threatening our protected areas. If these areas aren’t kept protected we will lose them and the tourists that flock to see their beauty won’t have much to see except for destruction.
for the future of human kind, wild life and the planet. People have done so much damage now it time to try and undo
The earth is a gift to us and as such we must take care of this gift. Much too often decisions are based on the dollar and we forget that once lost we cannot regain this precious land or animal that has disappeared. I want my grandchildren to be able to run through meadows and catch polleywogs like I did as a young girl, to blow away the milkweed seeds and use the shells that hold them for crafts. The simple things that I took for granted are slipping away too quickly.
Once natural areas are destroyed they can never be properly reconstructed, nor can the dead wildlife be resurrected. We have a responsibility to steward these areas for future generations, and to ensure that the cycles of nature are able to renew themselves. Remember the passenger pigeon, the Eskimo curlew and the South Carolina parakeet.
Every time I walk in a green space, whether in the city or in the wilderness, I am physically reminded of how integral it is to life. And by “Life” I mean true health and well being. Anyone with children in their lives needs to connect the dots to this. Lets make this legacy one where they speak of our generation as one that paid attention and made changes. It is possible!
The issue of preservation of our Nature and wildlife is of utmost importance as we it being impacted severely and is a very worrisome state.
People need to get involved and let their elected officials at all levels that it is highly undesirable.
17% as a target is a drop in the ocean when nature and waterways to are constantly under threat.
This issue should be an election agenda issue at municipal ,provincial and federal level and point out to the politicians where they’d better start hetymg deeper involved in preserving our most valuable assets.
Once our most valuable natural resources are gone they are gone.
protected spaces are important to me as areas where species other than humans can thrive and where these organisms may still be appreciated by our grandchildren. Unfortunately we have not nearly enough such spaces. Moreover, these protected spaces are often too small and not interconnected to serve the needs of many species.
It is a definte must to protect our ecological jewels at a time when development continues to encroach.
I am watching more and more green space and farmland taken over by housing in my town within driving distance from Ottawa. Watching this happening reminds me of what is happening outside of Toronto. We need the wetlands and farms.
I need my children to experience Ontario’s natural environment as I have and more
Time to stop the destruction, let’s build a better future starting now!!
Protecting Our Nature Environment is Crucial!!:))
We need to stick together those with the knowledge and we can help educate the others.
Do the “right thing” now! Protected Places are named for a reason. The “Places” can not protect themselves. Governments are able to do so do it now!
We do not own the Earth. We are part of it and what we do to the earth, we do to ourselves. Our children’s children will know us by what we leave behind.
We need to get serious about protecting the biodiversity and the future habitability of the planet.
Please Protect
Canada is trying to comply with its obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity, to protect 17 percent of our lands and waters and to incorporate Indigenous Knowledge. So we’re at the stage where we can shape this. There are leaders who will listen to what we have to say.
Protected Places matter to me because wilderness and natural areas not only provide habitat to well-appreciated wildlife such as loons, butterflies, turtles and moose they also provide very important aspects such as places to enjoy hiking, get peace of mind, become healthier, get more inspired, feel more connected to the landscape and the community area and act as natural systems. Protected places help to provide fresh clean air, clean water, fertile soils, carbon sequestration, and help moderate the weather.
We share the same canoe, and it’s time for the paddles to hit the water. We are in fast water now, and we need all the wisdom we have to guide us through.
This is the opportunity of a lifetime. Seventeen percent is a drop in the bucket. We just have to do it. There is no economic return for destroying our world. There is none.